Campaign Insiders is PoliticsNY’s latest Q&A series featuring candidates running for office in the 2026 New York primary election. This edition of Campaign Insiders features David Siffert who is running to represent New York’s 66th Assembly District. The 66th Assembly District is located in Manhattan and includes Greenwich Village, Tribeca, SoHo, NoHo, and parts of Battery Park City and the Meatpacking District.
What are the top three issues for your campaign?
- Housing: Instead of handouts to developers, NY must invest in deeply affordable housing and expanded vouchers, paid for by a tax on vacant units.
- Immigration: Donald Trump is terrorizing our communities. We must make NY a sanctuary state, ban ICE from state property, and allow NYers to sue when ICE breaks the law.
- Regulating AI: Unregulated AI poses privacy, labor, environmental, educational and ultimately existential risks. I have already drafted bills to mitigate these risks.
Why did you decide to run for office?
I’ve written over 100 bills. Some have passed, but more often I’ve watched bills with broad bases of support get gutted, vetoed, or ignored due to complacency or worse. New Yorkers face countless crises: housing, climate, healthcare, rising fascism and an unregulated tech industry. As a parent, I can’t watch Albany dither while we stumble towards an unlivable future for our children. I’m running to bring our community’s urgency with me to the state capitol.
What do you believe is the top issue facing voters and how do you plan to address it if elected?
The housing crisis: over 100,000 New Yorkers are experiencing homelessness, more than half of renters are rent-burdened, seniors struggle to age in place, and young people can’t afford the space to start families. We can’t keep waiting for developer handouts to “trickle down” to working New Yorkers. I will invest in real solutions, like social housing, expanded housing voucher funding, and increased construction of permanent, accessible, deeply affordable housing.
How does your background qualify you to hold office?
The state legislature is my field of expertise. As a civil rights lawyer, I led the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project’s state legislative agenda, drafting bills, building coalitions, leading advocacy, and negotiating language. At NYU Law, I teach a class on the state legislature, training the next generation of lawyers to write bills. And, I have deployed these skills as a volunteer to legislate on behalf of our community.
Why should voters choose you over your opponents?
I am not just the most experienced candidate in the race; I am one of NYS’s leading experts in state legislation, drafting, policy and procedure. I don’t just know how the legislature works, but also how to make it work better for our neighborhoods. I also have more technology policy expertise than anyone running for Assembly anywhere in the state, including incumbents, at a time when we need these skills the most.
From now until early voting, Campaign Insiders will be featuring candidates from select democratic primary races across the City & State. Be sure to check back to hear from a wide range of candidates from assembly, senate, and congressional races as well as the NYS comptroller race!
Early voting in NYC is June 13th-21st and Election Day is June 23rd. Check out the PoliticsNY Election Primer to see who will be on your ballot and don’t forget to vote this June!
