Assemblywoman Yuh-Line Niou, who announced Saturday she is running for Congress, has repeatedly, and incorrectly, claimed that Albany pols ignored Asian Americans — until she was elected.
Niou, a progressive Democrat who began representing Chinatown, the Lower East Side and Lower Manhattan in 2017, has for years reiterated a claim Asian Americans received no money — or even a mention — in state budgets.
“Until I was elected, Asian Americans, the word ‘Asian Americans’ has never been in our New York state budget. And that is incredibly insane,” she said during an April 6, 2020, podcast.
In May 2021, she claimed “We passed a budget that included $10 million for our Asian-American organizations to have some funding on the state level. Before I was elected there was zero funding.”
During a 2021 rally, she said “Until I was elected, there wasn’t a single dollar actually allocated to Asian Americans, in line item, in our budget.”
But a review of state budget documents shows that the phrase Asian American appeared in most budget budget bills between 1997 and 2016.
Niou has for years reiterated a claim Asian Americans received no money — or even a mention — in state budgets. William FarringtonThe nonprofit group Asian Americans for Equality in Manhattan has consistently received state budget allocations including $100,000 a year from 2014 to 2016. And the Asian Pacific Islander Coalition of HIV/AIDS in Manhattan got $44,865 in 2015, budget documents show.
Max Burns, a spokesman for Niou, said she had secured $30 million “for AAPI issues through the Community Equity Budget and initiatives to fight hate crimes” and it was “a massive stride compared to the tiny, individualized crumbs organizations have received in the past.”
Niou, who has also touted her role in delivering pandemic relief, decided not to seek re-election to the Assembly in order to challenge incumbent Sen. Brian Kavanagh in June’s Democratic primary.
But on Saturday, Niou announced she would forego that contest to seek the Democratic nod to run in the newly redrawn 10th Congressional District, which takes in Lower Manhattan and parts of Brooklyn. She said she would provide a “bold and unapologetic progressive voice for our communities.”
Among the candidates she will face is former Mayor Bill de Blasio who announced Friday he was entering the race.
