Our Favorite Progressive Candidates in 2026 - David Orkin, New York State Assembly District 38

Queens and Brooklyn in New York City are the new ground zero for democratic socialism in America. The elections of US Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in 2018 and Zohran Mamdani as New York City Mayor in 2025 have inspired other DSA members to run, and the majority of them are in Brooklyn and Queens.

David Orkin (he/him), a gay millennial immigrant workers’ rights attorney and union organizer, is running as a Democratic Socialist to unseat Assemblymember Jenifer Rajkumar, a close political ally of former NYC mayor Eric Adams. David has dedicated his life to the immigrant rights, and labor solidarity movements, working in migrant shelters in Mexico, in the desert and detention centers of Arizona, with people fighting deportations, and with workers organizing in Queens. He is centering his campaign around affordable rent, healthcare and childcare, and abolishing ICE.

Where are you based?
I’m based in Ridgewood, where I’ve lived since 2019. It’s the heart of working class Queens, and I’m excited to be an advocate for this district in Albany.

What position are you running for?
I’m running for State Assembly in District 38, which includes the neighborhoods of Ridgewood, Glendale, Woodhaven, Richmond Hill, and Ozone Park.

How would you briefly summarize your platform?
Our district is facing serious challenges, like rising rents, unaffordable healthcare and childcare, wage theft, and the terrifying threat of ICE raids. Too many of us are working honest jobs yet struggling to support ourselves and our families.

We need strong leaders in Albany who will actually stand with and for working people. I’m running as a democratic socialist with three key priorities:

1. Taxing the rich. We don’t have the resources we need for childcare, housing, transit, and healthcare, while the ultra-rich continue to accumulate enormous wealth. I’ll work with other socialists and progressives in office to make sure the rich pay their fair share.

2. Strengthening immigrant protections. I’ve seen firsthand how immigration enforcement destroys families and tears communities apart. I’ll work to expand local sanctuary protections and challenge the fascist federal practices targeting our neighbors.

3. Fighting for workers’ rights. Many of the most exploited workers in our district can’t access basic rights and safety on the job. I’ll work to ensure they can organize, win fair wages, and hold bad bosses accountable.

What inspired you to run?
I really consider myself to be a reluctant politician. I’m suspicious of anyone who has political ambitions for their own sake.

For many years, I worked at Make the Road New York, which is the city’s largest immigrant organizing network. My office was down the street from where I live in Ridgewood, and I got to know the area through the eyes of my neighbors and clients as we worked together to take on bad bosses and predatory landlords. During my time there, it became clear to me that our district doesn’t have the leadership it deserves: I lobbied our sitting Assembly Member to fight for stronger immigrant protections with very little response, despite our district being 50% Latino. So my neighbors and I decided it was time for a change, and that’s how this campaign started.

What change are you hoping to bring to your district and country?
When I was at Make the Road, I served in the workers’ unit, and I was really inspired by the model of connecting people not only to services but also organizing opportunities and education.

Collectivizing our experiences and voices is essential to building the power to change our entire political system. I want to bring working class immigrants into the conversation in our district.

What do you feel are the most important issues right now, why, and how do you plan to tackle them?
Everything comes back to the cost of living, and funding a strong affordability agenda in New York is the most important thing I can do as an elected official, because it will have a ripple effect. Extreme wealth disparity in our country is fueling fascism, which facilitates terror in our communities from ICE — and THOSE communities themselves are already being exploited by precarious labor conditions. We need to start by addressing people’s material needs first, always.

America is extremely divided these days. How would you hope to bridge that divide with your constituents to better unite Americans?
Most Americans, regardless of if or how they vote, share the same struggles: finding decent paying jobs, affording healthcare and housing, and providing a better life for their families. And people can feel how viscerally broken our political system is because these things are getting harder every day.

Most Democrats and Republicans refuse to label the billionaire class as the enemy. And for as long as that is the case, the far right will blame trans people and immigrants for people’s problems. That is what’s fueling hate and division. My hope is that in putting forward an agenda that fights extreme wealth disparity, speaks to people’s needs, and takes on corporate greed, we will bring people of all different backgrounds together.

How do you see your unique identity and background to be an asset to you in office?
My mom is an immigrant from Mexico, and her family fled north to Tijuana when she was very young under some traumatic circumstances before they were able to get legal status in the US. The US-Mexico border has always been really present in my imagination of how immigration works in the US, and going back there as an adult to work really made me realize how needlessly inhumane our immigration system is. My family is also Jewish, and on every side has experienced anti-Semitic violence that led to us living in the Americas. As an LGBTQ person, I have always understood issues of immigration and war to harm my queer family more than anyone. These experiences and perspectives make me very sensitive to people’s needs to move freely, find safety for themselves and their families (chosen and biological), and the harms of war.

What is your motto in life?
The purpose of life is to reduce the suffering of others.

Where can we find out more about you?
Learn more about our campaign at david4queens.com. The election is on June 23rd, and we can use all the help we can get. If you’re in NYC, we’d love it if you’d come out to canvass. And if you’re outside of NYC, sign up to phonebank with us!

Instagram: @david4queens
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