Fighting for Those Who Have Been Oppressed: An Interview With Lauren Ashcraft
(Originally published on April 14, 2020 with The Student Post)
The insurgent energy of 2018 continues into this year’s elections, making it even more evident that the progressive movement exists beyond party affiliation. Whether the House is Democratic or not, this movement surges on. While maintaining their emphasis on the ramifications of harmful conservative agendas, progressives across the nation continue to make the point that moderate, corporate Democrats are not excused from accountability as well.
New York women continue to step up to the challenge by replacing the state’s entrenched incumbents. In New York’s 3rd Congressional District, Melanie D’Arrigo emphasizes educational equality and addresses false bipartisanship against primary opponent Rep. Tom Suozzi, who has accepted over $658,000 in PAC and lobbyist money in this election season thus far. In the 10th Congressional District, Lindsey Boylan is running a platform on upholding rule of law and advancing mental healthcare accessibility, while her opponent, the 28-year incumbent Rep. Jerry Nadler, was a Democratic official that was initially very reluctant in supporting impeachment against President Trump.
In this interview, we got to speak with Lauren Ashcraft, the Democratic Socialist primary challenging incumbent Carolyn Maloney in New York’s 12th Congressional District. The district covers almost all of Manhattan’s East Side as well as parts of Queens and Brooklyn.
Lauren discusses what motivated her to run, the pressing issues of her district that she believes are directly reflective of the working classes’ struggles nationally, her platform in comparison to the other opponents in this Democratic primary, and an important message for all of us to consider during the COVID-19 outbreak.
You can find Lauren and keep up with her campaign on almost all social media platforms, including Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. Lauren’s campaign has also created a COVID-19 resource page as well.
What makes you the person and candidate you are?
I grew up very aware of my family’s heritage. On one side of my family, my grandfather was killed by corporate greed in a coal mining accident. I was raised with the stories of how my grandmother, who was a Japanese immigrant, was left to feed a family on a really small plot of land with really small social security checks. On the other side of my family, my grandfather suffered a fall while working and became a quadriplegic. When living with a disability, you typically do not have the money to renovate your home to make it accessible for that disability. My entire family had to chip in and to essentially become the caretakers that my grandfather needed.
Because of my background as a stand-up comedian, I view the world in a different way. For example, our campaign spent a day taking a video as I tried to get to Brooklyn from Long Island City from the perspective of a disabled individual. This is really, really hard to do if you can’t use the stairs, and it is ridiculous to see the lack of accessible ways to partake in basic travel.
I am a very creative person, and this quality about me makes me unafraid to advocate in ways people have not done before. I became a stand-up comedian initially to make friends in the city, but now I realize I can take advantage of this part of myself in the political sphere.
You see, people have this misconception that this district is a very wealthy district. Of course, there are wealthy zip codes in the Upper East Side, but in the rest of the district, including Long Island City where I am, Greenpoint, Astoria, Williamsburg, Kips Bay, Roosevelt Island too, people are struggling. These places are home to a lot of artists like myself. They are comedians, visual artists, and performing artists. Still, a lot of us have had to work from nine-to-five in order to pay the rent here because of how expensive it can be.
I became a Democratic Socialist while working at J.P. Morgan Chase. Seeing how people have been neglected and how corporations are not makes up a huge part of who I am. With these experiences, I saw how the representatives that should be advocating for us have ignored us. This is what has shaped me.
Much of your platform addresses topic like the climate crisis, Medicare for All, immigrant justice, and more that can definitely be spoken to on the national level. What aspects of your platform directly relate to the people of New York’s 12th District?
The climate crisis affects my district particularly because we surround the East River. The water in and around New York City is rising at a rate of 1.5x the global average. East River Park has flooded to such a degree that city leaders have called for it to be buried and rebuilt eight feet higher. While I am strictly against this proposal, the fact that we are having to even contemplate this right now shows that we have not taken appropriate action for decades. My opponent should have taken appropriate action for us.
As for Medicare for All, there are over 23,000 people in my district that don’t have any type of healthcare at all. Thousands on thousands more are under-insured, myself included, despite paying $300 a month just to be on my partner’s health insurance. If I went to the emergency room, my out-of-pocket costs would be so, so scary for me and my finances. That is why we need to take profit out of the healthcare industry.
We are seeing so many companies purchasing hospitals and shutting them down to try and stretch their profit as much as possible, despite this being at the expense of patients and members of the community. This is yet another reason why I feel we are vastly under-prepared for pandemics like COVID-19. We don’t have the hospital beds, ventilators, and healthcare workers we need to make sure we are handling this in the best way possible. In fact, I have been pretty involved in helping to save the Beth Israel hospital in the Lower East Side.
The climate crisis, Medicare for All, gentrification, and rising rents prices are the main issues that affect my community and the greater nation. New York’s 12th Congressional District is really representative of the wealth inequality this country has. It’s the home of Billionaires’ Row, but it is also the home to thousands of people who sleep on the street every night. Keeping people from getting the healthcare they need, failing to make higher education tuition free, and removing a lifetime of student debt are some of the pieces of systemic oppression that are preventing people from climbing the social ladder and being empowered.
I am fighting for those who have been oppressed, and I am fighting for those who have never had the full and equal voice that they deserve. That’s where my platform comes from.
Let’s say you won the election before the Coronavirus pandemic. What would you say, from your perspective, would be the Democratic Socialist approach to handling this crisis, and why does this approach work best when compared to other ideological approaches?
