What Harlemites should know about the Assembly District 70 race between Jordan Wright and Conrad Blackburn

A few feet separated Assemblymember Jordan J.G. Wright from challenger Conrad Blackburn as they staffed tables outside an early voting site on 134th Street this week.

- TANDY LAU

Those sun-baked battlelines mark a key showdown for a near-guaranteed seat in Harlem's deep-blue Assembly District 70 on Tuesday, June 23.

Wright comes from his freshman term as Manhattan's youngest elected official, with ambitions in progress to build a political legacy independent from his father's — ironically, just as his dad Keith Wright did. Blackburn, a union organizer and career public defender, remains hard to overlook as part of the official Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) effort to ride the momentum built by member Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s landmark victory last year.

This aspirant new blue wave faces a red scare in Harlem, however. During an April rally against Blackburn (and, to an extent, Mamdani), former Assemblymember Inez Dickens, who held the seat before Wright, raised concerns about a DSA takeover. “[A] Democratic Socialist is not a Democrat,” she told the AmNews. “We stand here as Democrats.”

On paper, both candidates are young Black men in their 30s running on a policy platform prioritizing housing, childcare, and LGBTQ+ rights who openly profess their love for all things Harlem and for Black people. They also speak for themselves, despite political fixation on Mamdani and Keith Wright's influence. The younger Wright points to his existing experience and longstanding neighborhood ties, while Blackburn stands on his refusal to take outside interest money and willingness to take on the wealthy 1%. They both feel good heading into the polls.

“It's been the honor of my life to serve in the NYS Assembly in my first term,” said Wright. “I was able to get a number of cool bills passed; things that I think would be impactful for the community — for the youth all the way up to our seniors. It’s really been a pleasure.”