Patel launches third primary challenge against Maloney
BY BILL PARRY
New York Democrat Suraj
Patel will mount a primary
challenge against
Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney
for the third straight
election cycle.
Patel, a lawyer, activist,
lecturer on business ethics at
NYU and former staffer in
the Obama administration announced
his campaign Monday
to thwart Maloney, the
chair of the powerful House
Oversight Committee, as she
seeks a 16th term in Congress.
Patel came within four
points of defeating Maloney in
one of 2020’s closest primary
races.
“Democrats need a new
generation of leaders. This is
a new decade, a new district,
and as we enter year three of
the pandemic we’ve got new
challenges, which means we
need a government that proactively
develops 21st-century
solutions to 21st-century problems,”
Patel said. “I will solve
POLITICS
Congresswoman Carolyn Malone (l.) and Suraj Patel
these problems because I have
lived them.”
When his parents emigrated
from India in the late 1960s in
search of economic opportunity,
FILE PHOTOS
they fi t three generations
of his family in a two-bedroom
apartment over the bodega
they ran. His father got a night
job fi xing subway trucks, and
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eventually, they started a family
business in the hospitality
sector.
“I understand what our
small businesses are going
through – my earliest memory
is stacking newspapers in my
family’s bodega before my dad
went off to his job as an MTA
worker and for the last two
years, I’ve fought off foreclosures
for the family business;
making sure workers have
healthcare, jobs and landed on
their feet,” Patel said.
He worked on both of President
Obama’s campaigns and
went on to be an associate
on the White House Advance
Team. During the Trump administration,
Patel became a
full-time organizer working
to support a new generation
of American leaders. When
Patel ran against Maloney in
2020, the primary results were
delayed for six weeks due to a
court battle over absentee ballots.
Around 12,500 ballots
were never counted, so Patel
went to court fi ghting for election
reform. He also served as
a volunteer attorney for the
ACLU when Trump’s Muslim
Ban was enacted.
“I understand that with Republicans
attacking democracy
nationally we need to stand up
for it locally,” Patel said. “I went
to court here after thousands
of New Yorkers had their votes
thrown out, and we changed
how ballots are designed, distributed
and counted. I understand
that Democrats need
to stand up for science, safety
and our schools, and I will be
that Democrat.”
Patel enters a crowded
Democratic primary fi eld that
includes housing advocate
Maya Contreras and community
organizer Rana Abdelhamid
of Astoria. Maloney has
represented New York’s 12th
Congressional District since
1993.
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12 February 17, 2022 Schneps Media
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