Council Member Julie Won was a late entrant to the race to succeed U.S. Rep. Nydia Velázquez in New York’s 7th Congressional District but believes her “lived experience” as an immigrant and a mother means she is well-placed to succeed the veteran lawmaker in one of the most liberal districts in the country.
Won, in a surprise move, launched her campaign on Feb. 2, a month after Assemblymember Claire Valdez and Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso had launched their own campaigns for the seat.
In that time, Valdez scooped endorsements from UAW, the New York City chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) and Mayor Zohran Mamdani, while Reynoso received endorsements from Velázquez, Queens Borough President Donovan Richards and a number of progressive City Council Members, including Council Member Shekar Krishnan, whose district borders Won’s.
Won, however, is not concerned by her late entry into the race, citing her own victory in the 2020 Democratic primary for District 26, when she won in a 15-candidate field without any major endorsements.
She also believes that her platform, which includes a “Lifetime of Care” initiative aiming to provide care at every stage of life to people across the United States, will speak directly to voters across the two-borough district, regardless of endorsements.
Won’s Lifetime of Care platform includes plans for universal paid maternity leave and free childcare, universal healthcare for all, expansion of Social Security and housing for all through social housing and tenant protections. The platform also includes calls for the abolition of ICE, climate action and the end of bombing in Gaza
Won pointed to her ability to work with the City Council’s Republican Caucus as proof that she will be able to work with a much higher volume of Republicans and moderate Democrats if she is elected to Congress later in the year. As a City Council Member, Won ensured the unanimous passage of the OneLIC Neighborhood Plan last year, representing the largest neighborhood-specific rezoning in over 25 years and adding up to 14,700 new homes to LIC.
She also said there are clear differences between her campaign and the similarly progressive campaigns of Valdez and Reynoso, noting that she brings a “lived experience” to the race as the only immigrant and mother running for the seat.
QNS spoke to Won about a range of campaign issues in a conversation last week. The interview has been edited for length and clarity.
What made you enter the race?
It wasn’t an easy decision or something that it took tightly. Everyone was surprised when Congresswoman Nydia Velázquez retired. I started to get phone calls asking for me to run, and I had a lot of deliberation, because it’s not a unilateral decision, and there’s a lot that goes into running for Congress; you have to have resources like raising money, and I had to make sure that we have enough support to run a strong race.
The biggest reason that made me jump in was when Renee Good got shot and then shortly after Alex Pretti. As an immigrant and now someone who has worked to become a US citizen, it’s clear to me that nobody is safe. You can be a citizen. You can be white, and even then ICE and homeland security may shoot you if you are supporting your neighbors who are immigrants.
I’m an immigrant. I’m a mom… I ended up running for office after I made sure that we had enough support in finances as well as support and infrastructure to run a successful race.
You entered the race later than your opponents. They have already started to build endorsements and momentum. Antonio Reynoso, in particular, has already received endorsements from City Council Members and the Queens Borough President. Was that a concern?
No, not at all, because I been receiving endorsements since I announced on Feb. 2, and we had endorsements before we announced. At the end of the day, elected officials are amazing and great, but they’re not your voters. When I ran my first time in 2020, I didn’t have any endorsements either, but I still won.
Most people, especially establishment folks at the county organizations and longtime elected officials, they go with a safe choice. It is the way of politics in a lot of ways, but it doesn’t stop voters from voting for who they feel is most resonating with their values and beliefs and the universe.
You are running against two progressive candidates. How do you differentiate your campaign when you are ideologically aligned on many issues?
It’s one thing to say that you support immigrants, and it’s another to actually be an immigrant. I am an immigrant, and there’s no better time than to elect an immigrant to represent you when immigration is going to be one of the toughest fights that we have in the country for the foreseeable future.
In addition to that, I’m the only mom running right now… That’s why I believe that it’s not only important to ideologically align with these beliefs as a progressive, but it’s another to have lived through it and to have a track record.
I’ve put in the most amount of money in my council district’s history for food pantries and hot food distribution, because I understand what it’s like to be hungry. I also made sure that every resident in my district got free internet and cable TV within the first six months of being elected, because I understand how embarrassing it is for a child to sit outside of a Link NYC booth to go to school because their parents can’t afford $75 per month for internet.
Now I see an opportunity that is incredibly rare. It’s not easy to run against an incumbent, and most sane people don’t, because it is an extremely uphill battle. But with an open seat, I believe in a free democracy, and everyone deserves to have a choice. No one should be afraid of friendly competition.
This district straddles two boroughs. You’re well known to Council District 26 in Queens. How do you plan to bridge that gap to Brooklyn voters?
One of the biggest common denominators for this district is that over 50% of us, are immigrants. I’m sure if I try to disaggregate the data to understand how many of us are children of immigrants, it would be even higher.
