Second DSA candidate announces bid to unseat Ardila
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Union organizer and Democratic Socialist of America member Claire Valdez officially launched her campaign for Assembly District 37 on Wednesday. Photo by Kara McCurdy/Courtesy of Valdez campaign
By Ryan Schwach
Union organizer and Democratic Socialist Claire Valdez officially launched her campaign for Assembly District 37 on Wednesday, widening the field of candidates and setting up a potential battle amongst local progressives vying to unseat embattled Assemblymember Juan Ardila.
Though the Eagle was the first to report that Valdez had filed for next year’s Democratic primary earlier this month, it wasn’t until this week that union organizer made her campaign official.
Valdez joins fellow member of the Queens chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America, Emilia Decaudin, as the only two officially announced candidates in the race for the seat currently held by Ardila.
Ardila has continued to serve in office, despite calls for his resignation amid accusations of sexual assault made public in March. In that time, constituents and his colleagues in elected office have said they are concerned he’s unable to adequately serve his duties in Albany. Ardila had his office’s discretionary funds handed over to Assemblymember Jeff Aubry, he was iced out of budget negotiations and his local community board passed no confidence vote against him earlier this summer.
He has yet to confirm that he’s running for reelection in the district that covers parts of Long Island City, Sunnyside, Woodside, Maspeth, Middle Village and Ridgewood.
A UAW union organizer, artist and Ridgewood resident, Valdez says she is running in part because of the accusations against Ardila.
“I’m running to represent Assembly District 37 because our community deserves an experienced representative who isn't too busy dealing with personal scandals to get to work,” Valdez said in her campaign announcement. “We deserve good jobs with security and dignity, free and guaranteed healthcare, and the right to stay in our homes. As a union member, I’ve seen how corporate bosses try to shortchange my neighbors, but I also know how much power we hold when we organize together and fight back.”
Last year, Valdez was a field coordinator for Samy Nemir Olivares’ campaign for Brooklyn’s Assembly District 54, and currently works in DSA’s union campaigns.
“In my years in DSA, I’ve spent countless hours talking to New Yorkers all over the city,” Valdez said. “We share the same fears: rising rent, rising costs, and stagnating wages that can’t keep up with either.”
“In Queens, our neighborhoods are being devastated by real estate developers while our rent-stabilized housing stock vanishes,” she added. “For too long, the real estate industry and the ultra-wealthy have pushed for massive disinvestment in institutions that serve New Yorkers like the MTA, public housing, and our schools. I’m running as part of a grassroots movement of working people who are fighting for the world we all deserve.”
But Valdez is not the only candidate with DSA credentials in the race. Decaudin announced her bid for the seat in July.
With both Valdez and Decaudin asking DSA for an endorsement, the socialist organization will hold its endorsement forum on Sept. 11, City & State reported this week.
Regardless of who receives the endorsement, both Valdez and Decaudin said they would suspend their campaigns and back whoever gets the DSA’s blessing.
“Our power as an organization comes from collective decision making and uniting behind the will of the many, not the few,” Valdez told City & State. “So of course, I would suspend my campaign and support the DSA candidate.”
Decaudin told the Eagle she is “excited” about the race and her campaign.
“Trans New Yorkers deserve a voice in Albany and the working class residents of AD 37 deserve fighting representation, and that’s what I’m running to deliver,” she said on Wednesday.
Haillie Kim, a Sunnyside organizer who has twice run for City Council, has also filed in the race and serves to run as a third candidate. However, Kim has yet to officially announce a bid for the seat. Kim declined to discuss the campaign with the Eagle on Wednesday, citing a death in her family.
Ardila has yet to file his campaign with the state, and has not commented on anything related to next year’s election or the growing field against him.
A few weeks ago, Ardila was asked by the Eagle during a small protest at his office – led by Kim – if he intended to run again.
“I’m serving the district,” he said in response.
Even with the primary around a year away, the race for AD37 is already becoming closely watched, primarily because of the district’s strong potential for electing a progressive, and potentially a DSA member, to the Assembly, according to Trip Yang, a Democratic strategist.
Yang says that the race could very well come down to the DSA’s endorsement, as well as the endorsement of two other “bellwether” political organizations – the Working Families Party and the Queens Democratic Party, the latter of which has a lesser impact in the highly progressive area AD37 includes.
In the 2022 race for AD37, it was Ardila who rode the endorsement of the Working Families Party into the legislature, defeating Joanna Carmona, who had the backing of the Queens Dems.
The WFP has rescinded their endorsement of Ardila since the sexual assault allegations came to light and the party has called for Ardila’s resignation.
With two candidates being members of the DSA, and Kim having potentially also asked to be looked at for the endorsement, the party’s decision could be significant with the race still months away.
“DSA is an important player in this part of Queens,” said Yang.
Unlike previous races in Queens that involve DSA candidates – including now-City Councilmember Tiffany Cabán’s races in 2019 and 2021 and State Senator Kristen Gonzalez’s race in 2022 – the organization appears to be split.
“It just seems from the media reports [and] the way members have talked about it, is that there is not an organizational consensus within DSA on [who they] support – this was not the case in past years,” said Yang. “In many cases, there is a clear, obvious front runner to receive and earn the DSA endorsement. This year, it seems to be split between two people.”
If the endorsements from both the DSA and the WFP coalesce around one candidate, and don’t split off, Yang doesn’t see predicting the winner being a difficult task.
“A unified progressive front is very powerful, and immediately becomes a front runner,” he said.
