Mondaire Jones, a former New York Democrat and current congressional candidate, has come under fire for supporting a bill while in office that would have allowed inmates, including rapists and murderers, to vote in prison.
At the time, Jones called the federal ban preventing incarcerated felons from voting “a form of slavery.”
Jones did not seek reelection in the 17th Congressional District in 2022 because redistricting had tilted the political area toward Republicans. Instead, he ran in the Democratic primary for the 10th Congressional District, but lost.
He’s now trying to make a comeback in the 17th Congressional District against Republican Rep. Michael Lawler of Hudson Valley, whom he will face in November.
But his support for a controversial prison voting measure in 2021 may come back to haunt Jones.
He pushed the amendment alongside Rep. Cori Bush, a member of the left-leaning “Squad” who just lost her reelection primary last week. The amendment failed in the 2021 House by a vote of 328-97, with many Democrats, including Rep. Tom Suozzi of New York, voting against it.
States such as New York have restored voting rights to parolees who have served their sentences, but not while they are in prison.
“When people are convicted of a crime and sentenced to serve time in prison, for example, that is their punishment,” Jones told The Appeal: Political Report. Prisoners’ rights group After the amendment was rejected in 2021.
“People should not be arbitrarily stripped of their fundamental right to decide who represents them when they run for public office. We count people in prison in the census for purposes of allocating federal funds,” he said.
“Every human being has the right to vote in their own interest. Anything less is inhumane and a form of slavery — a new Jim Crow,” Jones argued.
But law enforcement and Lawler accused Jones of caring more about criminals than victims.
“Police killers and murderers are some of the most violent and dangerous criminals around. Their actions devastate families and cause unimaginable grief,” Vincent Valeron, president of the New York City Sergeants’ Benevolent Association, said in a statement.
“It is inconceivable that any elected official could justify allowing voting in prison. It defies logic and affronts all common sense.”
Rockland County PBA President Larry Ayers said that if Jones’ amendment passes, it would give voting rights to the cop killer and murderer involved in the infamous Brinks robbery in Rockland County (17th District) in 1981.
The armed robbery resulted in the deaths of Nyack Police Sergeant Edward O’Grady and Officer Waverly Brown, as well as Brink’s security guard Peter Page.
“It’s astonishing that former Congressman Mondaire Jones believes that convicted criminals, including police killers and murderers, have the right to vote from prison,” Ayers said.
“This amendment by Mondaire Jones would have given the terrorists responsible for the 1981 Brinkers robbery and the murderer of 16-year-old Pearl River girl Paula Bohoveski the right to vote from prison.”
Jones’ defense of criminals was reason enough to not re-elect him, his lawyers argued.
“Mondaire Jones is so radical that he wants cop killers, child rapists and murderers to vote from prison,” said Lawler campaign spokesman Chris Russell.
“Whether it’s trying to defund the police, blaming police on ‘white supremacy’ or giving the right to vote to someone who kills a police officer, it’s clear that Mondaire Jones should never be allowed to hold public office again. Hudson Valley voters will make that overwhelmingly clear this November when they firmly reject radical Mondaire Jones and his divisive, extreme ideology.”
Jones defended voting for criminals.
“It’s unfortunate that Mike Lawler is trying to disenfranchise Americans,” said Jones campaign manager Shannon Geison. “Is this the best he can do after being caught on camera saying that a majority of Democrats in his district ‘hate this country’?”
“If Lawler wants to demonstrate his support for police, he should start by apologizing for voting to defund the police three times during his first term in Congress and retracting his support for a convicted felon named Donald Trump.”
