lllapa Sairitupac preps second run for lower Manhattan Assembly seat

Will the second time be the charm for Illapa Sairitupac? The socialist organizer confirmed to City & State that he plans to run once again for an Assembly seat on the Lower East Side.

Four years ago, Sairitupac ran for Assembly District 65 with endorsements from both the New York City Democratic Socialists of America and New York Working Families Party, only to lose to Assembly Member Grace Lee by 14 points. Now Lee is running for state Senate, hoping to succeed retiring state Sen. Brian Kavanagh, opening up her Assembly seat.

Sairitupac is one of a number of candidates looking to replace Lee in the Assembly. Other Democratic candidates include district leaders Jasmin Sanchez, Jacky Wong and Mariama James, who’s also first vice chair of the Manhattan Democratic Party, and Lilah Mejia, an outreach manager with New York Disaster Interfaith Services. On the Republican side, perennial candidate Helen Qiu has also filed to run.

Sairitupac said that he believes the 2026 field is much weaker than the 2022 field, when he lost to Lee. “Last time, as a first-time candidate, we were going up against someone who had run (in) the previous cycle, and she was really strong,” he said. “And this time, we see ourselves as being kind of the strong, kind of front-runner candidate.”

While DSA doesn’t hold any legislative seats entirely in Manhattan – state Sen. Kristen Gonzalez’s district includes portions of Brooklyn, Queens and Manhattan – this district represents a pick-up opportunity. Mayor Zohran Mamdani won 65% of the vote in the district in the final round of ranked-choice voting in last year’s Democratic primary, to former Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s 35% – making it the most pro-Mamdani Assembly district in Manhattan south of 125th Street. Sairitupac is a very active DSA member and expects to receive the socialist group’s endorsement. Until recently, he played a key role in NYC-DSA’s electoral strategy as co-chair of candidate recruitment – a position he resigned after Lee’s seat opened up and he decided to run for office again.  

Eric Thor, the socialist group’s remaining co-chair of candidate recruitment, said both Sairitupac and Sanchez applied for NYC-DSA’s endorsement and they’ll be heard at a March 4 forum at the Church of the Village.

Like Sairitupac, Sanchez also ran for Assembly four years ago and sought DSA’s endorsement at the time. After the socialist group voted to endorse Sairitupac instead, she distanced herself from DSA and ultimately threw her support behind Lee – a decision that may haunt her as she once again seeks DSA’s support.

Dan Cheng, a former member of NYC-DSA’s Steering Committee who volunteered for Sairitupac’s first Assembly campaign, told City & State he expects DSA members will once again unite around Sairitupac. “With the combination of Illapa's name recognition from last time and the massive momentum of the socialist movement right now, I'm confident we can win in June!” he said.

In addition to DSA, Sairitupac has applied for an endorsement from WFP, which held a candidate forum last Monday. He’s also had conversations with former Assembly Member Yuh-Line Niou, who is running against Lee for Kavanagh’s state Senate seat. Niou did not endorse Sairitupac in 2022 – which upset many DSA members at the time – but Sairitupac said he has since worked closely with her and maintains a friendly relationship with her. Sairitupac currently works as a housing organizer at Cooper Square Committee, where Niou is a board member.

He’s also hoping to score an endorsement from the mayor. Through DSA, Sairitupac also has a relationship with Mamdani, whom he said helped him during his 2022 Assembly campaign. “I remember we had a lot of late night calls with him giving me advice, and him (saying), ‘OK, here's where we are on this, here's we are on this endorsement, how it's looking.’ And he didn't owe me any of that, so he really went out of his way to help me and be like a real guide in 2022,” Sairitupac said, adding that he’s been in touch with the mayor’s team.