New York Voters Can Send Mamdani a Message: A compelling rival to the radical left is running for a Manhattan seat in the U.S. House.
Promising to be a “champion for common sense,” Wall Street deal lawyer Caroline Shinkle is running for an open U.S. House seat as an unapologetic advocate for economic opportunity and public safety. While New York’s Marxist Mayor Zohran Mamdani demonizes successful people, Ms. Shinkle wants to enable the conditions to create many more of them. “I’d like to reduce the federal income tax on W-2 wages,” says Ms. Shinkle, adding:
I think if you work for a living, that’s behavior we want to encourage. It’s a good thing. It’s honorable. And as you learn in Economics 101… we tax behavior by and large that is bad, you know, excise tax, tobacco, alcohol. So why are we taxing so heavily behavior that is so good when you think about it?
Good question. She diagnoses the current economic challenge facing New York City:
People are getting taxed to death. People are leaving. They’re voting with their feet. Capital markets are efficient. People will move.
Ms. Shinkle is a Republican trying to flip a Manhattan district that has been reliably Democratic for years. The current representative of New York’s 12th Congressional District, Rep. Jerry Nadler, is retiring after more than three decades in Congress. A competitive race to replace him as the Democratic nominee and presumed next member of Congress has attracted voluminous campaign donations from various interest groups.
Meanwhile on the Republican side, given that the young political newcomer has a résumé that includes MIT, Harvard law school and the Federal Reserve, one naturally wonders why Ms. Shinkle has signed up for what looks like service as a sacrificial lamb. Surely she has other options.
“I get that the numbers are not good for a Republican,” says Ms. Shinkle with a chuckle on a recent visit to the Journal’s offices. But she is undeterred. “I think there’s such a huge opportunity to capitalize on this frustration that people are feeling.” She adds that the district includes a lot of Democrats “who don’t call themselves socialists” and elaborates:
These are common sense, hardworking people. They don’t like what’s going on. They’re actually very worried about what’s going on, especially coming out of the mayor’s office.