Valdez enters race to unseat Ardila

Labor organizer and Ridgewood resident Claire Valdez is officially running to unseat Assemblymember Juan Ardila.

A few years ago, union organizer Claire Valdez was asked to run for office — she turned it down.

“At the time, it truly came so far out of left field for me — this was really not something that I had ever considered doing before, had never thought that it would be something that anyone would ever ask me to do, or I’d be capable of doing,” she told the Chronicle. She assumed “the ship had sailed” on her aspirations for political office.

Fast forward to March 2023: Assemblymember Juan Ardila (D-Maspeth) became the subject of public scrutiny this spring after two women accused him of sexual assault. Valdez, one of Ardila’s constituents, said she found the accusations “disturbing.”

“I think what was even worse was that after his own constituents — his own endorsers, people who had been supporting him — called for him to resign, he didn’t,” she said. “He is clearly not fit to represent the interests of this district ... that was another moment where I was like, ‘Yeah, we have to we have to get this guy out of office.’”

Now, the 33-year-old is seeking to do just that: She is running in the Assembly District 37 Democratic primary in an effort to unseat the incumbent Ardila

Valdez officially announced her candidacy Wednesday morning; her exclusive interview with the Chronicle is her first of the campaign.

Originally from Texas, Valdez moved to New York eight years ago to work in the art world, and found herself at home in Ridgewood four years ago. And while she’s the first to acknowledge that is not very long, she says the connections she’s built there — through comparing gardening notes and chatting at neighborhood joint Windjammer — run deep.

As unit chair for support staff at Columbia University, who are part of UAW Local 2110, Valdez is keenly aware of AD 37’s working-class roots. That’s at the heart of her platform, and if she’s elected, would be reflected in her budget priorities in 2025.

“I want to make sure that every single worker has just cause, so they can’t just be fired at will by their bosses. I want to make sure that we can raise — like, meaningfully raise — the minimum wage,” she said. “New York is a union town and every single worker should have the right to form a union, should have protection against exploitation and retaliation.”

Asked how high she thinks the minimum wage should be city- and statewide, Valdez said both should be $25 per hour. “They should be the same because the work is the same,” she said.

Valdez attributes many of the skills she believes would make her a strong legislator to her labor organizing work — “Being a member of the UAW changed my life” is a refrain she repeats regularly. She pointed specifically to her time bargaining on behalf of her union during its most recent contract negotiation in 2022.

“That was a really informative experience — bargaining is incredibly, incredibly hard,” she said “You’re negotiating on behalf of a big group of people who have divergent interests in a lot of ways and different priorities.”

When it comes to her legislative aspirations, Valdez emphasized that she wants to fight to make sure longtime residents are not priced out of their neighborhoods and displaced.

“Real estate has been running roughshod over working-class New Yorkers for too long. These are not investment opportunities to us — these are our neighborhoods, these are our communities, these are our homes,” she said. “So we need to be fighting to fund public housing, to fund social housing, to make sure that people can stay in their homes.”

Valdez is not the only person vying for both the Democratic Party’s nod in the district and for the Democratic Socialists of America’s: AD 37 District Leader Emilia Decaudin declared her candidacy in July. According to a report from City & State, the DSA will discuss its endorsement pick come Sept. 11; Decaudin told City & State she would suspend her campaign if she does not get the DSA’s blessing.

QueensChronicle.com

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