{"id":243867,"date":"2026-05-26T14:19:07","date_gmt":"2026-05-26T14:19:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/243867\/"},"modified":"2026-05-26T14:19:07","modified_gmt":"2026-05-26T14:19:07","slug":"nys-7th-congressional-district-candidate-vichal-kumar-responds-to-pix11-emerson-poll-revealing-primary-voter-indecision-qns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/243867\/","title":{"rendered":"NY\u2019s 7th Congressional District candidate Vichal Kumar responds to PIX11\/Emerson poll revealing primary voter indecision \u2013 QNS"},"content":{"rendered":"

In response to the latest PIX11\/Emerson College\/The Hill poll<\/a> on Thursday, May 21, reportedly showing 43% of NY-7 Democratic voters remain undecided ahead of the June 23rd Democratic primary, congressional contender Vichal Kumar<\/a> noted this demographic could shift the results for a candidate who offers more than standard campaign promises.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith five weeks to go, this race is being decided by the 43% of voters who are still listening. That\u2019s the majority. Voters in NY-7 right now don\u2019t need another politician promising things,\u201d said Kumar. \u201cThey need a builder who\u2019s already done the work. Someone who\u2019s created the institutions, scaled the solutions, and shown up at kitchen tables when government failed.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been doing that for 20 years. We\u2019re meeting voters where they are, at their doors, at their subway stops, in their faith communities, and at forums like the one we did last night in Sunnyside,\u201d added Kumar. \u201cPolls measure name recognition. Elections measure who shows up. We\u2019re running to earn every vote.\u201d<\/p>\n

The PIX11\/Emerson College\/The Hill poll revealed that the Mayor Zohran Mamdani<\/a> and Democratic Socialists of America<\/a> (DSA)-backed candidate Claire Valdez<\/a> is at 23%, followed by Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso<\/a> at 21%, with Council Member Julie Won<\/a> trailing behind at 13%.<\/p>\n

\"\"The latest PIX11\/Emerson College\/The Hill poll as of Thursday, May 21. Photo via PIX11 News<\/p>\n

Kumar, a public defender, joined the roster of NY-7 district candidates<\/a> in March \u2014 an area that covers sections of Queens and Brooklyn, including Ridgewood<\/a>, Maspeth<\/a>, Woodhaven<\/a>, Sunnyside<\/a>, Astoria<\/a> and Long Island City<\/a>. Since then, he has participated in a number of candidate forums, including the Ridgewood Democratic Club forum<\/a> on April 26, the Ridgewood Property Owners and Civic Association forum<\/a> on May 7 and the Sunnyside Community Services <\/a>(SCS) forum on May 20.<\/p>\n

The current race for the congressional seat follows U.S. Rep. Nydia Vel\u00e1zquez<\/a>\u2018s decision to retire after 33 years in public service<\/a>.<\/p>\n

According to a press release, Kumar has spent 20 years representing immigrants in detention, renters, and the working class. He recently personally advised a Northwest Bronx father of five who was detained during an ICE crackdown in February and released earlier this month<\/a>. In the Norwood News article, Durga Sreenivasan of Hands Off NYC<\/a> described Kumar as \u201cparticularly helpful,\u201d noting that he was eager to perform pro bono work \u201cwithin 24 hours\u201d after she sought a lawyer on social media platforms.<\/p>\n

During the SCS forum on Wednesday, May 20, Kumar discussed \u201cthe failure of our leaders and government to deliver for seniors, immigrant families, public housing tenants, and working New Yorkers across the district,\u201d as stated in a press release. After the forum, a SCS older adult resident was said to have approached the candidate to share that she was \u201cenergized\u201d by the conversation and to remind him that the district\u2019s older adults \u201cvote and mobilize their neighbors every day.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s exactly the voter this race is about,\u201d noted Kumar. \u201cShe shows up for her community every day. She deserves a representative who\u2019s been doing the same and that\u2019s what I\u2019ve been doing for 20 years. We\u2019re not going anywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Kumar campaign has been building a coalition across NY-7\u2019s South Asian, immigrant, NYCHA, working-class, and faith communities, alongside change voters across the district searching beyond the political establishment, canvassing daily at subway stops and organizing through community institutions prior to the Democratic primary on Tuesday, June 23.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In response to the latest PIX11\/Emerson College\/The Hill poll on Thursday, May 21, reportedly showing 43% of NY-7…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":243868,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[2025,4866,8973,95244,9,24,95245,63,1260,329,122,124,123,95246,95247],"class_list":["post-243867","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-community-news","tag-democratic-primary","tag-election-coverage","tag-latest-poll","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nys-7th-congressional-district","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-politics","tag-pix11","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news","tag-u-s-representative","tag-vichal-kumar"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243867","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=243867"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243867\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/243868"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=243867"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=243867"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=243867"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}