Public Defender Launches Campaign For NY-7

BROOKLYN, NY — Public defender Vichal Kumar announced his campaign for New York’s 7th Congressional District during a kickoff event in Bushwick.

Supporters gathered at Kings County Brewers Collective for the launch event, where Kumar outlined his campaign priorities, including immigrant protections, economic opportunity and institutional accountability.

“This campaign is about more than winning a seat — it’s about restoring confidence that government can work for working people,” Kumar told supporters. “We need bold ideas, and we need leaders who understand how to implement them.”

Kumar, a public defender and the son of working-class immigrants, has spent more than two decades representing immigrants, tenants and low-income New Yorkers.

“In our communities, ICE is tearing apart families with impunity and democratic norms are being undermined in plain sight,” Kumar said. “This moment calls for more than rhetoric.”

Kumar previously served as president of the South Asian Bar Association, where he led a national network of South Asian legal professionals.

His campaign said it will organize across Brooklyn and Queens as the race for New York’s 7th Congressional District develops.