Liuba Grechen Shirley, Rep. Congress, district 2

Liuba Grechen Shirley

Democratic

BACKGROUND: Grechen Shirley, 37, of Amityville, is running on the Democrat party ballot line and is also running on the Women's Equality and Working Families party lines. She has worked for nonprofits in a career that has focused on issues including economic development and alleviation of poverty. She also founded the grassroots group New York’s 2nd District Democrats. Grechen Shirley served as a United Nations Women’s Empower Women Global Champion and launched the #IAmParent campaign for parental leave with UN Women. She earned a bachelor’s degree from New York University in politics and Russian. She has an MBA from NYU’s Stern School of Business, where she specialized in management, economics and social innovation. Grechen Shirley is married with two children.

ISSUES: Grechen Shirley said a key reason she is running for Congress is that “there are too many people who are struggling and not enough working Americans in Congress who understand these issues because they live them every day.” She supports Medicare for All. She also criticized last year’s federal tax overhaul, saying, “Half of Long Islanders will see our taxes increase this year.” Noting that her grandparents came to the United States as political refugees, she criticized conditions for immigrants and working Long Islanders. “For too many people now, we have rising home prices, and underfunded public schools, and discriminatory immigration laws, and the decks are stacked against working Americans,” she said. Grechen Shirley supports universal pre-K and opposes attempts to siphon money from public schools. She supports extending Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for people from designated countries, including many of those who live in her district.

By Scott Eidler

scott.eidler@newsday.com@ScottEidler

Scott Eidler is a deputy editor for the towns department at Newsday. Scott has worked at Newsday since 2012 and previously covered municipal government and education.