Former U.S. diplomat Chuck Park was moved to resign from the State Department after a series of events during the first Trump administration: the Charlottesville white supremacist rally, the travel bans to Muslim-majority countries and the expansion of family separations. The decision was crystallized when he saw a photo of Óscar Alberto Martínez Ramírez, who drowned alongside his 23-month-old daughter in the Rio Grande.
Park is now challenging 13-year incumbent Rep. Grace Meng in New York’s 6th Congressional District as a progressive candidate. He was born in Flushing and is the son of Korean immigrant street vendors, working across politics and community organizing over his career.
Park noted that he doesn’t take it “lightly” that he is running against the first Asian American elected to Congress–one that he canvassed for in the past.
“Unfortunately, I think that is her greatest achievement: that 13 years ago she was elected, or she took office as the first Asian American representative in New York,” Park said. “In the last 13 years, the lives of not just Asian immigrant families, but all of us in Queens, has only gotten harder.”
Park has pledged to refuse AIPAC money and has utilized TikTok and Instagram videos to mobilize voters. He’s running for office, he said, because the American dream is “under attack by Trump, by ICE, by the wasting of our money on war and genocide.”
Epicenter NYC and TBN24 invited several incumbents and challengers in key primary and midterm races across New York City to participate in the Candidate Conversations series. Interviews with Claire Valdez, Jessica Gonzalez-Rojas and others will be scheduled and published ahead of the June 23 primary.
Are you running? Drop us a line at hello@epicenter-nyc.com
