Elizabeth Holtzman has heard skeptics, skeptics and New Yorkers mildly surprised that she is still alive, let alone challenged to run for Congress at the age of 80, half a century after she became one of the youngest women ever to serve there.
Chris Coffey, a Democratic political strategist, quipped: “The 1980s wanted his candidate back, recalling his first reaction when he heard the news of the former congresswoman, feminist. and New York City officials initiated a bid back.
With all of that in mind, Holtzman, a Democrat, says she’s not only happy among the living, but ready to prove she’s still as tenacious as she was when she left electoral politics three decades ago.
So, one recent July evening, she stepped into a green kayak and paddled somewhere between Brooklyn and Manhattan, directing a reporter toward the Statue of Liberty, the freeway. The ruined Brooklyn-Queens and a whole life of fighting she regrets is urgently returning.
‘I’m really angry,’ Ms Holtzman, a kayak enthusiast, said on the arid land, explaining how the predicted leak Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade . case pushed her out of her long political retirement and into an inevitable campaign for New York’s newly reconfigured 10th District.
“I am angry with the result, but so-called reasoning is even scarier because it makes women second-class citizens, bound by the thinking of the misogynists of the century. 17, 18 and 19,” she said. “So I decided to run.”
The August 23 Democratic primaries for a rare open seat in the heart of liberal New York City drew there is no shortage of candidates turning heads, including an incumbent congressman from Westchester County; an architect of Donald J. Trump’s impeachment; a protester in Tiananmen Square; and rising stars in their thirties and up until recently, a former mayor of New York City.
But the most surprising turning point of the race may be the re-emergence of Ms. Holtzman, who, in a summer of anxiety for Democrats, is asking voters to set aside. pressing concern about the aging of leadership in Washington and brought a first-rate boxer back into the arena, the first to make her name in the Nixon era.
If she bothers, the youngest ever female candidate elected to Congress will set another record – as the oldest non-incumbent in the long history of the House of Representatives (overtakes James B. Bowler of Illinoisa former professional cyclist elected in 1953 at the age of 78).
That ability has puzzled longtime admirers, old foes and a whole generation of voters who have rarely heard of her at least a little, especially in the summer when questions about her age President Biden (79 years old) is in place. front page news and Senator Dianne Feinstein showed the dangers of taxpayer-funded old age.
Her opponents make the argument more broadly: With all of her experience and clear mental acumen, Ms. Holtzman is simply lost in the face of the challenges New Yorkers are facing when trying to rise to the city of today in a city that is increasingly unable to pay. And if she wins, they grumble, she will block an important stepping stone to a new generation of New York leaders.
“The problems that need to be addressed in this country will benefit from the voices,” said Carlina Rivera, 38, a City Council member from Manhattan who is widely seen as the front-runner in the race. say have lived and experienced them.
She added: “For many people in their 40s or younger, they experience a sense of security rather than a sense of security in their work, entitlements, home and education. “I fit that category.”
Mrs. Holtzman uses the same logic, just the opposite.
It was her experiences – working in the Civil Rights South, fighting for abortion rights in the 1970s and challenging a Republican president who was undermining democratic norms (Richard M. Nixon) – along with a sense of country, she said, convinced her to re-enter electoral politics. If not, she’ll most likely spend her summer weekends kayaking her beloved Peconic River on Long Island instead of circling the city to crowded candidate forums and sailing with the reporter.
“I’m not one to sit on the sidelines,” she said in an interview at a cafe near Boerum Hill, Brooklyn, her home after a boating outing. “I’ve been on the right, I’ve taken on the presidents, and I can go against them.”
Ms. Holtzman knows her campaign is a long way off, but she’s been here before. At the age of 31, she became the youngest woman ever elected to Congress in 1972, decades ago Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez claimed the title, by beat a 50-year incumbent Brooklyn, Emanuel Celler and the Democratic Party machine. She was the first (and only) woman to serve as District Attorney in Brooklyn and like New York City Compiler.
