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Community organizer and small business owner Françoise Olivas today announced her candidacy for New York State Senate in District 17. The newly formed district stretches across portions of both Queens and Brooklyn, including Long Island City, Hunters Point, Greenpoint, Sunnyside, Blissville, Maspeth, Ridgewood, Fresh Pond, Glendale, Woodhaven, Forest Park, and Richmond Hill.
While the primary election will be on June 28, 2022, mail-in ballots can be requested through June 13, and early voting begins on June 18.
Born in El Paso, Texas, and raised in Washington, D.C., Olivas learned early the value of public service. “One of my first memories is watching my mother wade across the Rio Grande into Juarez to provide diapers and formula to women in need,” said Olivas. “I’m running to bring that same sense of purpose to the New York State Senate and to provide an example to my own daughter.”
Olivas is a long-time activist on essential issues facing Greenpoint and the surrounding communities, the owner of a lifestyle brand of sustainable fashion, an artist, and an avid environmentalist. She serves as the vice president for community outreach for the Ruth Bader Ginsburg Democratic Club and a judicial delegate for the Brooklyn Democratic Committee.
In the aftermath of 9/11, Olivas volunteered with the Red Cross next to The Pit at Ground Zero. When Superstorm Sandy devastated the Rockaways, she was on-site working clean-up. As each ravaging wave of the pandemic tore through our city, Olivas has been on the frontlines with her community.
Key issues for Olivas include:
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Passing Universal Child Care.
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Preventing seniors from being priced out of housing, food, healthcare, and basic needs.
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Passing the New York Health Act.
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Investing in education so that every student has access to the internet, to a computer, to basic learning resources, and educators are paid a living wage.
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Supporting small businesses by creating local manufacturing, while focusing on sustainability and creating green jobs.
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Protecting our environment by cleaning up injustices that continue to harm our air, our waterways, our children, and our future.
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Re-envisioning housing so that homeownership doesn’t seem so impossible.
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Re-building transportation infrastructure to keep our systems running and create vital connections between the booming boroughs of Queens and Brooklyn.
Olivas will be embarking on a listening tour of the two-borough corridor that makes up the new State Senate District 17. Embracing fully her campaign slogan, “Olivas for the People,” she plans to visit every neighborhood and hear from real New Yorkers on the issues that matter to them most.
Voters can learn more about Olivas’ plans for New York at her website, www.olivasforny.com.
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