New York state’s preelection jockeying has seen a number of legislative seats unexpectedly open up, with cascading effects. Following incumbent state assembly member Grace Lee’s decision to vacate the Lower Manhattan–based Assembly District Sixty-Five to run for State Senate, the New York City chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America (NYC-DSA) tapped Illapa Sairitupac to run.

Formerly a candidate for the seat in 2022 and a recent NYC-DSA Electoral Working Group cochair, Sairitupac works as a housing organizer and has long been involved in the chapter’s ecosocialist organizing. Hoping to build on Zohran Mamdani’s victory in the district last year, and boosted by name recognition from his previous run, Sairitupac believes that this election might be DSA’s chance to finally win a Manhattan-based seat in the state legislature. (State Senator Kristen Gonzalez’s district includes a small slice of Manhattan but primarily covers areas of Queens and Brooklyn.)

Jacobin sat down with Sairitupac to discuss his second run for office, the housing and climate issues facing the district, and how his campaign fits into the Lower East Side’s socialist tradition.