Jennifer Rajkumar, district leader in lower Manhattan, will challenge Margaret Chin, current Council member representing Manhattan’s First District.
Previously, Rajkumar, a lawyer with Sanford Heisler LLP and a graduate of Stanford University Law School, defeated a district leader who had served for 20 years to earn her current position.
Rajkumar has shied away from speaking to press before her announcement, but she told City & State in a short profile piece before she decided to run for City Council that her best moment of district leader so far was speaking with middle schoolers at the Lower East Side Girls Club about leadership and public service.
“One said she wanted to be president and another wanted to be governor,” she said.
She also said she is “looking for the best way to make an impact.”
Campaign finance records show the 30-year old has raised $66,849 so far.
District 1 in Manhattan encompasses parts of the Lower East Side, Chinatown, TriBeCa, the Financial District, and SoHo.
A Facebook invitation to the event says she wants to bring “bottom up democracy to City Hall.”
“Join Jennifer as we begin this campaign to elect a young, strong, progressive advocate, who has dedicated her career to fighting for the voices of those left out.”
Margaret Chin, the current District 1 Council member, was elected to the council in 2010.
