Third Time Unlucky: Suraj Patel Again Fails in Bid for U.S. Congress From New York’s Newly Drawn 12th District
- Reema Rasool, the first South Asian and first Muslim on the ballot for U.S.House from Long Island, also loses her maiden bid from Congressional District 3.
It’s a case of third time unlucky for New York Democrat Suraj Patel. The 40-year-old Indian American attorney, activist, and professor of business ethics was pitted against two longtime stalwarts of New York politics — Reps. Jerry Nadler and Carolyn Maloney — in the newly drawn District 12. Nadler won the four-way race by a landslide — 45,545 or 55.4 percent of the votes, compared to Maloney’s 20,038 or 24.4 percent and Patel’s 15,744 or 19.2 percent. A fourth candidate, Ashmi Patel, also an Indian American, received 832 or 1 percent. Her campaign never gained any momentum.
In a Facebook Post, Patel called the primary “the race of a lifetime.” Noting that he has “nothing but humility and pride” for the support of his family, team, and supporters “who took on the biggest David vs Goliath battle” they were handed after redistricting. “We ran, literally ran, with the urgency of the moment, with cutting edge policies and most importantly I got to be myself around a team that exudes optimism and hope for the future,” he said. “We made a case for generational change that did not end last night, I remain committed to it. Our City, our Country, our Party needs fresh thinking and leadership. Thank you all for joining me along the journey. I’ll be back in a week or two and then let’s make good trouble once again.”
He ran on the platform of wanting to bring a “generational change,” “fresh ideas,” and being an “Obama Democrat,” and was touted as the dark horse by several media outlets. In televised debates ahead of the Aug. 23 primary, Patel has said both veteran lawmakers have been unable to effectively lead in the most important fights of recent years against Republicans and that they are not offering new ideas to solve problems, pointing to his own extensive policy platform. He also raised significant campaign funding and polled relatively well.
In 2000, during his first Democratic primary challenge against Maloney, he lost by about 4 points. In 2018, he received about 17,000 votes in the primary, 8,000 less than the now ousted Congresswoman.
His loss can be attributed in part to redistricting. The newly drawn district unites the East and West Sides north of 14th Street for the first time in more than 50 years and leaves out portions of Brooklyn and Queens that were part of the district for a generation, which have a significantly large South Asian population.
Older voters in the solely Manhattan neighborhoods now encompassed by NY12, many of whom have been voting for either Nadler or Maloney for 30 years, told The City, a non-profit news organization, that they aren’t ready to vote for a new candidate. At the same time, many younger voters said they didn’t know much about Patel to make the switch. Nadler has represented Manhattan’s West Side since 1992, while Maloney, who took office in 1993, has represented the East Side.
Meanwhile, in the Democratic primary for the U.S. House in New York’s 3rd Congressional District, Reema Rasool, the first South Asian and first Muslim on the ballot for U.S. Congress on Long Island, fell short in the maiden campaign. She was among five Democrats vying to fill an open seat left by Rep. Tom Suozzi. Robert Zimmerman won the Democratic nomination with 9,482 pr 35.8 percent of the votes, according to data from The New York Times, and will face Republican George Santos in November. Most of the district is in Queens, but a small portion is located in Nassau County.
Rasool is the founder of South Asian Young Women Entrepreneurs (SAYWE), a not-for-profit trade organization for business-minded South Asian women. She ran an unsuccessful bid for Oyster Bay council last year, securing 18,000 votes. According to Pakistan Week, Rasool is the daughter of immigrants from Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir who immigrated to the U.S. in the 1970s. She has a BA and MA in creative writing from NYU. took to Twitter to thank her team and her volunteers and supporters and announced her support for Zimmerman.
Tanbir Chowdhury, who worked as the manager of Rassol’s campaign also took to social media to praise his boss. “It was an honor to manage this historical campaign for Congress @reemarasool in #NY03,” he wrote. “From the very beginning, we knew we were the underdogs of this race.”
The single mother of two is the founder of South Asian Young Women Entrepreneurs (SAYWE). She ran an unsuccessful bid for Oyster Bay council last year, securing 18,000 votes. According to Pakistan Week, Rasool is the daughter of immigrants from Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir who immigrated to the U.S. in the 1970s. She has a BA and MA in creative writing from NYU.
In the New York State Senate race, Republican Awadhesh Gupta, who ran opposed, will face incumbent Liz Krueger from District 28. There isn’t much information on Gupta nor is there a campaign website. The Manhattan Republican Party website describes him as “a physician living in NYC,” who “most recently was working for CityMD during the heart of COVID pandemic in 2020.”