Elizabeth Holtzman, who was the youngest woman ever elected to Congress when she won a House seat in 1972 at age 31 and went on to serve as Brooklyn district attorney and New York City comptroller, is joining the crowded field of Democrats seeking to represent a newly drawn congressional district spanning parts of Brooklyn and Manhattan.
Holtzman, who last served in Congress in 1981, said Thursday in an interview with TV station NY1 that she is running because she has “the strong, proven record to take on the right wing, the forces of bigotry and racism, the forces of misogyny.”
Holtzman, 80, had said earlier she was considering a run for New York’s new 10th Congressional District, where other candidates for the August Democratic primary include former New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, U.S. Rep. Mondaire Jones and former federal prosecutor Daniel Goldman.
Holtzman said her priorities in Congress would include women’s rights and gun legislation.
“It took me a long time to decide, but here’s the reason: We live in really dangerous times,” she said, citing the possibility that the Supreme Court will overturn the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that established a right to abortion.
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Holtzman said guns should be monitored with “no assault weapons sold, period, except to the military.”
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In 1974, Holtzman was one of the House Judiciary Committee members who recommended articles of impeachment against Republican President Richard Nixon over the Watergate scandal. Nixon resigned on Aug. 8 of that year.
Holtzman last held elective office in 1993, when she completed one four-year term as city comptroller.
