Jenifer Rajkumar fails to make it to the General Elections

Jenifer Rajkumar
Jenifer Rajkumar
Jenifer Rajkumar

Jenifer Rajkumar, a Democrat running in the state’s 65th Assembly District, candidate for the New York State Assembly, has lost the race in the Democratic primaries held on September 13.

Rajkumar second in a six-candidate Democratic race.

She was against an array of strong candidates to fill the seat vacated by the powerful NY State Assembly Speaker, Sheldon Silver. Rajkumar, a longtime resident of the area and a Democratic District Leader for three terms, managed to split some of the voting blocks, to garner a second place finish.

“I am enormously proud of the campaign we ran, and very grateful for the outpouring of support I received from our Desi community everywhere,” Rajkumar told the media. “This was a tough race in a tough district.”

Yuh-Line Niou
Yuh-Line Niou

The winner, Yuh-Line Niou won 2,742 votes, 31.55 percent, and Rajkumar came in 2nd with 1,612 or 18.55 percent of the vote. Ranged behind her were Paul Newell with 1,381 (15.89 percent); Alive Cancel, 1,069 (12.30 percent; Don Lee, 984 votes (11.32 percent); and Gigi Li, 827 votes, 9.51 percent.

This heavily Democratic downtown Manhattan district made up of diverse ethnic communities and a mix of upper and lower income populations, assures a winner of the primary a seat in the state Assembly almost automatically. But just 8,692 Democrats cast votes in a district where registered Democrats number 43,094.

“With all of New York’s powerbrokers supporting other candidates, I still came in a very respectable second place in a six candidate field thanks to votes from throughout Lower Manhattan’s diverse neighborhoods,” Rajkumar said.

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