The Cobble Hill Association has compiled information about the democratic candidates running to represent Cobble Hill (among many other Brooklyn neighborhoods and Manhattan below 14th street) in the 10th U.S. Congressional District. The information, including a short bio, key issues, and notable endorsements, was primarily compiled from the candidates’ websites, which are linked below. We have also included a number of recent articles discussing the candidates positions in detail, as well as links to two recent debates.

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Candidates

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Quanda Francis

Francis, 40, lives in Brooklyn Heights and currently represents the NY52 Assembly District. Raised and educated in New York, Francis is a former candidate for New York State Comptroller and the Mayor of New York. Francis has a background in accounting with a BA from NYU, an MBA from Long Island University, and is a PhD candidate in Information Sciences at Long Island University.

Key Issues:

Education
Workforce Development
Protect Women’s Right to Choose

Peter Gleason

Gleason, 58, is an attorney and founder of Peter J. Gleason PC. He joined the Coast Guard in 1981 at 17 and remained in the Coast Guard Reserve for 20 years. Gleason was a New York City Police Officer from 1983 to 1986, serving on the Lower East Side, and a New York City Firefighter from 1986 to 1996. He graduated from CUNY Law School.

Daniel Goldman

Goldman, 46, is a lawyer who graduated from Yale College and Stanford Law School. He lives in Lower Manhattan with his wife and five children. Goldman was an Assistant United States Attorney for ten years, serving under Preet Bharara, and most recently was lead counsel at the first impeachment investigation of former President Trump.

Notable endorsements: The Steady State, Village Independent Democrats, Assembly Member Bobby Carroll

Key Issues:

Protect and strengthen democracy
Voting rights
Protecting reproductive rights
Public option for healthcare, negotiable prescription drug prices
Protecting social security and medicare
Climate change/Green New Deal
Gun violence/Gun reform
Immigration
Criminal Justice Reform/Public safety
Affordable housing
Protect LGBTQ rights
Quality public education
National security and International Affairs
Support Ukraine in fight against Russia
Israel, support but not expanding settlements
Expand middle class, minimum wage, universal childcare, affordable housing
Combat all forms of racism
COVID response
Combat disinformation

Elizabeth Holtzman

Holtzman, 80, graduated from Harvard College and Harvard Law School. Holtzman first worked in the Civil Rights era in the South and on abortion rights in the 1970s. Subsequently she was elected to a number of public offices, including as: a member of Congress from 1973 to 1981, Brooklyn District Attorney from 1982 to 1989, and the New York City Comptroller from 1990 to 1993.

Notable endorsement: Gloria Steinem

Key Issues:

Policing and criminal justice reform
Healthcare and Medicare for all

Jimmy Jiang-Li

Li is the son of immigrants. He co-founded the New York City Asian-American Democratic Club and Asian American Community Empowerment (AACE), which is a coalition of Asian-American organizations. He has worked to combat Anti-AAPI hate crimes, support DACA, is against gentrification, and for affordable housing and high quality education for all.

Key Issues:

Racial Equity and Hate Crimes (especially Anti-Asian)
Affordable housing
Crime and Gun Control
Education and Poverty
Immigration

Mondaire Jones

Jones, 35, currently represents Westchester and Rockland County in the 17th Congressional District. He is the freshman representative to the House Democratic leadership and a member of the House Judiciary, Education and Labor and Ethics Committees. After graduating from Stanford University and Harvard Law School, Jones served at the Department of Justice in the Obama Administration. As one of the first black LGBTQ+ members of Congress, he considers himself a leading progressive and has been endorsed by the Progressive Caucus. He is considered the incumbent, even though his current district has no overlap with the 10th District, and recently moved to Carroll Gardens in order to run.

Notable endorsements: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi; Congressional Black Caucus PAC, Congressional Progressive Caucus PAC, New York Progressive Action Network, RWDSU, National Nurses United, U.S. Senators Cory Booker (NJ), Ed Markey (MA), Representatives Ruben Gallego (AZ), Pramila Jayapal (WA), Barbara Lee (CA), Ted Lieu (CA) and Jamie Raskin (MD).

Key Issues:

Restoring democracy, voting rights
Health care, Medicare for all, capping prescription drugs
Rights of Working People, federal minimum wage, protective labor laws
Quality Education to All
Families, universal child care
Saving our Planet, Green New Deal
Protecting Women’s Right to Choose
Systemic Racism
Immigration System
LGBTQIA Community
Keep communities safe
Vulnerable communities, disabilities, Medicare for All
Stopping endless wars
Diplomacy First Foreign Policy
Animal Rights
Israel, opposing settlements

Maud Maron

Maron, 51, is an attorney who was a public defender, and is now a professor at Cardozo Law School and the Director of Training at the Legal Aid Society. A mother of four children who attend public school, Maron has been very involved in their schools and activities, including serving as the School Board President of Manhattan’s largest school district.

