Abundance New York 2026 Congressional Candidate Questionnaire
Alex Bores
Congressional District NY-12
Background
Please briefly describe your background and why you are running for this office.
I grew up in NY-12, went to public school here, and I'm raising my son here. I've spent my career making government actually work — building the data systems at DOJ that recovered $20 billion from the banks after the financial crisis, and leading a project at a company called Promise that helped 50,000 families in Louisville keep their water running. In the Assembly, I've used my background in computer science to modernize how we legislate — including using AI to identify and eliminate outdated statutes that create needless barriers to building and to commerce.
I'm running for Congress because we are facing a generational housing crisis, and we aren't solving it. We have the tools. We have the resources. We simply have not chosen to use them. That's not an accident — it's the result of decades of policy choices that prioritize process over people and preservation over building.
I've brought that same urgency to Albany — working on land value tax reform, permitting modernization, and building the legislative coalitions needed to get pro-housing policy through a system designed to resist change. But this work has shown me, concretely, where the ceiling is. New York needs millions more units, better transit, and faster energy buildout — and the federal rules governing all three are broken. I want to fix those systems with the urgency the moment demands and the technical fluency to actually do it.
How are you differentiated from your opponent(s)? What does your path to victory look like in your district?
There are a few things that set me apart from my opponents. First, is my proven effectiveness in office. I have passed 29 bills (including 7 this year alone), and was ranked by the Center for Effective Lawmaking as the most effective new legislator from NYC. I’ve done that by building coalitions; I’m proud that 12 of the 14 Assembly members that have endorsed in this race endorsed me.
I bring a unique background to this race: I am the first Democrat in New York elected at any level with a degree in Computer Science, and I will be only the second Democrat ever in Congress with that background. Freshman legislators stand out by bringing something unique and different: I will walk in and instantly be a leader on a critically important issue.
I have been unabashedly pro-abundance during my campaigns and while in office. I recently founded the NY Housing Caucus in Albany with Rachel May, Anna Kelles, and Tony Simone.
There are strong candidates in this race, and we’ll likely agree on many issues. What distinguishes me is that I’ve already shown how to turn progressive values into durable law and how to build a coalition that can win.
Our path to victory is grounded in both a strong base and the ability to scale across the district. I represent the only Assembly district fully contained within NY-12, meaning nearly one in five primary voters have already voted for me, and I was reelected with 73 percent of the vote. In a large, split field, that is a real foundation.
We’ve paired that base with the resources and organization to reach voters at scale. We raised $2.2 million last quarter, nearly $1 million more than the next highest campaign. We have more than 30 endorsements, including former members of Congress Carolyn Maloney and Steve Israel, nearly 20 elected officials, and labor support from DC37, RWDSU, NABET-CWA Local 16, and NPMHU Local 300. Our field program includes more than 250 active volunteers and a growing fellowship that is already reaching voters across the district.
Government Delivery Reform
NEPA Reform: Congress should reform the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) to reduce the time and scope of federal environmental review for housing, transit, renewable energy, and resilience projects. NEPA delays affect federally funded projects in New York, adding years and significant costs to critical infrastructure.
Agree
Capital Project Procurement Reform: Congress should give federal agencies and their state and local grantees more procurement flexibility—such as expanded other transaction authority and performance-based contracting—to speed up delivery of federally funded capital projects. This should include examining Buy America requirements and federal cost-sharing rules that inflate project costs.
Agree
Additional context
(No response)
Housing
Expanding Housing: Addressing the housing affordability crisis requires increasing production of all kinds of housing, including market-rate units. Congress should increase federal support for housing production through funding and regulatory changes, including by tying federal transportation, infrastructure, and community development funding to pro-supply local policies such as zoning and permitting reform.
Agree
Homelessness: Congress should increase federal funding for Housing First approaches, including permanent supportive housing, as the primary strategy for addressing homelessness.
Agree
Transit-Oriented Development: Congress should incentivize transit-oriented development by conditioning federal transit funding on local zoning changes that allow more housing near transit stations.
Agree
Build Code Reform: Congress should support research, funding, financing, and model codes that encourage cheaper construction methods (e.g., modular construction, mass timber) while maintaining safety.
Agree
Repeal the Faircloth Amendment: Congress should repeal the Faircloth Amendment, which prohibits the use of federal funds to build new public housing units beyond the number that existed in 1999, to allow for the construction of new public housing.
Agree
Additional context
(No response)
Transit
Transit Cost Containment: Congress should act to reduce the cost of federally funded transit projects, including by reforming FTA New Starts and Capital Investment Grant requirements, streamlining federal review, and encouraging cost-containment practices as a condition of federal funding.
