Half of the young, high-profile power couple, 26-year-old Sean Eldridge has filed papers to establish his 2014 campaign for Congress, according to Bloomberg. After the wedding, the big stories, and Hughes's own splash as owner, publisher, and editor of the New Republic, everyone has been waiting to see when Eldridge might dip his toe in. Now we know the Ivy League-educated gay man (backed by a considerable new media fortune since Hughes is a co-founder of Facebook) is taking the plunge.
As head of an investment firm and a Democratic activist, Eldridge already has plenty of powerful contacts. Seeking to represent the 19th District of New York in the House of Representatives, Chris Smith points out at New York magazine:
[Eldridge] was born in Canada and grew up in Ohio, and he and Hughes split time among a number of palatial residences -- the kind of things that will help [incumbent Republican Chris] Gibson try to paint the novice candidate as a dilettante and carpetbagger. Gibson, 48, is a lifelong New Yorker and a talented campaigner with an appealing personal story, especially for a district that includes newly gentrified river towns like Hudson but also covers a wide swath of depressed rural territory: He's a former Army colonel who served four tours in Iraq and was awarded a Purple Heart. Gibson is to the right of center but he's no tea-party wacko, having voted against Obamacare and increased military spending. During his first term in Congress, he mostly focused on delivering federal money to his constituents, particularly in farming communities.
Don't forget that Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi were wedding guests at the Hughes-Eldridge shindig.