We really need to make sure that everyone gets the monetary relief that they need right now. I support a $2,000 per month plan per person. This is not a citizen, not a resident, and not a constituent plan. It is a per person plan in the form of cash. Living expenses like rent, mortgage, and other debts need to be frozen. Utility shut-offs need to end immediately. Our priority should be fighting this virus, not putting our people in debt.
I support Rep. Rashida Talib’s idea of minting a trillion dollar coin, so long as the plan has a way to get money to people without addresses. The plan as it stands would add a trillion dollars into the market to be distributed by the federal government in the form of debit cards mailed to homes. The issue, however, is that this would leave out people who do not have homes or mailing addresses. I will only support this plan if monetary distribution was executed through pick-up by appointment at certain public offices.
The issue that is most influential in my neighborhood during this crisis is that we have so many small businesses, restaurants, artists, and freelancers who have no idea how they will survive this episode. They don’t know how their businesses and livelihoods will survive. In my own industry, friends and colleagues are suffering, because there are no comedy clubs open right now. Right now, there is no way to make a living.
It is for this reason that federal assistance is absolutely necessary. A federal jobs guarantee is just as essential. This is not to force towards anyone to have a job, but will help that if, by the end of this pandemic, you want a job, you are guaranteed one by the federal government. These jobs would be determined by the state and local governments. Since this city thrives on creativity and entertainment, I am pushing for these jobs to be included in a jobs guarantee.
Of the Democratic candidates in this race, incumbent Carolyn Maloney calls herself a progressive and is a member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, Peter Harrison seems to lean progressive, and Suraj Patel seems to also hold a lot of the progressive ideals and plans that you represent. How do you differentiate yourself, and what makes you the best candidate in this race?
I would argue against the idea that Suraj Patel and Maloney are progressive or anywhere close to Democratic Socialist. I know Suraj is talking about a Medicare for All “compromise”, which is Medicare for Kids. However, from my perspective, we need to ask ourselves: why are we starting at a compromise? Not everyone has kids. What about senior citizens and adults? Everyone needs to have access to Medicare for All.
With Carolyn Maloney, her acceptance of corporate PAC money is something I strongly disagree with. She voted in favor of the Iraq War and advocated to invade Afghanistan. She opposed the Iran Nuclear Deal. Recently, she voted in favor of the inflated military budget that Trump asked for.
These are things that do not make sense coming from someone who calls themselves a progressive. Maloney played a role in dismantling the Glass Steagall Act, because one of her major political donors of all time is J.P. Morgan Chase Bank. I would expect any representative of New York’s 12th Congressional District to be a huge advocate for Homes Guarantee, and I would expect them to be against gentrification. Instead, she is taking a huge amount of big real estate developer money. Those are not progressive actions.
We have had some pretty direct contact with Suraj Patel’s campaign. At one point, we called for all of the candidates in this race to pledge to not challenge each other’s petition signatures while we are all managing the Coronavirus outbreak. Patel’s campaign did not sign on. In fact, despite multiple attempts at contact, we received complete silence. We do not understand why they chose not to respond, as they did not even challenge any signatures.
I do not believe Suraj Patel has the best interest of the community, and I do not support Carolyn Maloney’s voting record and funding methods.
As for what makes me different, I am the only candidate in the race who does not live in Manhattan, the only woman challenging Maloney, and the only candidate with an artistic background, and the only true progressive. I have worked for the banks that are huge employers in my district, and I understand what it is like to be their employee. I have seen with my own eyes how Trump’s hand-outs do not trickle-down to the average New Yorker. I have seen how they do not stop any layoffs or relocations in our city. These are some of the main reasons that I became a Democratic Socialist.
With everything we’ve discussed, what’s your self-care look like as a person running for office, and why is this important for you to maintain in your routine?
That’s a great question. I have a life coach that I meet with once a week. We do check-ins on ways to manage my stress levels. This training and therapy have been a huge part of my routine and mental health; especially since I have been diagnosed with Anxiety Disorder.
I start each morning with yoga, especially now that we are all isolated. I can just do this on my yoga mat in my living room. This is just a way I make sure to make time for myself. I also eat healthy. I’m a vegetarian and get a lot of enjoyment cooking food for myself.
Is there anything else you would like to mention?
I just released a video on a question I get asked a lot which is, “How are we going to pay for these plans?”
This is a significant issue we have heard about Medicare for All, the Green New Deal, abolishing student debt, and other policies that seem like they are going to cost a lot of money. However, funding should not be our main concern.
How we pay for things at the federal level is through Congressional appropriations. We have done this with issues like war and corporate handouts that end in pay raises, stock buybacks, and bonuses for CEOs, yet nobody asks how this is paid for. Yet, when it comes to things like Medicare for All, COVID-19 relief, and the Green New Deal, these questions constantly come up. The answer is that we will pay for them in the same way we have paid for war and corporate handouts.
Spending is not a scary or bad thing at all, especially when we are spending for the people. The only thing the federal deficit means is that there is a surplus in the private economy. At this point in time it is so important for people not to be scared about spending, because the more the federal government clutches its purse, the more this crisis is going to affect us.
We need to focus on the working class people first. After that, we can talk about what we are going to do with these mega corporations. We have the money and ability to efficiently give funds towards this crisis and the people, and that does not involve individuals going back to work in person further spreading this virus.
