Trans district leader launches bid to unseat Ardila
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Émilia Decaudin, a 24-year-old democratic socialist who became one of the state’s first openly transgender district leaders in 2020, announced this week that she’s running to unseat Assemblymember Juan Ardila, who has refused to step down amid sexual assault allegations. Photo via Decaudin campaign
By Jacob Kaye
After months of speculation, it became official on Tuesday – Juan Ardila, the assemblymember accused earlier this year of sexually assaulting two women at a 2015 college party, will face a primary challenger in next year’s race for the Western Queens seat.
Émilia Decaudin, a 24-year-old democratic socialist who became one of the state’s first openly transgender district leaders in 2020, announced on Tuesday that she’ll be running for the Assembly seat in District 37, which covers parts of Long Island City, Sunnyside, Woodside, Maspeth and Ridgewood. Should she be elected, Decaudin would become the first openly trans member of the state legislature.
During an interview with the Eagle on Tuesday, Decaudin laid out a platform that included policies aimed at making New York more affordable for renters, expanding access to healthcare and championing trans rights. But also behind Decaudin’s run is Ardila’s dismissal of the dozens of calls for his resignation and his pariah status both in Albany and within his district.
“We need a representative who is going to be an effective advocate for this district in Albany,” Decaudin said. “It's not just voting the right way – it's speaking up in conference, it's organizing their fellow legislators and it's also organizing constituents to empower them to do the best work they can up in Albany.”
“Right now, the representation we have is not doing that, to say the least,” she added.
Decaudin is the first to formally announce a bid for the seat – even Ardila has yet to officially announce a campaign for reelection.
Ardila’s colleagues in Albany have said that in the months since the sexual assault allegations against him were made public, the lawmaker has been unable to perform critical duties of his job or effectively represent his constituents.
Ardila was iced out of budget talks and had the responsibility of doling out his office’s discretionary funding stripped away. His local community board agreed near-unanimously on a vote of no confidence against him in June. Calls to Ardila’s office are rarely answered and he’s been almost entirely unresponsive to requests from the press – Ardila did not respond to the Eagle’s request for comment on Tuesday.
Assemblymenber Juan Ardila has yet to announce his potential bid for reelection but will face a challenger in Émilia Decaudin if he does choose to run. Photo via Ardila/Twitter
Decaudin, who was a supporter of Ardila prior to the allegations, said that beyond the substance of the allegations, which she said were “bad enough,” Ardila’s response to them and the calls for his resignation have been “really infuriating.”
“I was thoroughly unimpressed with how he was handling it,” Decaudin said. “And it’s only gotten worse.”
The candidate said that amid Ardila’s scandal, his constituents have continued to struggle with many of the same issues affecting the city, the state, the country and the globe.
“The trans community is suffering and they're not able to come to New York because of the affordability crisis, the affordability crisis is affecting New Yorkers who already live here and the climate crisis is affecting the whole world,” Decaudin said.
Decaudin was born and raised in Westchester to French immigrant parents. Her first step into politics was as a volunteer on Bernie Sanders’ 2016 presidential campaign. Decaudin said she was “enamored and really inspired with [Sanders’] vision for justice that was so distinct from that of my fundamentalist, right-wing upbringing.”
Around the same time, Decaudin was discovering her own queer identity and came out as trans in 2019. The next year, she was elected to serve as district leader in the district she now hopes to represent in the Assembly.
While Decaudin said that she’d sign onto a number of bills backed by current elected democratic socialists including Queens Senator Kristen Gonzalez and Queens Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani, advocating for trans New Yorkers and trans rights in general is at the heart of her campaign.
“There are people who I call dear friends who are allies and who have been at the forefront of campaign legislation that helps our community but at some point, there's a gap in how far they're going to be able to go because for them, it's not personal,” Decaudin said.
“I know the impact of seeing trans leaders in office has on people who want to get more involved, and people who feel that government isn't working for them,” she added.
The state’s 2024 primary election is scheduled for June of next year.
