US News

Rangel: Winning election to 23rd term is a gamble

WASHINGTON — Rep. Charles Rangel says his re-election bid for a 23rd term in Congress will be a crapshoot.

The 83-year-old Harlem pol offered his assessment just days after The Post reported that Harlem pastor Michael Walrond of First Corinthian Baptist Church has become Rangel’s latest potential challenger.

Rangel barely survived a primary challenge in 2012 from state Sen. Adriano Espaillat, who says he intends to run again.

“It’s going to be a rough one,” Rangel said on MSNBC Tuesday.

“But, you know, it’s like shooting crap[s]. Either you win or you lose. You just can’t stay even with the first shot,” he said.

Rangel, who was censured by the House in 2010 for a series of ethical lapses, tried to wrap the fight to retain his seat in the cloak of preserving ObamaCare.

“All of those people that have been afraid to stand with the president, I think, will be making a great moral mistake — but, more importantly, a great political mistake as well for 2014,” he said.

“Fifty million people that hoped, dreamed and prayed that one day they could get insurance, no matter what their status was — this is going to start to roll in,” he said, calling the new national health plan “the most exciting thing that’s happened for the United States of America since the republic began.”