How About A Socialist Rugby Player For Congress?

Shaniyat Chowdhury-- everyone calls him Shawn

Back in February, we spoke with a number of young progressives in the New York area who were inspired by AOC's successful challenge to political machine hack (now lobbyist) Joe Crowley and were considering running for Congress. One was Khaair Morrison, who looked like he was serious about engaging with Crowley successor as Queens Democratic Party boss, Gregory Meeks. Meeks is every bit as corrupt as Crowley, if not as subtle, and he looked like a great target. He still does-- but Morrison doesn't feel the time is right for himself yet. Instead, NY-05 progressives are coalescing around another community activist, Shaniyat Chowdhury.

I spoke with him Thursday and he sounds like a great candidate-- especially when you consider who he would be replacing. A quick reminder about Gregory Meeks, an especially corrupt New Dem. A district with a PVI of D+37 (and where Trump scored just 12.7% of the vote) should be sending cutting edge Representatives to Congress who instinctually score A ratings from ProgressivePunch. Instead, Meeks' latest score is a "D." And then there's this:

Meek's epitomizes The Wall Street Shill. Since first starting in Congress (1999), he's gobbled up $3,783,938 from the Finance Sector, the sector he's supposed to be overseeing as a member of the House Financial Services Committee. In fact, tragically, Meeks seems to exist in Congress primarily to collect bribes. When I originally spoke with Khaair Morrison he told me that NY-05 is eager for a new Representative "after having ineffective leadership for 20+ years. Working class neighborhoods like South East Queens, Nassau, Valley Stream, and Far Rockaway have had an up-close seat to the major issues of our time. After Hurricane Sandy, areas are still rebuilding as we see the effects of Global Warming. We were the epicenter for the foreclosure crisis and many have still not able to get their homes back. We see the brutality of broken windows and mass incarceration as our kids are constantly targeted for low-level offenses that ruin opportunities for black and brown lives to be productive members of our society. We have seen how poor infrastructure and lack of planning can ruin a neighborhood's vitality. We have seen the decrepit state of public housing and are still without creative ideas to make housing more equitable. It is time we do things differently and that we speak truth to power." That's the same kind of thing Shaniyat told me this week and, in fact, he told me that the foreclosure problem and the housing crisis are still so prevalent in southeast Queens that they are among the very top issues for the campaign-- along with the Green New Deal, Medicare-for-All and free public college-- he and his team are putting together now.

The 27 year-old Queens-born and raised Democratic Socialist served in the Marine Corps for six years, volunteered in the AOC campaign-- which then hired him to work as a staffer-- and is now employed as a bartender at Terraza 7, a Latino jazz club in Elmhurst. He's also a rugby player and will captain the Indian national team next month in Australia. Today he's in DC-- not schmoozing with lobbyists and Democratic Party bigwigs, but playing in a rugby match. "I am a first generation Bangladeshi-American," he reiterated this morning. "My parents are Muslim immigrants who came to this country more than 30 years looking for the American Dream-- the idea that middle class sustainability is rewarded through hard work. However, for the last 20 years the only one reaping any benefits off the backs of working and poor class Americans like mine, has been our current representative. He has accepted millions of dollars from corporations and is benefiting from foreclosed homes. Our current representative may look like us but does not represent us-- not the everyday working and poor class American struggling from paycheck to paycheck. NY-05 doesn't deserve to be categorized as undeserving. It deserves so much, and the representation needs to reflect it. By taking money out of politics, we can advocate for the Green New Deal, Housing Rights for All, Free Public College Tuition, Criminal Justice Reform, and Medicare for All. Our communities deserve a fighter and champion who will representative them from Jamaica Ave. to the Rockaways and not on Wall Street."

You can contribute to Shan's campaign here.