Exclusive: Health Activist Nina Schwalbe Enters Race to Replace Congressman Nadler

Health expert and community activist Nina Schwalbe is the latest candidate to toss her hat into the crowded race to succeed Jerry Nadler in Congress. She says the attacks on the public health care system by the Trump administration is a motivating factor. “The destruction of the public health system is dangerous now and it will get worse,” she warned in an exclusive interview with Straus News.

“Washington is systematically dismantling our democracy, putting New York, America, and the world at risk and Congress is failing to stop it,” says Schwalbe. “This administration is fueling disinformation, propagates false science, and has cut even the most basic services.

“The list is endless and the attack relentless - stopping vaccine programs, denying climate change, slashing the Affordable Care Act, Medicaid, Medicare, housing and education, bringing fear to communities through unlawful immigration policies, and attacking basic rights. At a time when more and more New Yorkers are struggling with costs, the situation is going from bad to worse.”

Nadler who is in his 34th year representing New York’s 12th Congressional District, set off a stampede for the Democratic nomination when he stunned the political world last September when he said that he would not seek reelection when his current term expires at the end of this year.

Ten people are vying for the nomination in the heavily Democratic district which takes up most of Manhattan. While she’s held positions in government in the past, it is the first time the 59-year-old scientist and mother of two grown sons has sought public office.
“I’m a lifelong New Yorker and I think there is space for people who have experience outside elected office,” said Schwalbe.

She worked as special government employee during the Biden Administration supervising a $7 billion program to distribute COVID vaccines overseas through the US Agency for International Development (USAID). That agency that was gutted by the Trump Administration.

And she said she has been active in local politics since campaigning for Jimmy Carter as a high school student.

“My family has lived in district 12 for six generations. I grew up and gave birth to my two sons here. I cared for my parents as they died here. District 12 is my home,” said Schwalbe, who launched her campaign web site on Jan. 9. She noted that is the six year anniversary of the date that the World Health Organization (WHO) identified the novol coronavirus originating in Wuhan, China. Two months later, on March 11, 2020, WHO declared the rapidly spreading disease a global pandemic.

And she said she has been active in local politics since campaigning for Jimmy Carter as a high school student.

She makes no effort to hide her disdain for the current health care system under Donald Trump. “From day one, the Trump administration has started to destroy the public health system.”

Asked about recent moves by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the Secretary of Health and Humans Services, she said, “impeach him.”

“We have to have a rationale, evidence-based public health policy,” she said.

“I’d be the only Dem with a PhD in public health and I don’t come in owing anyone any favors. I would come in with a clean slate.”

Her father died of COVID in the early days of the pandemic in April 2020, she said. And it was painful death at home.

She said after vaccines were developed, she formed a community clinic in downtown Manhattan because she realized that many older adults were not getting vaccinated and many did not know how to schedule appointments via computer.

“During the pandemic, we were working with people in lower Manhattan. The state government offered money to set up community clinics,” she said. “And we fought very hard to set up a community clinic.” But much of the work was for naught. “The vaccines never came,” she said. due to bureaucratic screwups between government agencies.

“I want to come in laser focused on getting the government to do the right thing.

“Public health is not an issue that anyone pays attention to until it is broken. And it is broken now,” Schwalbe said “We need someone to be laser focused on the details,” she said, adding, “Congress is not doing its job.”

In terms of campaign funding, the resident of the upper west side said, “I’m coming into the race with $200,000.”

She said it is a good sign that so many candidates are vying for the seat Nadler is vacating. “We’re all very different and I think that is good for democracy.”

The field has grown to ten people, even with the early candidate Liam Elkind dropping out and City Council member Eric Bottcher changing his mind after declaring and now seeks to run for the New York State Senate seat that was recently vacated by Brad Hoylman-Sigal following his election as Manhattan borough president.

The other candidates vying for the seat include:

*George Conway, a lawyer and one time Trump supporter who has turned into a fierce critic of the president. He also entered the race this week. He’s a co-founder of the Trump bashing web site, the Lincoln Project and is the former spouse of Trump mouthpiece Kellyanne Conway. He said that Trump is “running the government like a mob operation.”

*Micah Lasher is a state assembly member for district 69 on the Upper West Side and is a former aid to Gov. Kathy Hochul and Nadler. He is widely expected to get Nadler’s endorsement. Lasker endorses Medicare for all and wants to redraw New York congressional districts in response to Republican efforts to jerrymander districts in Republican states.

*Alex Bores, is a NYS Assembly member for district 73 on the Upper East Side. In an unusual note on his resume: the 35-year-old was a computer science major who worked in tech and cybersecurity before running for his assembly seat. He heads the assembly’s Future Caucus of millennial and Gen Z legislators.

*Jack Schlossberg, the grandson of President John F. Kennedy is seeking public office for the first time. He is the sister of Tatiana Kennedy, who recently died of a rare blood cancer, the latest in a series of tragic deaths in the Kennedy family. Their mother is Caroline Kennedy. Schlossberg has been sharply critical of his anti-vaxxer cousin Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Schlossberg made “12 promises to the people of New York” when he unveiled his candidacy in November and said he is running to respond to constitutional and cost of living crises.

*Laura Dunn, a civil rights and victims rights attorney, is pushing for congressional term limits and for banning insider trading by members of Congress. She worked on getting passage of the Violence Against Women Act.

*Jami Floyd is an attorney and journalist who has worked as the host of NPR’s “All Things Considered” on WNYC and has worked at Court TV and as a legal analyst on ABC News. She’s the author of a soon to be released book “Dream Interrupted: Searching for Thurgood Marshall and the Struggle to Save the Soul of a Nation.” She’s headed the Transportation Committee as a member of the UWS’s Community Board 7 for the four years and served in the Clinton Administration. If she runs and wins, she’d be the first black woman to represent the district.

*Cameron Kasky is a gun control advocate and at 25 is the youngest candidate in the race. He is a survivor of the 2018 mass shooting at his high school in Parkland, FL. Among his 12 point platform: stop funding what he said is Israeli genocide in Gaza. He supports Medicare for all and wants to abolish ICE.

*Matthew Sklura, is another first time candidate who is a lifelong New Yorker and an LBGTQ activist who said he survived five years of conversion therapy as a teenager. He is focusing on affordability and rebuilding infrastructure. He started Born Perfect, an LBGTQ advocacy group.

*Alan Pardee, is a Wall Streeter who was a managing partner at Merrill Lynch before co-founding Mercury Capitol Partners. He was born and raised in Manhattan and is the son of a Dominican immigrant. He has one of the largest campaign war chests with over $1.1 million raised. Making NYC affordable is a central part of his platform.

*Micah Bergdale, is a tech executive and political newcomer whose diverse platform includes completing the Second Ave. subway within a decade and enacting federal legislation to protect free and fair elections and restore and expand the Voting Rights Act.

There are no official debates scheduled as of yet. Presentations to various local Democratic clubs will begin in the very near future. The clubs are important because once a club makes an endorsement, it supplies volunteers to gather signatures in the petitioning process to get a name on the ballot. The primary is a little over five months away on June 23.