I am a democratic socialist, Berniecrat, Progressive Democrat, CUNY John Jay College Graduate, Working Class Teacher, Tenant, Second Generation Immigrant, BIPOC, Muslim, South Asian, AAPI, Community Leader,  Community Organizer, Gen Z Activist, lifelong Jamaica-Queens resident (born & raised). I am running for NY State Assembly District 24 because for far too long immigrant, BIPOC, and working class community members here have been underserved, underfunded, underresourced, and underrepresented. My opponent is wealthy, privileged, and centrist elected who happens to be about 70 years old as well as always gatekeeping the seat and running for re-election because there are no term limits. David Weprin has been seen to be out of touch and an absent figure in the community, and even falsely claimed to be the first South Asian Assemblymember and has always stood up for big + bad landlords he's beholden to and taking money from including real estate company Zara Realty, which has notoriously abused tenants. David Weprin also comes from a political dynasty, with his brother being the previous Assemblymember, and their father coming before them in holding this seat. The Weprins have been in office for years, but we've not seen any substantial change for the community. David Weprin particularly has worked against immigrant, BIPOC and working class community members by endorsing Andrew Cuomo for Mayor despite our community members strongly supporting Zohran. David Weprin even led anti-Zohran rallies where Islamophobic and racist things were said about Zohran as well as his mother. David Weprin has also promoted propaganda and stated that there is no genocide happening in Palestine, and has never called for a ceasefire, which is something I called for as an anti-war and human rights activist promoting peace. We need accountability and justice for our community as well as new leadership and new ideas. 

Link To Anti-Zohran Rally Footage- https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/17sKzRWOjK_pxONkruuf4cGjAUos0L0y8?dmr=1&ec=wgc-drive-%5Bmodule%5D-goto

Link To David Weprin's Ties To Zara Realty- https://queenseagle.com/all/weprin-criticized-ties-jamaica-queens-real-estate-firm-sued-by-state

I am different from my opponent, as I am someone who is much more relatable to everyday New Yorkers, as someone who will be bringing true representation for the community as someone whose a democratic socialist, Berniecrat, Progressive Democrat, CUNY John Jay College Graduate, Working Class Teacher, Tenant, Second Generation Immigrant, BIPOC, Muslim, South Asian, AAPI, Community Leader,  Community Organizer, and Gen Z Activist. My path to victory relies on my recognition in the community as someone whose worked towards helping our community members become more civically engaged and involved in the political process. It also relies on my name recognition from my involvement especially as someone whose run for office in the past challenging David Weprin before in 2020 in a very close election by only about 400 votes despite then not having as much name recognition, involvement with civic orgs as much I am today, not having funding, and it being during a pandemic. My path to victory is organizing BIPOC, immigrant, and working class New Yorkers who again have been underserved, underfunded, underresourced, and underrepresented as well as meeting them where they are at and bringing them to the table by also spotlighting them as endorsements from community leaders. My win number from my understanding is 3500 and we certainly have more base builders than that to win this election. Zohran won this district by 5% in the June Primary Mayoral election and we have 40% AAPI community members here to there being 30% white. This is a heavy immigrant district where Zohran won and community members here are furious that my opponent endorsed Cuomo and that he led anti-Zohran rallies. We can definitely win this election, especially with more funding and support on the ground, mobilizing immigrant, BIPOC, and working-class community members, particularly South Asian voters and Indocaribbean voters as our base, but also tenants. Zohran started a movement and momentum that we hope to continue building off so that we can make history again for these neglected communities mentioned above.

Agree

Agree

Agree

I support this idea for Capital Project Procurement Reform, particularly for true affordable housing, adding more public schools, expanding or improving public transit, transitioning into clean and renewable energy, and resilience projects.

Disagree

Agree

Agree

Agree

I agree but don't believe mass timber might be the best approach, as I am an environmental activist who wants to protect the environment and I believe deforestation is something to worry about. The points made for timber are that it uses less carbon footprints than concrete or steel, which are both stronger and more durable material arguably, and less flammable. Billionaires in their private jets, who are also funding war and conflict, are contributing more to carbon emissions than these building developments.

Agree

Agree

I think we need traffic cameras to help provide visual aide and coverage for traffic accidents to see what happened. Many working class New Yorkers can't afford tickets and I am someone speaking up for my neighbors here in NY AD 24 in that we don't need more cameras, unless ticket prices can be lowered substantially and that if these cameras again are utilized to monitor traffic incidents. It also helps community members with car insurance in finding out whose at fault or what happened during an accident.

Disagree

We should not charge more for parking and should not eliminate free street parking. As I mentioned before I speak for my neighbors here in NY AD 24 and many working class New Yorkers including low income New Yorkers cannot afford these extra expenses in an economy where everything is already expensive due to the cost of living with inflation and rising rents that are already skyrocketing here in NY. We need to tax the rich (ultra milliionaires and billionaires) as an extra source of revenue instead.

I support more solar panel projects, but also care about cost of electricity of everyday working class families and I hope by automated systems we're not referring to A.I stepping into to make these changes, takeaway jobs, or bypass government from being able to research the matter.

Disagree

I support clean and renewable energy, not nuclear especially because of the toxic effects it has on community members with radiation and radioactive waste. Although folks may argue that nuclear energy would reduce our use of fossil fuels, which is good for the planet compared to fossil fuels, I would recommend watermills with hydroelectric energy or windmills with wind energy.

I helped organize for Zohran Mamdani's NYC Mayoral campaign in that we mobilized community members to become civically engaged. I personally helped bring over voter registration forms and redistribute to community leaders + organizations while also personally registering 100+ voters. The goal we accomplished was electing Zohran Mamdani as mayor and leading this effort of a voter registration as well as trainings with different civic organizations, we were able to accomplish just that with getting new voters into the political process and electorate. The obstacles faced were language barriers, community members feeling disenfranchised/hopeless at times, and us going against big money donors + super PACs in this election. We overcame this by continuously organizing the community, working with anyone and everyone to get the job done, including elders like uncles + aunties, and with folks all across the political spectrum, even former Republicans and former Eric Adams supporters, and making the process language accessible with voter registration forms, trainings, and flyers all being in other languages. I volunteered doorknocking, canvassing, and petitioning for Zohran Mamdani's mayoral campaign since the day one of when petitioning began officially.

My top three legislative priorities, beyond just wanting to tax the rich, are:

 1. establishing a DEI policy that diversifies every field, profession, department and agency with underrepresented ethnic communities to help bridge the gap for language barriers and diversity, including for the NYPD which would also address public safety by allowing BIPOC and immigrant police officers fluent in other languages to bridge the gap between said ethnic community members with language barriers which would help efficiently reports and address crimes. 

2. Freezing the rents for tenants residing in multi-unit apartments with over 20 units and small businesses + restaurants since their rents and expenses are going up as well, leading them to close down or not thrive in this economy. At the same time, I want to meet small homeowners in the middle by freezing their mortgages or property taxes which would also prevent interest rates.

3. last but not least, I want to make NY State as a whole a sanctuary state to be a beacon and leading example for other states to follow, so that immigrant community members are protected beyond just NYC as a sanctuary city, since many cities, including Buffalo or Long Island, are excluded from sanctuary city status.