Tiffany Cabán Launches Astoria Council Bid, 1 Year After DA Race

ASTORIA, QUEENS — Public defender Tiffany Cabán, who came dozens of votes away from winning last year's competitive Queens district attorney race, launched her campaign Thursday to represent Astoria on the New York City Council.

Standing at the Astoria restaurant where she conceded the district attorney race to former Queens Borough President Melinda Katz 13 months earlier, Cabán outlined a platform that she said would take a "people-centric" approach to ease the devastation wrought by the coronavirus pandemic.

“Who we elect to serve in our City Council is a matter of life and death," Cabán said. "We need a wave of bold, progressive — and, better yet, socialist — leaders."

Criticizing what she called the "bloated police budget" that passed the City Council earlier this year, allocating billions of dollars to the NYPD, Cabán pledged to defund the police department and cut down on mass incarceration and invest those funds in affordable housing, sustainability measures and social services.

Cabán grew up in Richmond Hill and lives in Astoria, a neighborhood where she "always felt like myself," she said at the campaign launch. Before running for Queens district attorney, she worked with the Legal Aid Society and New York County Defender Services.

She joined the Working Families Party as an organizer following her loss to Katz, who had the backing of the Queens County Democratic Party in the six-person race to replace the late Queens District Attorney Richard Brown.

Cabán joins a crowded field in the race for the District 22 City Council seat, which Costa Constantinides will vacate next year when he is term-limited.

One candidate, Queens organizer Jesse Cerotti, dropped out of the race to endorse Cabán.