Abundance New York 2026 Congressional Candidate Questionnaire
Julie Won
Congressional District NY-7
Background
Please briefly describe your background and why you are running for this office.
Building a life in the city we love seems out of reach. My family of four lives in a one-bedroom and we still pay high rent. Childcare costs even more if you’re lucky enough to find a nearby seat. My husband and I both have to work, raise children and care for aging parents. I am going to Congress to fight for a Lifetime of Care - the idea that your country should have your back from the moment you're born until the day you retire. That means universal paid leave, affordable childcare, abundant housing, and healthcare for all.
How are you differentiated from your opponent(s)? What does your path to victory look like in your district?
My differentiation is my record. Since taking office, I've helped build or approve over 31,000 new housing units in my district. I led the OneLIC neighborhood plan, the largest rezoning in New York City in 25 years, delivering 15,000 new homes including 6,600 affordable units, with $2 billion secured for schools, green infrastructure, and transportation. As Contracts Committee chair, I worked to increase transparency, combat corruption, and improve government service delivery.
My path to victory runs through a) my record of tangible accomplishments in four years, and b) my personal understanding of what the people in our district are experiencing. As the daughter of immigrants and a mother of two, I understand firsthand what it means to need stable, affordable housing in this city. I plan to build on my Lifetime of Care platform and record of success to build a broad progressive coalition.
My path to victory runs through a) my record of tangible accomplishments in four years, and b) my personal understanding of what the people in our district are experiencing. As the daughter of immigrants and a mother of two, I understand firsthand what it means to need stable, affordable housing in this city. I plan to build on my Lifetime of Care platform and record of success to build a broad progressive coalition.
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
We need to take an all of the above approach to delivering abundant, affordable homes. I have done this in my district where I have built or approved over 31,000 new homes and secured over $2 billion in needed investment. In Congress, I would like to see significant increases in federal subsidy to make our existing housing stock last into future generations and make the sustainability upgrades we need. I will also pursue policies for comprehensive planning to remove restrictive zoning and to lower construction costs while delivering community-needs, safety, quality, and labor protections. We need housing that will last for generations, not “crappy luxury” buildings that fall apart on day 1.
Building new housing is important, but we need to go further. In Congress, I will also work to protect tenants from predatory practices, give people the chance to own their homes, and fund the wraparound services that also help lift people out of homelessness.
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
Getting to work, taking your kids to school, running a few errants, or meeting a friend should not require you to take your life in your hands or go into debt for a car. It should not lead to sprawling suburban development that raises the cost of housing, food, and industry.
Land use and transportation go hand-in-hand. We need to make sure federal programs are encouraging transit-oriented development and unlocking new housing near existing transit. We also need to update federal safety guidelines and project funding to promote transit, walking, and biking instead of prioritizing more private motor vehicles.
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
(No response)
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?
We know we need to invest in housing preservation and build more housing to ensure every New Yorker has affordable homes. We are not going to achieve the necessary construction or investment through piecemeal rezonings. That’s why I led the OneLIC neighborhood plan that authorized 15,000 new units of housing, including 6,600 affordable, and $2 billion for schools, NYCHA, and transportation. After a decade of failed attempts to plan for the waterfront, we were able to show that a robust, community-centered process could deliver record new housing and long-awaited investments.
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.
Lifetime of Care - so many New Yorkers like me are increasingly stressed out trying to stay to raise children and care for aging parents in an unaffordable City like ours. We need to rebuild the safety net that makes raising a family possible: universal healthcare, family leave, childcare, and retirement benefits.
Housing - for almost every New Yorker, paying rent is a constant source of anxiety and affordable homeownership options are non-existent. I would like to see expansions of tenant protections, investment in existing affordable housing like NYCHA, and deep public investment in new affordable housing supply.
Immigration – more than half my constituents are foreign-born, like me. Over the past three years, 15,000 asylum seekers arrived in our district – more than anywhere else in the city. I would strengthen sanctuary city protections, create pathways to citizenship, protect immigrant workers from exploitation, end family separation – and abolish ICE.