New York City Council member Erik Bottcher, who is gay, is ending his race for Congress and will run for New York State Senate instead.
Bottcher, a Democrat, Monday declared his candidacy for State Senate District 47, where Brad Hoylman-Sigal, another gay Democrat, is vacating the seat to become Manhattan borough president.
“This decision is rooted in where I believe I can do the most good immediately,” Bottcher said in a statement. “The State Senate is where critical decisions are being made on housing affordability, addressing the mental health crisis, safeguarding our environment, and defending New York from the Trump agenda. At a moment when MAGA extremists are attacking our freedoms and undermining democracy, strong state leadership matters more than ever.”
Bottcher had filed to run for the U.S. House seat in New York’s 12th Congressional District in October and raised $700,000 the first day. He officially launched his campaign the following month. Jerry Nadler, a Democrat and strong LGBTQ+ ally, is retiring after serving in the House since 1991. The state Senate district, the congressional district, and Bottcher’s City Council district are all on the West Side of Manhattan.
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Hoylman-Sigal won the race for borough president in November and will be sworn in January 1. He will be the first member of the LGBTQ+ community in that position.
There will be a special election to fill Hoylman-Sigal’s Senate seat early in 2026, probably in February or March, and the winner will be sworn in immediately. Bottcher is “likely to secure the Democratic nomination in that race, which would all but guarantee victory,” City & State New York reports. “If Bottcher were to win, that would set up another special election for his City Council seat sometime in the spring.”
New York Assembly Members Linda Rosenthal and Tony Simone had been “eyeing Hoylman-Sigal’s seat,” according to City & State, but Rosenthal is likely to stay in the Assembly now that Bottcher has declared.
“On the City Council, my team and I have delivered concrete results on affordable housing creation, environmental sustainability, transit infrastructure improvements, mental health, and much more,” Bottcher’s statement continued. “As I enter my final term due to term limits, I am extremely proud of what we have accomplished, and that same commitment to service will guide this next chapter.”
In an interview with The Advocate last May, Bottcher recalled suicide attempts and time spent in a mental hospital as a gay teen from a small town in upstate New York. “I spent a month in a mental health hospital called Four Winds in Saratoga, New York,” he recalled. “That was a transformative and formative moment for me. I was this kid from the middle of nowhere in a hospital with young people who were dealing with gang involvement, substance use disorder, depression. It opened my eyes.”
“I really do credit the experience of being a gay person born in that kind of place, and going through that, with why I ended up in public service,” he added. “So few people in our country have access to the kind of care I got, especially if they’re poor or Black. Everyone should.”
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The 12th Congressional District race remains crowded. Democratic candidates include Assembly Member Micah Lasher — widely viewed as Nadler’s protégé —Assembly Member Alex Bores, nonprofit founder Liam Elkind, journalist and attorney Jami Floyd, and Jack Schlossberg, son of Caroline Kennedy and grandson of President John F. Kennedy. On Monday, George Conway, a former Republican who has been sharply critical of Donald Trump, filed paperwork with the Federal Election Commission to run for the seat as a Democrat, but he hasn’t officially launched a campaign. Conway is a lawyer and the ex-husband of onetime Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway.
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