A WSR Conversation With Candidate Nina Schwalbe in the Race to Represent the UWS in Congress

By Gus Saltonstall

The most common word used to describe the candidate field in the race to succeed longtime Democratic Rep. Jerrold Nadler in New York’s 12th Congressional District is “crowded.”

For good reason, too.

There are currently 12 Democratic candidates in the running to represent the district that includes the Upper West Side and Upper East Side. There are also six Republican candidates and three Independents. In the lead-up to the primary for the race on June 23, West Side Rag will profile as many of these candidates as we can.

Our first interview is with Nina Schwalbe, who is a first-time candidate for political office, a public health expert, and an Upper West Sider.

Schwalbe is the president and founder of the global think tank Spark Street Advisors and a senior scholar at Georgetown University’s Center for Global Health Policy & Politics. In recent years, she led a $7 billion program under the Biden Administration that distributed 500 million COVID-19 vaccines around the world.

The Rag interviewed Schwalbe this week about the race, her background, and her positions on housing, immigration, safety, and other issues.

The interview has been edited lightly for clarity.

WSR: Hi Nina, let’s start here. This is your first time running for political office, why was this the right moment and right race to do so?

Schwalbe: There’s no time to waste in changing what’s happening in Washington D.C. I’m a public health expert and advocate, and on Day 1, this current administration destroyed public health, both at home and abroad. Nobody in Congress was standing up for it. We don’t have any congressional expertise in public health, so, I thought I could sit around and complain, or I could run.

I’ve run a large federal program. The COVID-19 Biden Administration program, which was a $7 billion program that distributed 500 million vaccines around the world. It was a program where we worked closely with Congress, the White House, and the National Security Council. My whole life I’ve worked with the government, so I’ve got a good sense on how it works.

Along with the public health expertise, I’ve spent a lot of my career working in foreign policy and overseas, so those are two fields that I thought we were failing at, and I thought I could lend some elbow grease.

WSR: Could you speak a little more about how your background in public health sets you up to succeed in Congress?

Schwalbe: Public health is a basic function of government. Keeping us safe. Keeping us healthy. It’s a major driver of our economy. The fact that we have no Democrats in Congress with that expertise is shocking because they’re the ones who review and approve budgets for the public health system. We can’t be healthy as a democracy unless we’re healthy as a people. When public health is working, nobody notices, but when it’s not working, everybody notices. It’s one of the backbone functions that government provides.

WSR: And then, what would you say to a voter who might be wary of your lack of experience in political office?

Schwalbe: I don’t know when in this country we got to the place where career politics was a career. The fact that we have people running who have been in Albany, or who have been in city government is great, but I don’t know if that prepares you to discuss Iran, Iraq, Sudan, Somalia, pandemic treaties, or all the other things that Congress decides on.

The other thing I would say to that is that I think that’s a question women get and that men don’t. I mean look at our current president. Men don’t seem to be asked that question in the same way that women do.

WSR: How would you look to balance the work that you have in Washington D.C. with making sure that you still show up in the NY-12 District to help residents with more local issues?

Schwalbe: One of the things I’m obsessed with is transparency and accountability. On the local level, I’m surprised that our current representative has a constituent office that is not actually in the current district. [Rep. Jerrold Nadler’s office is at 201 Varick Street, which was within his former district before the congressional district maps were redrawn in 2022]. We should have at least three offices in the district and we should have mobile offices, so we can reach people where they are.

The other thing we need is accountability. When you write a complaint or go into your local congressmember’s office, that should be logged in a public place and I should have accountability, and will have accountability, on whether or not your issue is resolved, how it is resolved, and the time it took to resolve it. That log will also serve as a public resource for other people that have questions. I want to move resources from Washington D.C. to the district for better and more accessible constituency services, and a stronger recording system.

Schwalbe cross-country skied to West Side Rag’s offices on Monday for the candidate interview.

WSR: If elected, you would be put side to side with the Trump Administration. What would your mindset be in terms of interacting with the current president’s team and office?

Schwalbe: He’s a bad man. He’s destroyed our public health policy. We have to impeach RFK [Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.]. And we have to hold Trump accountable. On Day 1, I’m not going to wear a tie and jacket to get sworn in, instead my T-shirt will say, “Impeach RFK.”

We have to hold Trump accountable for his illegal activities. First and foremost, his administration not spending the funding that’s been allocated to him by Congress. He plays an amazingly clever whac-a-mole strategy where you chase after this, you chase after that, and it makes it so there’s so much that he’s done that’s goes unnoticed. One of those things is withdrawing from parts of the United Nations, but he’s not allowed to do that, and someone in Congress has to sue him for it. So many of the organizations that I work with have money allocated and appropriated by Congress but they’re not getting the check.

WSR: Do you have a first bill you would look to sponsor?

