Play to shake up ‘broken system’ is underway in N.Y. State Legislature

In next year’s June primary, lower Manhattan Assemblywoman Yuh-Line Niou will challenge a fellow Democrat, state Sen. Brian Kavanagh — in what she described to the Daily News as an effort to shake up “our same old broken system.”

Niou (inset above) is a native of Taiwan who is ideologically similar to Kavanagh (center, above) and is aiming to more proactively push a progressive agenda in the upper house of the state Legislature.

If she wins the election, Niou plans to promote a post-COVID economic recovery that doesn’t leave behind traditionally underrepresented communities, including working-class, minority and immigrant sectors.

“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.”

Primary challenges against incumbents are rare, especially when candidates share a similar ideological bent, making Niou’s run notable.

Kavanagh, 54, began his political career as an aide to Mayor Ed Koch and has represented lower Manhattan and a small part of western Brooklyn in the state Senate since 2017. Before that, he served in the Assembly for 10 years.

He did not immediately respond to a call from The News.

Niou, 38, has served in the Assembly since 2017 and represents Chinatown and the Lower East Side. She rolled out several stamps of approval with her announcement, including two from progressives who dropped their own runs for Kavanagh’s seat after learning the Aassemblywoman would jump into the race.

“As someone committed to fighting for the most marginalized people in New York, I believe that no individual is more important than the broader movement to create a more just society,” said one of those erstwhile candidates, Alana Sivin. “That is why I am suspending my campaign today and endorsing a champion, a fighter and a friend to be the next state senator for New York’s 26th District.”

Illapa Sairitupac also suspended his campaign to back Niou, saying he was “honored” to support her “in the fight for working-class people.”

Assemblyman Ron Kim (D-Queens), whom Niou previously served as an aide, said he would back her run, too, as are the advocacy group New York Communities for Change and the actress and former gubernatorial candidate Cynthia Nixon.

“Our state Senate will be a better, more progressive place with Yuh-Line’s voice in it,” Nixon said.