Redistricting Causes Sen. Felder’s Challenger to Run in District 21

By Yehudit Garmaise

New York’s redistricting has resulted in State Sen. Simcha Felder losing his challenger: Kaegan Mays-Williams to District 21, where, instead, she will likely take on state Sen. Kevin Parker of the 21st District in the Nov. 8 election, according to City and State.

Insiders, however, who say that in politics, "It's not over until it's over," do not rule out Mays-Williams running against Felder.

Mays-Williams, a first-time candidate, who formerly served as an assistant district attorney in Manhattan, had planned to run against Felder, who has represented Boro Park’s 17th District for the past nine years.

The state senator hopeful is an anti-gun activist who currently serves as the counsel for state legislative and policy of Everytown for Gun Safety, her website says. Mays-Williams was known for prosecuting Anna Sorokin, a Russian-born German, who when living in New York City, pretended to be a wealthy German heiress to defraud banks, hotels, and acquaintances of a of $275,000 from 2013 to 2017.

In 2018, Democrat Blake Morris, a progressive candidate, unsuccessfully tried to take on Felder on the basis that he fought against speed cameras in the neighborhood. Morris also criticized Felder for caucusing with Republicans to pass more conservative legislation than Democrats usually support.

Sen. Felder, who will likely run for re-election unchallenged, was elected to the New York City Council in District 44 in 2001, when he first gained popularity among his Jewish constituents.

Most recently Felder, who grew up in Boro Park in an apartment behind the popular shul of his father Rabbi Tzvi Mordechai, "Hersh" Felder, zt"l, has advocated for special education, spoken out against the high property taxes New Yorkers must pay, and the pressing need for licensing, helmets, and safety measures for drivers of bicycles, mopeds, and scooters on the NYC streets, which he has compared to the “wild, wild west.”