Why I'm Running

Some might say that this is a safe blue seat in Lower Manhattan. Or that a local assembly race can’t really impact the big picture. That is a short-sighted perspective. Every single elected official is critical, especially now. Trump and the MAGA Republicans are a symptom of a deeper problem, the loss of faith in our democratic system and its ability to deliver for regular people.

Our most effective leaders — people like Barack Obama, AOC, Zohran Mamdani — are those who have big ideas, big policies, on how to change lives for the better. And, focus equally on the importance of engaging and empowering people to inspire hope through the promise of direct participation.

My Organizing Origins

I got my start on the Obama campaign in 2008, as Digital Director for New York State, doing grassroots organizing online. From there, I went to the New York State Senate, using technology to improve the transparency and accessibility of the State government — helping to turn what was ranked the single most corrupt legislative body in the country into one that was winning awards for transparency and openness. 

When Donald Trump was elected for the first time, I started a nonprofit to demystify politics and government, giving people the tools they need to create change. I spoke to over 8,000 people personally, and hundreds of them became leaders in their own communities — like Luba Gretchen Shirley, who ran for Congress in Long Island. Even AOC came through one of our workshops.

For the last eight years, I’ve been representing our community in Albany to Democratic Party leadership, building coalitions with leaders from all around the state to pass more reforms than any other State Committee member in the last decade, and through a leadership hostile to change.

Where I Came From

My father‘s family came to New York from China. My mother‘s family were Jews who survived the holocaust, she was born a refugee in Poland. Both of these families came here looking for a better life, and they found it. 

My father became a civil engineer who worked for the MTA and the Port Authority his entire life. My mother became a litigator in a male-dominated field. And, when Proskauer Rose, one of America’s largest law firms, made it clear that they were not promoting women to partner, she said FU and took two of their top women attorneys to start what is possibly the first trademark law firm owned, run, and founded by women.

But they also faced challenges.

Civil Rights Leadership

As an interracial couple, they got married just 10 years after the Supreme Court ruled that interracial marriage is a civil right. They fought for those civil rights, and the civil rights of others, and protested unjust wars. My parents taught me that everybody has a place in our country and in our democracy, but we have to fight for that fundamental truth.

And that’s the problem today, the dark threads of our history — racism, sexism, bigotry, predation, corruption — are at the center of our politics and government. And must fight that with everything that we have. 

That’s why I’m running for the seat, to bring all of my knowledge, my skills, my abilities — all of who I am — to fight to make this district, this city, this state a sanctuary for our values, our people and our democracy.