In a six-way race, Yuh-Line Niou won the Democratic nomination Tuesday to represent New York’s lower Manhattan.
The 33-year-old moved to the city almost six years ago, and is the former chief of staff to Assemblyman Ron Kim of Flushing, Queens. “I am humbled to be the first Asian American to represent Chinatown or any part of Manhattan in the state legislature,” Niou said Tuesday night. “This victory silences the voice of hate, of racism, of division.”
The 65th Assembly District was held by Sheldon Silver for more than four decades, until his federal corruption charges last year. Silver was sentenced to 12 years in prison for obtaining more than $4 million in illegal fees in return for taking official action that benefited a prominent cancer researcher and two real estate developers.
Silver’s short-term incumbent, Alice Cancel, won a special election held after his charges. Niou lost that election by 700 votes.
This time around, Niou had 32 percent of the vote. The other candidates were Jenifer Rajkumar, a district leader, who had 19 percent of the vote; community activist Paul Newell with 16 percent; Cancel with 12 percent; businessman Don Lee with 11 percent; and Gigi Li, chairwoman of the local community board, with 10 percent.
Niou will be racing against a Republican come November, and is expected to win the primarily blue district.