I’ll be working closely with my team as well as my supporters to continue to connect with folks all over the congressional district on issues that matter the most.
The city is not that big… It’s not that hard to connect the dots of the two neighborhoods within our area. I plan to have fundraisers in Brooklyn, to have meet and greets in Brooklyn, to meet with other parents and moms in Brooklyn. I’m already going to birthday parties in Brooklyn, just as I have been for a very long time. There’s no invisible walls here.
In your interview with The New York Times on the day you launched, you described the DSA as “the Democratic Socialist Club or whatever.” You endorsed Rana Abdelhamid in District 36 and Brian Romero in District 34 when they were running against DSA candidates. Do you think there is a split coming between traditional progressive Democrats like yourself and DSA candidates across western queens?
I don’t agree with that statement, because every race is different. I endorsed Rana Abdelhamid and Brian Romero, but they’re dues paying members of the DSA.
It’s not about what your label is. It’s really about their community ties. Brian Romero, I’ve known forever. I know his twin brother, I know his mom. And the same thing with Rana. She’s been organizing in this neighborhood since she was a child. People know and love her.
All of the people who run in western Queens are progressive, because you can’t win if you aren’t. But what I do know is that there are those who are parachuting in from God knows where, and there are those who are homegrown and who have long community ties. That doesn’t mean that they’d be born and raised here. I’m not born and raised here. I’m an immigrant. I moved to this country, but I’ve served alongside a lot of my neighbors to do what’s best for my community where I call home and I think it’s fine. You could have lived here for two years. You could have lived here for five years, 20 years. Who cares as long as I can see that you care about the community deeply.
Your launch email didn’t mention anything about taxing the rich, is that something you’re in favor of?
I’m open to many things to pay for everything. I think it’s an oversimplification to just say, “Oh, we’re in a $12 billion budget deficit and we should tax the rich.”
I think corporations and wealthy individuals should always pay their fair share. But we have to look at a multitude of things. We have to look macroeconomics and job stagnation. Why are we not seeing job growth in high-paying jobs or even open entry level jobs for fresh college grads? The only area that we’ve seen job growth is for service industry, and yet we’re seeing a shortage of service industry employees because of immigration issues. We’re also seeing not as fast as revenue growth…
But I’m not against it (taxing the rich) at all. There are many different ways to fund different programs.
You are in favor of abolishing ICE, but in a deep blue state like New York, there have been issues with passing New York for All. How do you plan to work with more Republicans and moderate Democrats in Congress to work toward abolishing ICE?
The same way I work with them now tight now, I was the only council member to get all 51 council members to sign on to a WiFi for All letter to Senator Schumer. I’m currently the Black, Latino, Asian caucus chair, the largest caucus in the City Council, where I’ve shown that I can work across the aisle with Republicans and socialists and moderates and progressives to make sure that they’re doing right by the city of New York.
I would carry that on as our Congress member to make sure that we’re doing right by the country for the United States of America. Everything about legislation is coalition building and making sure that you have a super majority of the votes. If you don’t have the votes it’s not possible to pass any legislation or bill. I believe even Republicans don’t want to see children by themselves dying in our shelter system or in our deportation system. So that’s what I’ll continue to do, find common interests that unite us, rooted in humanity.
Where do you see the federal government’s role in the housing crisis and in keeping New Yorkers where they are?
I believe in preservation. I’ve been a strong proponent of building affordable housing the last four years, and I’ll continue to do that, but what’s really important is also preservation. I just got over $200 million in preserving and modernizing our public housing units in NYCHA. But that’s not enough. It’s a drop in the bucket.
If elected to Congress, I would focus on making sure that all of our NYCHA get funding from HUD to be modernized and maintained properly so that people could continue to live in them. I would also focus on making sure that we have maintenance funding for our Mitchell Lamas. It requires funding to make sure that they’re up to date and livable.
I would also make sure that we are revisiting the Area Median Income, of how we calculate affordability for our housing. You hear it all the time where people say, Julie, that’s not affordable. And then you hear me responding, well, the affordability is pegged by AMI, which is determined by Congress.
What is the inspitation for your Lifetime of Care platform?
My own life experiences, being a mother to two kids costing me $4,200 to just have two children in school from nine to five. It’s just unlivable. It’s unattainable.
And then there are my aging parents, my dad is 70 years old. I also have aging relatives, who are I care for on my family’s behalf, and I saw it made me competing, But it was absolutely necessary was inspired by my own life experiences.
People deserve care at every stage of life, from the moment you’re born until the day that you retire, so you can retire with dignity.
Is there anything else you’d like to highlight?
On the lifetime of care, we have to be making sure that people have paid maternity leave. We can do that through corporate rebates. If you are willing to allow people to be on maternity leave for three months, then you get to deduct their salary from your taxes. That’s fair… That’s why I say taxing people is not the only answer.