A legal thinker with an extraordinary work ethic, Ms. Holtzman is hardly an average protester. As a freshman in the House of Representatives, she fought Nixon before the Supreme Court over war powers and later used her perch to help track down and deport Nazi war criminals. from the United States and fought for the Equal Rights Amendment. Later, as district attorney, she pushed the courts to limit the use of mandatory trials to keep African Americans from juries because of the color of their skin.
There are also bitter disappointments. She hit her percentage when she became New York’s first female senator in 1980, suffered a crushing defeat in a Senate primary in 1992 and then, a year later, was defeated. overthrow after a single term as the controller of the scene a banking scandal that undercut her moral record.
In the interview, Ms. Holtzman likened questions about her age to arguments that a woman was unfit to be a district attorney and made a difference between her and Celler, who decades earlier she described as tired and out of touch.
“Obviously there are some stereotypes about people my age. Can they do the job? ” she speaks. “I feel like I have something unique to offer. And I’m not tired. That’s the whole problem. “
Not surprisingly, many of Holtzman’s defenders are older. But some of them are unexpected.
“The decline of Biden has made it more difficult for older people,” said Alfonse M. D’Amato, 84, a former Republican senator. beat Mrs. Holtzman in 1980. “But that doesn’t mean every older person can’t do the job. Maybe the experience life has given them makes them capable of that or more.”
Holtzman’s allies argue that her boundary-pushing style, which has helped win over a generation of admirers (many of whom still vote), has the potential to offset age concerns. her high among young, progressive voters, hungry for authenticity.
It also makes Ms Holtzman an attractive safe haven for some older voters, who say now is not the time for a promising but less seasoned politician. more experienced, like Ms. Rivera or Representative Yuh-Line Niou, 39.
Eileen Clancy, a Manhattan activist, recalls watching Holtzman as a child take part in the House Judiciary Committee’s Watergate hearing, saying: “She was a dream candidate for me.
“I am probably much more in line with the Yuh-Line policies,” Ms. Clancy said. “But I have to say, right now the country is in turmoil and the questions are, I think Holtzman has a unique ability. She can add a force to Congress, and she has a pillar and nothing to lose. “
With dozens of candidates in the race and highly abbreviated running times, any winning candidate probably only needs a fraction of the vote. One recent poll pair among the likely primary voters from progressive groups showed that Ms. Holtzman in in the middle of the packneck and neck with Representative Mondaire Jones and Representative Jo Anne Simon.
But the challenge for Ms. Holtzman may be reaching out and finding potential supporters who may not realize she is running.
Although she remains active in private law and federal commissions and has written books, her political network has long since thinned: Gloria Steinem, a feminist contemporary, is her only recognizable supporter. Her campaign Instagram account (run by hired consultants) has so far only 25 followers – dozens more than her Facebook page.
And when other candidates showed up with colorful signs and volunteers marching in Brooklyn’s Pride parade in June, Miss Holtzman walking alone with very little indicating that she is running for anything.
Her fundraising? Ms. Holtzman said shortly before her campaign reportedly raised $122,000, one-tenth of that raised by Daniel Goldman, another Democrat in the race. “Getting it up and running like a lubricated machine, it hasn’t happened yet.”
So far, Ms. Holtzman has sent out a glossy postcard that introduces her profile and “guts” – but can also cater to questions about her age. “Sometimes a picture is worth 1,000 words,” she said, describing a photo of her with Ruth Bader Ginsburg, a liberal Supreme Court justice who has died aged 87.
Bill Knapp, a veteran political ad producer who started working for Ms Holtzman in 1980 and is working on this year’s race, admitted the race was “no layout”, but argued that Mrs. Holtzman has a lane, especially in the shadow of the abortion decision.
“There are plenty of reasons to be skeptical,” he said. “But when you measure people and time, this is possible.”
