State Assembly Member - District 38
David Orkin
An immigrant workers' rights attorney and union organizer from Ridgewood who previously worked at Make the Road New York, where coworkers elected him to the bargaining committee of UAW Local 2320.
Where they stand
Housing costs, tenants and homeowners
Wants a Social Housing Development Authority to build permanently affordable, union-built housing, full funding for NYCHA and an expanded Housing Access Voucher Program. Also backs stronger Good Cause Eviction protections statewide, a right to counsel for tenants in housing court and tenants' first right to buy their buildings.
Transit service and MTA spending
Wants the Fix the MTA package to freeze fares and expand the free bus pilot, and backs building the QueensLink and restoring the abandoned Woodhaven Junction LIRR station. Also wants LIRR fares within the city lowered to the standard subway fare, with free transfers.
Issues David is raising
Taxes on high earners and public services
Supports expanding taxes on the richest New Yorkers to fund public services, and wants to pass the Universal Child Care Act and a New Deal for CUNY to restore tuition-free public higher education.
Immigration enforcement
Calls for abolishing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and supports the New York for All Act to prohibit state and local cooperation with ICE.
Wages and workers' rights
Wants the EmPIRE Worker Protection Act so workers and unions can recover unpaid wages directly from employers, a $30 minimum wage by 2030, and reforms to Tier 6 public pension benefits.
Health coverage
Supports the New York Health Act to create universal health care statewide, Coverage for All to provide health coverage regardless of immigration status, and repealing the Global Medicaid Cap.
Utility bills and energy
Wants to freeze electric and gas rates, ban utility shutoffs in summer and expand blackout reimbursements, and to pass the NY HEAT Act to end subsidies for fossil fuel expansion. Also wants the state to take over ConEd as a public utility, and backs a moratorium on new data centers.
Background
Based in Ridgewood
He won the June 23, 2026 Democratic primary over incumbent Jenifer Rajkumar with 58.8% of the vote and is also on the Working Families Party line.
- Immigrant workers' rights attorney; previously worked at Make the Road New York
- Elected by coworkers at Make the Road New York to the bargaining committee of UAW Local 2320
- Describes himself as a union organizer and a democratic socialist; has been affiliated with the Democratic Socialists of America
- Bachelor's degree, Vassar College, 2013
- Law degree, CUNY School of Law, 2022
- Worked in a migrant shelter in Ixtepec, Oaxaca, Mexico, and became involved with Mariposas Sin Fronteras, an Arizona-based organization, while organizing in the U.S.–Mexico borderlands
- Established a Jewish Voice for Peace chapter in Tucson, Arizona, in 2014
- Son of a Mexican immigrant; fluent in Spanish; describes himself as an out queer man
- Won the June 23, 2026 Democratic primary for Assembly District 38 with 58.8% of the vote (3,722 votes), defeating incumbent Jenifer Rajkumar
Support
Bernie Sanders
U.S. Senator from Vermont
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
U.S. Representative
Cynthia Nixon
Actor and activist
Jumaane Williams
New York City Public Advocate
Kristen Gonzalez
New York State Senator
Money
$152K
raised
Top donors: Michael Lehman, Tom Preston-Werner, Doctors Council SEIU COPE
Others running for State Assembly Member - District 38