In a daring move designed to shake up “our same old broken system,” New York Assemblymember Yuh-Line Niou announced she will challenge Democratic incumbent state Sen. Brian Kavanagh, reports the New York Daily News.
The move is somewhat surprising because it’s rare that politicians will run against an incumbent from the same party and roughly the same ideology.
Voters elected Niou to the Assembly in 2017 when she defeated incumbent Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver who was arrested on corruption charges in 2015.
According to City and State, Niou gained a following by backing progressive causes such as single-payer health care. She has been outspoken that any recovery plans from COVID include everyone.
“As we start down the long road to recovery, it is more important than ever to ensure communities share equally in that recovery,” she said. “It isn’t enough for things to return to a prepandemic ‘normal.’ We must learn from history and build a city and a state that is more equitable, safer, and more inclusive than it was before. That’s why I’m running for the state Senate,” the Daily News quoted her as saying.
LATEST STORIES
Already, candidates are lining up to replace Niou in the Assembly.Illapa Saritupac who had previously announced he would run for State Senate said he will run for Niou’s assembly seat instead. He is a member of the Democratic Socialists of America.
“The climate crisis is already at our doors, the floods are here,” he said to the Village Sun, “and we need city, state and federal governments working together to protect working-class communities from the devastating impacts of climate change with holistic solutions as part of the Green New Deal and not just cutting corners.”
Alana Sivin, who had also earlier announced he would challenge Kavanagh, has also said he would drop out and endorse Niou instead.
AsAmNews has Asian America in its heart. We’re an all-volunteer effort of dedicated staff and interns. Check out our new Instagram account. Go to our Twitter feed and Facebook page for more content. Please consider interning, joining our staff, or submitting a story, or making a contribution.
