Metropolis Council Member Erik Bottcher
Picture courtesy NYC Council / Flickr.
Metropolis Council Member Erik Bottcher threw his hat within the ring on Thursday for subsequent yr’s more and more crowded Democratic major to exchange retiring U.S. Rep. Jerry Nadler, whose twelfth Congressional District covers a lot of central Manhattan from west to east.
Bottcher, 46, who has represented west Manhattan neighborhoods together with Chelsea and Hell’s Kitchen since 2022, is pitching himself because the “strongest candidate” within the race for taking up what he described as Republican President Donald Trump’s “corruption, chaos, cruelty and incompetence.”
He enters a packed discipline that already consists of Jack Schlossberg, the grandson of President John F. Kennedy; Meeting Members Micah Lasher and Alex Bores (D-Manhattan); and nonprofit founder Liam Elkind. Amongst these candidates, Lasher is Nadler’s chosen successor.
“I love my country and I love my city, and I’m terrified and angry about what’s happening in our country — and things need to change quickly,” Bottcher advised New York News in an interview. “I’m not going to stand by while [the city is] torn apart by an autocrat in the White House, who has openly suggested throwing out the United States Constitution.”
The twelfth Congressional District was redrawn within the 2022 redistricting to cowl a lot of Manhattan from above 14th Avenue to beneath Harlem. That features voter-rich neighborhoods just like the Higher West and Higher East Sides in addition to Midtown.
In his marketing campaign launch video, Bottcher is highlighting his struggles with rising up LGBTQ+ in an Adirondack Mountains city, the place he says he confronted bullying and tried to take his personal life 5 instances as a teen. He stated shifting to the Large Apple “saved” his life as a result of he was capable of finding acceptance and get entangled politically right here.
“It was in New York City where I found a community, I found a place that accepted me,” Bottcher stated. “Just like people have for 400 years. And I’ve dedicated my life to giving back to the city that saved mine.”
The west facet lawmaker pointed to a 2022 incident by which he documented a gaggle of protesters vandalizing his dwelling with homophobic graffiti and attacking one in all his neighbors over his assist for drag story hour occasions as proof of how he can stand as much as Trump and the GOP Congressional majority. The protesters additionally descended on Bottcher’s district workplace, banging on the door and vandalizing it.
“Extreme MAGA right-wing thugs broke into my apartment building,” Bottcher stated of the incident. “Two of them were arrested in my lobby. A third one was arrested for assaulting my neighbor. I stared them down. I didn’t back down, and we held them accountable.”
Bottcher can be operating on his file over his 4 years within the council. That features laws he handed to broaden psychological well being companies in homeless shelters and his assist for large-scale rezonings in his district that can add 1000’s of recent housing models.
“We need people with a proven track record of producing results,” he stated. “I’m someone who’s taken advocacy and translated it into legislation, translated it into tangible results for our community.”
Regardless of the crowded race, Bottcher stated he’s “very confident” about his possibilities.
The 78-year-old Nadler introduced in September that he wouldn’t search reelection after serving 32 years in Congress, making method for a brand new technology. The entire candidates who’ve introduced to date are both Millennials or Gen Z.
NY-12 is one in all a few Congressional primaries subsequent yr which can be shaping as much as be extremely aggressive.
One other race attracting buzz is the major for Congressional District 10, a Manhattan and Brooklyn district at present represented by Democrat Dan Goldman.
Outgoing Metropolis Comptroller Brad Lander and Metropolis Council Member Alexa Avilés have each indicated they’re critically contemplating difficult Goldman from the left.
