Yuh-Line Niou Chooses the Future

A third party bid never made sense

On Tuesday, Assemblywoman Yuh-Line Niou announced she would not be mounting a third party bid against Dan Goldman in New York’s 10th Congressional District. Since she narrowly lost the August 23rd primary to Goldman, the Levi Strauss heir and former attorney for the first Trump impeachment, there had been growing calls on the left for her to run against. Activists insisted it could be done or at least should be done. Goldman is a Wall Street and real estate-funded Democrat who supports Mayor Eric Adams’ crusade to weaken bail laws in Albany. He is not of the progressive left and never will be.

But Niou understood, in conjunction with the Working Families Party, such a challenge never made sense. WFP leaders did seriously consider it and even commissioned a poll, the results of which were never released. There was probably a good reason for that. Niou could not have won against Goldman. This is nothing against her. A third party candidate can’t beat a candidate on the Democratic line in an overwhelmingly Democratic district. Niou would have been set up for failure. Those invoking the lone time the WFP defeated a Democrat in a general election were being deeply disingenuous or ignorant of their history. In 2003, Letitia James won solely on the WFP line, but she did it with the help of the Democratic establishment against a reviled candidate who happened to hold the Democratic line. James was heavily favored in the City Council race and won a large victory.