Housing Activist Announces Run Against Carolyn Maloney

STUYVESANT TOWN, NY — Another candidate is throwing his name in the hat to take Rep. Carolyn Maloney's seat in Congress.

Peter Harrison, a 36-year-old Stuyvesant Town resident, is running in the 12th District for Congress, which covers much of Manhattan's east side, Astoria and Long Island City in Queens, and Greenpoint, Brooklyn.

The Democratic Socialists of America member and housing activist who serves as the senior housing advisor for the research group Data for Progress announced his run at an East Village bar Tuesday, a City & State reporter wrote on Twitter.

Harrison has lived in StuyTown for a decade, where he organized with tenants against rent hikes and harassment, he said on his campaign website.

"I've spent years fighting alongside my neighbors and tenants across the state to make sure that everybody can afford to live in New York," Harrison, who also founded a tenant organizing app called homeBody, said in a campaign video posted Wednesday.

"I'm running to take on the power of the big real estate developers, corporate monopolies, and extremist billionaires that treat our city like it's a playground and a piggy bank. I'm running to take on the leadership of the Democratic party that cares more about the companies that make money on the housing crisis than they do about the working people who suffer from it," Harrison said.

He is running because he believes "housing is a human right." Some policies in his platform include creating a federal program to guarantee everyone jobs and homes and building 12 million new homes.

Harrison joins a crowded field in the primary against Maloney, a Democrat who has been in Congress since 1993.

Erica Vladimer, a 32-year-old former New York State Senate staffer, announced her campaign in June, HuffPost reported. She spearheaded sexual harassment hearings in Albany after she accused former State Sen. Jeff Klein of shoving his tongue down her throat while on staff, per HuffPost.

Candidate Lauren Aschraft, JPMorgan project manager, comedian and grassroots activist, previously told Patch she is running to get corporate dollars out of Congress.

Previous primary opponents, Suraj Patel and Reshma Saujani, are considering runs, according to City & State. Patel lost to Maloney last year, and Saujani in 2010. Dawn Smalls, 41, an attorney who won sixth out of 17 candidates in February's special election for the city's public advocates, is also reportedly considering a run.

Here is Harrison's campaign video: