Brooklyn Lawyer Michael Hiller Launches Congressional Campaign

KENSINGTON, NY —A Brooklyn attorney is joining the race against Rep. Yvette Clarke. Michael Hiller— a politically active lawyer who specializes in development and preservation battles— said at a Monday press conference at the Brooklyn Public Library Cortelyou Branch that he will run in next year's Democratic primary against the 12-year incumbent.

“Today, as a first-generation American whose family was granted asylum here in 1940, I find it shocking, heartbreaking and unacceptable to see that rather than breaking down walls, the Trump administration and Republicans continue to fight to build walls between us,” said Hiller in a press release.

“We must come together to fight against the lawless Trump administration, Republicans, who rail against common-sense solutions and those in our own party, who should be held accountable for their inaction."

He added, "I believe our elected officials should be working night and day to both write and pass laws that improve the lives of the people they represent, instead of lining their pockets with money from special interest groups, who hope to control an entire separate, but equal, branch of government."

In his campaign launch video released Sunday, Hiller, a social justice advocate for more than 25 years, said he would fight to pass stricter gun-safety laws and rampant development.

Hiller pointed to his involvement in the legal battle over the Underground Railroad site Hopper Gibbons House in Chelsea as proof he could take on developers and win.

"Developers were going to destroy the Hopper Gibbons House," he said. "The developer said it was a done deal, but we worked together and we stopped it."

Hiller has also pledged not to take any corporate or PAC money and called on Clarke to do the same.

Hiller is not the only candidate to join the 2020 race to unseat Clarke, who represents New York's 9th Congressional District. (The heavily Democratic district includes Crown Heights, Flatbush, Brownsville, Midwood, Sheepshead Bay, Kensington and other adjacent neighborhoods).

Adem Bunkeddeko, who narrowly lost his 2018 bid against the incumbent, will try again in 2020, the New York Times first reported in July.