Schwalbe: What I would start by doing is not introduce my own bill, but to dig down and look at all of the bills that are already put forward. There already is an impeach RFK bill, for example. There are good bills on the table, and I would start by supporting them and looking to build coalitions. One of them is related to primary healthcare. One of the ways we keep people out of the hospital and drive up affordability is by lowering the cost of healthcare. There are two great bills in Congress already looking to do that.

One is to expand pricing negotiation with pharmaceutical companies. To expand the Inflation Reduction Act. To expand the number of drugs covered by insurance. Also, to put conditionalities. The American people pay about $50 billion a year to invest in drug development, yet we pay the highest rates in the world for those drugs when they come out. There is legislation proposed already to put conditionalities on that. So, if the drugs are developed, made and paid for by the American people, we shouldn’t then pay the top prices. All to say, there is a lot of good pending legislation in there already, and we’ve got to pump it up.

WSR: Immigration continues to be a major talking point politically throughout the country. What would you do on the immigration front if elected to Congress?

Schwalbe: First and foremost: Abolish ICE. I’ve worked in government, at nonprofits, and the United Nations, and in all those places, when you have a division that’s not working, you have to close it. That’s normal practice. Dysfunctional divisions get closed. The Department of Homeland Security has way too much money, and that’s being directly taken away from programs that affect us here. Everything from transit projects, to SNAP, to Medicaid and Medicare.

On immigration we need better pathways to immigration. We need enough judges, social services, and we need to speed up the pathway, so people are not lost in a bureaucratic morass. There’s a lot we can do to make it a more humane process, more transparent, and more fair.

WSR: At the city level, housing and the price of housing continues to be a central topic. How would you look to improve the housing situation in the district?

Schwalbe: Housing is a public good. It’s not a market commodity, and we have to treat it in that mindset. We have NYCHA funding, we have Section 8 and Section 9 funding that we are not accessing because the federal government is not releasing it. We need these programs, which Congress appropriated, to be fully funded. And then we need that citizen accountability and scorecard system that the residents of that housing are getting value for that money and those services. The other part in need of urgent action is the health concerns within public housing. There’s no reason that people who live in public housing should have higher rates of asthma than the rest of the city. These are documented complaints that need to be addressed.

WSR: “Safety” is also listed on your website as a central tenet of your campaign. What does safety mean to you as someone running for Congress?

Schwalbe: Well first, I’m going to talk about E-bikes, which is my latest obsession. On my way to a Democratic West Side forum the other night, I got hit by one. I got clocked. We need to regulate those things as Class 2 or Class 3 motor vehicles. They’re currently classified under consumer protections and that’s not where they should be.

What I mean by safety more broadly is that safety is part of health. It means knowing you’ve not going to be picked up by ICE. It means mental health. It means knowing that you’re going to get to work on time and you’re not going to lose your job, and that means faster subways. It means that if you’re without a home, you’ve got a place to go. It means that if you’re using drugs, you can get clean needles. That’s what I mean by safety.

WSR: You currently live on the Upper West Side. How long have you lived in the neighborhood over the course of your life?

Schwalbe: Around 20 years.

WSR: And any favorite local spots?

Schwalbe: I’m still mourning H&H. I have a deep, deep mourning for the loss of H&H. My favorite thing to do in New York is just walk up and down Broadway. I love it all. I love the park. I love Sheep’s Meadow. I’ve always loved running around the Central Park Reservoir. So much of the neighborhood has changed since I grew up. The magic of walking down any side street with trees and brownstones. I love the Upper West Side. The people on the Upper West Side are different. They’ll tell you your business. And I like that.

WSR: To end with. It’s almost a running joke in terms of the number of Democratic candidates in the NY-12 race. How would you say you stand out from the large field?

Schwalbe: I’m not a politician. But neither are some of the other candidates. I’ve lived my life delivering services funded by the government for people. That’s been my lifework. Time is now to get those people who know how to get stuff done into Congress. To make sure our dollars get stuff done. It’s about making sure the government delivers the services that we need. I’ve run billion dollar programs. I’ve delivered millions of vaccines around the world.

This district doesn’t need to do the whole, “We just need to beat MAGA.” We are one of the most educated and one of the wealthiest districts in the United States of America and I don’t think we need to feel shame about that. We don’t need to put forward another candidate who is middle of the road. We can put forward a candidate who is a progressive Democrat that can change the way Washington works.

And let me add, the crowded race is a good thing. Your candidate is not being chosen for you. You can learn about more than 10 different candidates who are very different, share some similarities, and choose the person who you think will be your best representative in Congress. This is about having someone who represents us in Congress. Let’s take that liberty and vote for that person who we think will best do this job.

WSR: And if someone asked why that candidate is you?

Schwalbe: I am a public health expert who has delivered programs around the world to make it more affordable and more equitable. I get stuff done. I have no political ties. I’m not beholden to anyone. And I’m going to get stuff done for the Upper West Side and District 12.

You can learn more about Schwalbe’s campaign — HERE.

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