Midterm Elections/Democrat Yi Yabo was elected as State Representative in Manhattan’s 65th District

Endorsed by the New York City Democratic Socialist Alliance (NYC-DSA)democratic party Candidate Ilapa Saritupac defeated Republican opponent Helen Qiu in the general election on the 3rd and was electedManhattan Downtown 65th District StateRepresentative He replaces Grace Lee, who has moved to the state Senate.

As a political ally of Mayor Zohran Mamdani, Yi Yabo’s victory continues the momentum of DSA’s recent expansion into New York politics. However, this democratic socialist’s visibility among traditional overseas Chinese communities in Chinatown is still relatively limited, and his stances on issues such as public safety, imprisonment, and police reform also differ significantly from those of some Chinatown residents.

The unofficial voting results announced by the Municipal Election Commission at 9:20 pm on the 3rd showed that after 64.08% of scanner returns, Yi Yabo received 15,055 votes and a vote rate of 74.67%, far ahead of his Republican opponent Qiu Hailan’s 5,046 votes and 25.03%. There was a difference of 10.09 votes between the two.

The 65th District includes Chinatown, the Lower East Side, the Two Bridges community, and the Financial District. Yi Yabo won the Democratic nomination by 4,417 votes in the six-person Democratic primary on June 23, defeating the other five candidates. He later announced on social media that “for the first time in 100 years” he would “bring socialism back to the Lower East Side.”

Yi Yabo’s political rise is related to the Mandani and DSA wave. She served as Mandani’s campaign field coordinator in Downtown and was endorsed by Mandani, U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders, and several unions. He had clearly stated in a previous interview that he did not expect this political force to continue growing even a year after Mandani’s victory.

Yi Yabo is a descendant of Peruvian immigrants and currently works at the Lower East Side housing organization “Cooper Square Committee” to help tenants protect their rights. He has previously said that he has lived in Lower Manhattan for about 14 years, 12 of which he has lived in a building on the Bowery with many Chinese residents.

Despite winning the primaries, Yi Yabo’s popularity in Chinatown’s traditional overseas Chinese community is still being questioned. In August this year, his primary rival, District B leader of the Democratic Party’s 65th District, Jackie Wong, arranged for him to visit the China office. At the time, some participants reported that many Chinatown residents did not know him beforehand and questioned his absence from some candidate forums. Yi Yabo countered that he had knocked on doors in Chinatown to solicit votes and had received support from tenant organizations such as the Chinatown Tenants Association (CAAAV). His voter base in Chinatown cannot be dismissed just because some people do not know him.

Facing Chinatown’s relatively conservative political stance, Yi Yabo acknowledged at the time that some elderly voters might not have voted for him, but he had received the support of many young voters. He stressed, “Just because I’m a DSA, doesn’t mean I’ll only walk one path.” He expressed a willingness to listen to diverse opinions and promised to hire Chinese-speaking staff and establish a constituency office in Chinatown or the Lower East Side after taking office.

Public safety and prison policy are areas where the two parties disagree more clearly. Yi Yabo once admitted that when he was young, his stance was more radical and even opposed the police, but now he believes that the police still play an important role in some communities. However, according to his official platform, he still advocates reducing the number of people in prison and shifting some resources from police, prisons, and detention centers to public services such as housing, medical care, and education. He also supports Mandani’s establishment of a “Community Safety Bureau” to allow mental health professionals to handle most mental health crises and reduce police intervention.

Yi Yabo also supports closing Rikers Island and has opposed the construction of Chinatown Jail (BBJ). During a conversation with the China Office, when asked if he was “anti-imprisonment”, he responded in the affirmative; But when asked how serious criminals like murder should be dealt with, he only said that prisoners must face consequences and they should not roam freely on the streets. He did not propose closing Rikers Island or creating specific detention arrangements following opposition to the new prison. He believes that long-term crime reduction must still start with root causes such as housing, mental health and education.

Yi Yabo has also recently had disagreements with Mandani over his stance on police matters. In early October, after federal immigration enforcement officers shot and injured people in the Bronx, DSA criticized the city police’s handling of related demonstrations. Yi Yabo called on social platforms to “abolish ICE, disband the Strategic Response Group (SRG), and replace Tisch” and NYPD Chief Jessica S. Tish was asked to step down. Mandani publicly stated that he had no plans to replace Tichy.

In immigration policy, Yi Yabo advocates the abolition of federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), supports banning state and local law enforcement agencies from cooperating with ICE, and plans to use the district office as a resource center to assist immigrants detained by ICE and their families.

On economic and housing policies, he supports increasing taxes on the wealthy and large corporations, expanding the rent stabilization system, establishing public housing development agencies, and restoring the tuition-free system of the City University of New York (CUNY). Additionally, he supports improving the traffic environment on Canal Road and promoting Mandani’s express and free bus policy.