Agree
Bus Transit Investment: Congress should leverage its funding for bus transit to encourage the creation of busways and bus rapid transit where appropriate to increase the speed of buses and the efficiency of federal investments, including through programs like the FTA's Capital Investment Grants and Bus and Bus Facilities program.
Agree
Automated Camera Enforcement: Congress should remove or oppose federal restrictions that limit state and local use of automated traffic enforcement—such as red light cameras, speed cameras, and bike lane cameras—and should allow federal highway safety funds to support automated enforcement expansion.
Agree
Parking: New York City should charge more for parking and reduce or eliminate free street parking.
Agree
Additional context
New York should not charge more for parking for its own sake, but it should let market pressures determine the cost and not actively subsidize car ownership and parking. Anyone who has read “The High Cost of Free Parking” knows that there is no such thing as a free lunch. Similarly, anyone in New York politics that has read The Power Broker knows the disasters that befall a city built only for cars. Future development must recognize that users of public transit have been deeply underserved, and I was proud to support NYC congestion pricing, and would support similar policies elsewhere. As cities have grown and the American population has boomed, our physical infrastructure has not kept up, and I would support a wide variety of options to streamline permitting for new infrastructure projects, reducing construction time and costs.
Clean Energy & Climate Resilience
Solar Energy: New York State should preempt local regulations that effectively ban solar projects by establishing a ceiling on restrictions and should streamline solar permitting by adopting automated systems in order to enable more solar energy.
Agree
Nuclear Energy: Congress should support expanding U.S. nuclear energy capacity by funding new reactor designs, streamlining NRC licensing, and extending the operating licenses of existing plants in order to hit the goal of 100% zero-emission electricity generation by 2040.
Agree
Geothermal Energy: Congress should support the expansion of geothermal energy development through federal research funding, streamlined permitting, and incentives for deployment, including in dense urban areas like New York.
Agree
Transmission Co-Location: Congress should support legislation that prioritizes existing highway, railroad, and utility rights-of-way for the siting of new electricity transmission lines, reducing permitting delays and landowner conflicts while accelerating the buildout of transmission capacity needed to deliver clean energy.
Agree
Climate Resilience Investments: Congress should increase federal investment in climate resilience infrastructure, including coastal defenses, stormwater management, and cooling infrastructure, with priority given to socially vulnerable communities.
Agree
Buyout Reform: Congress should reform federal disaster buyout programs—including those administered through FEMA and HUD—to accelerate the relocation of families out of high-risk flood zones, with streamlined environmental review, standing funding, and expanded eligibility for renters.
Agree
Additional context
Taking climate change seriously means taking real steps to move away from our dependency from oil. Aggressive climate goals are needed, but they’re not worth much without commitment to scalable alternative energy sources like wind, solar, hydro, and nuclear. A massive federal investment in climate resilient infrastructure is needed too. In the State Assembly, I was proud to support the Climate Superfund Act, which placed assessments on fossil fuel companies and used the revenue to build needed climate infrastructure. I would support a similar program on the federal level.
Candidate Statement
Abundance Examples from Your Work: Please describe a specific example from your record (legislative, professional, or community work) where you championed a project or policy that is aligned with our agenda. What obstacles did you overcome, and what was the outcome?
One of my personal favorite bills in Albany is A3339, which would legalize land value taxes throughout New York State. Our tax code is beyond broken. An empty plot of land in NY-12 on 40th and 1st is taxed at a rate 36% less than the 800+ unit apartment across the street. I’ve been fighting for, and continue to fight for, this bill in Albany, but the structural resistance that I’ve met has been frustrating. After years of working with policy experts, community groups, and local governments across the state, the only objection that remains to the bill is “it seems complicated, and we don’t want to do it.” While I’m still working to pass the bill this year, this experience has shown me that states need to be pushed and pulled into sensible tax policies that actually improve people’s lives and increase housing supply.
Legislative Priorities: If elected (or re-elected) to Congress, what are your top three legislative priorities? Please be specific about the policies you would advance and what you hope to achieve.
Cost of living: It doesn’t have to be this hard. We can cancel the Trump tariffs, crack down on nickel-and-diming fees, produce more affordable housing, cut outdated regulations, provide universal health care, negotiate drug prices, increase investment in renewable energy and ensure public services actually deliver.
End corruption in government: We must eliminate Trump’s paramilitary force (ICE), restore an independent DOJ, ban the executive branch and Congress from trading stocks, and pass campaign finance reform.
Protect kids from invasive tech: As a new parent and a computer scientist, I understand the power of technology for both good and harm. We need leaders in Washington who genuinely understand how AI and modern technology work, and I have the unique expertise to help us. My policy would be guided by my recently published and widely reported on, 43-point AI policy framework. (https://www.alexbores.nyc/files/Bores_AI_Framework.pdf)