As George Conway campaigns to replace retiring Rep. Jerry Nadler in New York’s 12th Congressional District, a fresh financial disclosure shows that his biggest source of earned income came from The Bulwark’s parent company, Center Enterprises, paying him more
When George Conway knocked on doors in a district that skews strongly Democratic. he made one thing the centerpiece: stopping President Donald Trump’s agenda. But a financial disclosure paints a parallel story that’s harder to ignore—Conway’s biggest stream of earned income over the past year and a half came from an anti-Trump media operation with deep roots in the conservative world that existed before Trump.
Center Enterprises. the parent company of the anti-Trump outlet The Bulwark. paid Conway more than $330. 000 between January 2025 and April 24. 2026. according to a new financial disclosure report. The disclosure shows his role at The Bulwark—where he co-hosted the podcast “George Conway Explains it All (to Sarah Longwell)”—was by far his largest source of earned income.
Conway launched his campaign in January to succeed retiring veteran Rep. Jerry Nadler in Manhattan’s 12th Congressional District. It’s unclear whether he continued to draw pay from The Bulwark after launching the bid. His campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The numbers land in the middle of a crowded field in one of the most liberal parts of New York City. More than a dozen candidates are vying to replace Nadler. and Conway is trying to stand out by framing himself as someone who spent years challenging Trump from within the broader conservative movement.
Conway. a former Republican turned Democrat. has tied his political evolution directly to what he says Trump did to the movement itself. His campaign website describes Trump as someone who “hijacked” the conservative movement and “twisted it into a scam for corruption. cruelty and authoritarian power.” Conway’s own fundraising pitch leans on distrust of money in politics: his campaign says he “won’t take a dime of corporate PAC money” and is running a “people-powered grassroots campaign” against Trump’s “MAGA madness.”.
Trump, for his part, has repeatedly mocked Conway, calling him a “Stone cold LOSER.” Trump also celebrated Conway’s divorce from Kellyanne Conway, who served as a top White House aide to Trump from 2017 to 2020.
Even as Conway markets a contrast—former Republican, now a Democratic standard-bearer—the financial disclosure underscores how his anti-Trump profile has been intertwined with the media brand he helped lead.
The Bulwark describes itself as an outlet founded in 2019 “to provide analysis and reporting in defense of America’s liberal democracy.” Before Conway launched his congressional bid. he was a regular presence there. according to the outlet’s own promotional materials and his continued role through the disclosure period.
But the outlet’s personal connections run through figures tied to the older Republican establishment. Among the brand’s key players are Sarah Longwell. a political strategist and conservative commentator; Charlie Sykes. a longtime talk radio host; and neoconservative writer Bill Kristol. Kristol is described as the founder and editor-at-large of the now-defunct political magazine The Weekly Standard. which Politico characterized as “the in-flight magazine of Air Force One” while George W. Bush was president.
Add to that the way outside watchdogs categorize the outlet. AllSides, which rates media bias, classifies The Bulwark as carrying a leftwing agenda. In December, the outlet announced that Conway was “stepping away to run for Congress.”
Conway’s campaign pitch leans heavily on his long record of challenging Trump and taking political heat for it. In the launch ad for his campaign. Conway said: “A former Republican. now a Democrat. I fought Trump publicly in every way I could. and I paid a price.” He continued. “I’ll never regret standing up to Trump or for the victims he abused.”.
Those same voters are likely to weigh how Conway’s message lands beside his other high-profile history. The disclosure isn’t the only controversy that follows him. The article notes that Conway reportedly advised columnist E. Jean Carroll to sue Trump for rape. In 2023, a jury found Trump liable for sexually abusing Carroll in 1996.
Conway’s place in New York politics is also tied to a moment of generational change. With longtime Democratic Rep. Jerry Nadler set to retire, more than a dozen candidates are seeking the seat. Other contenders include state Assembly member Micah Lasher. who secured Nadler’s endorsement. and Jack Schlossberg. the only grandson of former President John F. Kennedy.
What comes into sharper focus—through the campaign’s own argument and through the disclosure report—is the tension between how Conway tells voters he wants to fight Trump and where the money behind his public fight has been coming from. The disclosure shows he earned more than $330. 000 from Center Enterprises. the parent company of The Bulwark. during a period that overlaps his work as a co-host on “George Conway Explains it All (to Sarah Longwell).”.
Conway will ask Manhattan voters to decide what they value most: the message of a former Republican who became a Democrat and built his pitch around fighting Trump. or the uneasy reality that his anti-Trump platform has been funded. in a substantial way. by a media ecosystem populated by people closely tied to pre-Trump conservative politics.
The stakes are not theoretical. When voters in Manhattan show up to the polls on June 23. they will be choosing whether Conway—who played a key role in former President Bill Clinton’s impeachment in 1998—should be the future of the Democratic Party in a district that has seen its politics increasingly shaped by national media and national money.
Conway hopes so. And the question he leaves voters with is bigger than one candidate: whether a media-backed crusade against the White House should be their top priority as they vote.
George Conway The Bulwark Center Enterprises Jerry Nadler New York 12th District Democratic primary Donald Trump financial disclosure Sarah Longwell Charlie Sykes Bill Kristol