Notable endorsements: Parent Leaders for Accelerated Curriculum & Education, Transgender activist Buck Angel

Key Issues:

Public Safety
Education; Economy
Tax Relief (SALT)
COVID Recovery
Women’s Rights & Title IX protections
Lesbian & Gay rights
Transgender Rights and Gender Dysphoric Youth
Healthcare (affordable health care)
Innovation (new ideas and smart regulation)
Israel (rejects BDS Movement)
Foreign Relations

Yuh-Line Niou

Niou, 39, represents Chinatown, the Lower East Side and lower Manhattan in New York Assembly District 65. A graduate of CUNY Baruch, Niou was the first Asian-American in the New York State Assembly. She identifies herself as a Progressive.

Notable endorsements: New York Working Families Party, Brooklyn Asian Civilian Observation Patrol, Churches United for Fair Housing Action, Downtown Women for Change, The Jewish Vote, Muslim Democratic Club of New York, New Downtown Dems, Progressive Women of New York, State Senator Julia Salazar, Assembly Members Ron Kim and Michelle Solages, former NY gubernatorial candidate Cynthia Nixon, former Manhattan district attorney candidate Tahanie Aboushi

Key Issues:

Green Niou deal, hold executives accountable who trashed climate and left regular New Yorkers paying the bill
Housing Justice
Immigrant justice
Criminal justice reform

Carlina Rivera

Rivera, 38, has represented the second Council District in Manhattan since 2018. She grew up on the Lower East Side (born and raised in the district) and graduated from Marist College. She is co-chair of the Women’s Caucus, is involved in health care issues, and is Chair of the Council’s Committee on Hospitals. Rivera is a member of the Women’s Caucus, Progressive Caucus, and Black, Latino & Asian Caucus. She currently lives outside the district but says she will move into it.

Notable endorsements: 1199 SEIU, New York State Iron Workers District Council, Uniformed EMS Officers Union Local 3621, Uniformed EMTs, Paramedics and Fire Inspectors Local 2507, 504 Democratic Club, Coalition for a District Alternative LES, United Democratic Organization, Voters for Animal Rights, Representative Nydia Velazquez, Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso, New York City Council Members Alexa Aviles, Diana Ayala, Erik Bottcher, Eric Dinowitz, Jennifer Guiterrez, Kamillah Hanks, Sandy Nurse, Lincoln Restler, Rafael Salamanca Jr., Lynn Schulman, Althea Stevens and Marjorie Velazquez, former New York City Council member Margaret Chin

Key Issues:

Abortion, reproductive health care & reproductive justice
Animal rights
Environmental Justice
Disability justice and accountability
Economic development, fair and just economy
Quality health care
Housing and affordability
Immigration
Workers, pro union
LGBTQ +
Pandemic preparedness
Public safety, complementary strategies to law enforcement
Transit, accessibility and expand bike ridership

Brian Robinson

Robinson, 38, describes himself as a “proud jewish American father, husband and man of his community.” He categorizes himself as a moderate. He grew up in New Jersey and graduated from Tulane. Robinson is the founder of consumer advocacy firm Churchill Credit Solutions which helped consumers and small businesses with debt relief. He has lived in Tribeca for five years and has one four-year-old daughter whom he plans to send to public school. He authored a book entitled Adderall Bliss based on his own experience with ADD.

Notable endorsements: New Yorkers for Safer Streets

Key Issues:

Prioritizing Public Safety and Quality of Life
Empowering Small businesses
Removal of SALT cap
Federal solution to coastal resiliency
Protect Women’s Rights

Jo Anne Simon

Simon, 69, has represented New York State Assembly District 52 since 2015 and lives in Boerum Hill. She grew up in Yonkers, New York, the daughter of Italian immigrants and was the first in her family to attend college. She graduated from Iona College, Gallaudet University with a Master’s Degree in Education of the Deaf, and Fordham University Law School. She moved to Brooklyn in 1981. Before being elected to the Assembly, Simon established a disability civil rights law firm in Brooklyn. She considers herself a progressive leader and prides herself for working across the aisle.

Notable endorsements: Central Brooklyn Independent Democrats, Downtown Independent Democrats, Independent Neighborhood Democrats, Lambda Independent Democrats of Brooklyn, State Senator Roxanne Persaud, Assembly Members peter Abbate, Steve Cymbrowitz, Pat Fahy, Deborah Glick and Linda Rosenthal, former state Senator Velmanette Montgomery, former assembly Member Joan Millman

Key Issues:

Women’s Rights, abortion rights and reproductive health care
Environment, NY Green New Deal
Gun Violence prevention
Educational Advocacy
Community listening — BQE design, traffic calming study, LGBTQ+ community, people of color
Economic recovery for all, jobs, housing, universal health care, safety net programs, small business, rent relief, homeowner protection
Israel, support but do not encourage Israel’s annexation of land

Yan Xiong

Xiong was a Chinese dissident who demonstrated at the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and served 19 months at a maximum security prison in China. He studied at Peking University law School. Xiong came to the United States as a political refugee in 1992 and became a chaplain in the US Army, where he served in Iraq. Xiong studied English at Harvard, earned a D. Min degree from Gordon-Conwell Divinity School, a BA from the University of North Carolina in 1998, an MA from Covenant Theological Seminary in 2001, and a MAR from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in 2002. Xiong and his wife, also a refugee from China, have six children.

Key Issues: