Yuh-Line Niou and Grace Lee Go Head-to-Head to Succeed Kavanagh

Two prominent dowtown Democratic figures, Grace Lee and Yuh-Line Niou, will be going head-to-head in the Democratic primary for the New York Senate seat representing Lower Manhattan on June 23.

The current NYS Senate District 27 seat, Brian Kavanagh, set the race in motion when he announced he was dropping his then-unopposed run for re-election at the beginning of February 2026, just weeks before candidate petitioning was set to begin. Within hours, Lee announced she was considering a run, while Niou made hers official.

Lee, who currently holds the NYS Assembly District 65 seat, has gained the backing of many of the elected officials who represent the Senate district, including Kavanagh. Lee has also received the support of Manhattan Borough President Brad Holyman-Sigal, NYC Comptroller Mark Levine, and NYCHA TA presidents.

“That kind of unified support doesn’t happen by accident,” Lee said. “It is built over years of organizing, constituent services, and showing up every single day.”

However, Niou hasn’t been shaken by this. Niou held the seat of NYS A.D. 65 for two terms prior to Lee. She has since organized with Hands Off NYC and the Chinatown Defense Network and consulted for various organizations.

Though both candidates lean left, Niou cemented herself as a rising progressive star in recent elections. Niou is also running as the candidate of the Working Families Party and has also received endorsements from U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders, Congressman Ro Khanna, and NYC Public Advocate Jumaane Williams.

“I am a lifelong progressive and an organizer,” Niou said. “I am running because we need more organizers and elected officials with lived experience of the issues at hand.”

With just weeks until early voting begins on June 13, Straus News reached out to the candidates on their priorities and how they would attempt to achieve them.

On the issues

Niou and Lee had several similar stances. Both listed affordability as a top issue, with slightly different visions on how to handle it.

Lee said she would fight to fund the Housing Access Voucher Program, a pilot program that assists households dealing with or facing homelessness. She also said she would work to cap utility bills at 6% of income for low-income households.

“Working families are doing everything right and still falling behind,” Lee said.

Two points Lee and Niou agreed on were the importance of permanent affordable housing and universal childcare.

“To fight the affordability crisis, we must guarantee universal childcare to fight price gouging,” Niou said.

Niou said she would support establishing a Social Housing Development Authority, which would produce more publicly-owned rental units that are permanently affordable. She also said she would work to increase funding for NYCHA.

The two also listed fighting the current administration’s policies as another main priority.

“We must also stand up to Trump by abolishing ICE and passing New York for All, which would prevent our state and localities from cooperating with ICE,” Niou said.

The district includes both the city’s main Immigration and Customs Enforcement Field Office, 26 Federal Plaza, and Immigration Court, 201 Varick St. In April, the Department of Homeland Security made public its search for parking near the Varick Street Immigration Court.

Lee agreed that fighting against ICE would also be a priority of hers. Recently, Lee helped pass the anti-deportation legislation that was included in the state budget bill this session. The legislation limits the activities of the agency in a number of ways, including restricting local cooperation with ICE. The bill also gave several locations, such as schools, hospitals, and polling places, the right to deny the entry of agents.

“This is what it looks like when New York stands up as a firewall: not just rhetoric, but real, enforceable protections for our neighbors,” Lee said.

The other priority Lee listed was quality of life. Currently, Lee says she is working to tackle illegal vending on Canal Street, an agenda item she would continue to work on. She also said she would address traffic and safety concerns, with a focus on making the streets safer for pedestrians and cyclists.

“These are the kinds of problems that don’t always make headlines but affect residents every single day,” Lee said.

Niou’s other top priority was taxing the ultra-wealthy, an issue that has gained nationwide traction this election cycle. It also aligns with the city and state’s recent move to enact a pied-à-terre tax on second-home apartments with market values over $5 million.

“Now more than ever, we need to elect bold, progressive Democrats who will listen to the needs of voters, not people who are in the pockets of big corporations,” Niou said.

The competitive match-up will not be the first time the two have faced off. In 2020, Niou defeated Lee for the Democratic primary for the NYS Assembly District 65 seat. Running unopposed in the general election, Niou won the seat, becoming the first Asian American to hold the position.

However, since then, Lee has also found her footing in the Democratic Party. When Niou ran for U.S. House New York District 10 in 2022, Lee made another run for NYS AD 65, this time winning.

Along with gaining the backing of many of the city’s Establishment Democrats, Lee has also raised more than Niou so far. While Lee has raised over $350,000, Niou has raised just under $200,000.

The winner of the race will face Republican candidate Jason Murillo in the general election in November. Murillo is a radio producer known as “DJ Loudmouth,” who is currently running unopposed in the Republican rimary. The lifelong resident of the Lower East Side, said he is fighting back against, City Hall and Albany. He opposes relocating a homeless shelter to the East Village and places affordable housing, public safety and conservative values at the top of his campaign.

However, a Republican has not won an elected office in Manhattan since 2000, which would seem to put the Democratic primary on an easy path of the general election. Murillo pulled in 16.4 percent of the vote in his last race as the Republican/Conservative candidate for City Council in a lower east side seat won by Democrat Harvey Epstein who won with 78 percent of the vote.