Crowley runs for State Senate
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Former City Councilmember Elizabeth Crowley is running for State Senate District 17. Photo via Crowley
By Jacob Kaye
Former City Councilmember and two-time Queens borough president candidate Elizabeth Crowley has thrown her hat into the race to represent the new State Senate District 17.
Crowley, who represented City Council District 30 from 2009 through 2017, told the Eagle in an exclusive interview that she’s looking to bring experience to the newly created district, which covers parts of Long Island City, Sunnyside, Ridgewood, Maspeth, Glendale, Woodhaven, Richmond Hill and Greenpoint.
“Our families are hurting right now and we need independent, experienced leadership,” Crowley said. “I'm a mom who raised two kids here, right in the district and I know the struggles that women and our working families are facing…We need a proven fighter.”
A portion of the district Crowley is looking to represent fell within her district as a councilmember. While hoping to spur COVID recovery actions from the state level, she said she’s also hoping to pick up some of the issues she pushed for as a city lawmaker.
“Much of this district is considered a transit desert and I have a transportation plan that I've been pushing since I left the council that would bring rail and bike access to most of the district,” Crowley said. “It's really an area that is experiencing greater congestion brought on by how many more people are choosing to get in their car, rather than taking public transportation.”
Crowley is the leader of a project to turn a freight rail in Queens into a commuter rail – Governor Kathy Hochul has proposed a similar plan, the Interborough Express, on a different set of rails. Crowley’s proposed QNS Rail would run on the current Lower Montauk Branch of the LIRR, making stops from Jamaica to Long Island City, covering much of the district she is looking to represent.
Crowley, whose cousin, former Rep. Joseph Crowley, lost a reelection bid to now-Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in 2018, said the line would do more than just clear up congestion and make commutes shorter for district residents.
“With a transit expansion comes affordable housing and jobs and this area,” she said. “When it comes to expanding transit, creating more housing, economic opportunity – those are the needs, those are the post COVID needs.”
Crowley is coming off two close but unsuccessful bids for borough president. She lost to then-City Councilmember Donovan Richards in the special election to replace Melinda Katz in the BP’s office in 2020 by around 12,600 votes. The next year, she ran and lost again, narrowing the gap between her and Richards to a little over 1,000 votes after ranked-choice voting tabulation.
Prior to her bids for borough president, Crowley lost her campaign for reelection in the City Council to Robert Holden in 2017 – Holden lost to Crowley in the Democratic primary but beat her as a Republican in the general election.
Crowley said that running for elected office wasn’t necessarily in the cards until state lawmakers created the new Senate seat during the state’s redistricting processes earlier in February.
“It's a new opportunity that just came about this month – it’s not like, ‘Oh, I'm looking for something to run for,’” she said. “This is new to the area that I have a record of serving as an elected official and as a community leader.”
Should they both receive the necessary petition signatures to appear on the ballot, Crowley will face off against Democratic Socialist of America member Kristen Gonzalez, who announced her campaign for the seat less than 24 hours after it was created.
Gonzalez and her supporters say the district is ripe for cultivating the progressive vote, a theory Crowley will challenge.
The former lawmaker put public safety at the center of her second campaign for the borough president’s office, an issue that has only intensified in the last year.
Mayor Eric Adams last week made a trip to Albany, where he attempted to convince state lawmakers to rollback some of the state’s recently passed criminal justice reforms, including changes made to bail. While the more moderate Democratic members of the State Legislature pushed back against Adams’ requests, progressive lawmakers were even more staunch in their opposition.
Crowley did not respond to requests for comment on bail reform when the Eagle reached out for a follow up interview Monday.
