Aisha Mills
Aisha Mills (Democratic Party) ran for election to the U.S. House to represent New York's 18th Congressional District. She lost in the Democratic primary on August 23, 2022.
Mills completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2022. Click here to read the survey answers.
Biography
Aisha Mills earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Maryland in 1999 and a graduate degree from the University of Maryland Robert H. Smith School of Business in 2008.[1]
Elections
2022
See also: New York's 18th Congressional District election, 2022
General election
General election for U.S. House New York District 18
Incumbent Pat Ryan defeated Colin Schmitt in the general election for U.S. House New York District 18 on November 8, 2022.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Pat Ryan (D / Working Families Party) | 50.6 | 135,245 |
 | Colin Schmitt (R / Conservative Party)  | 49.3 | 131,653 | |
| Other/Write-in votes | 0.1 | 155 | ||
| Total votes: 267,053 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
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Democratic primary election
Democratic primary for U.S. House New York District 18
Incumbent Pat Ryan defeated Aisha Mills and Moses Mugulusi in the Democratic primary for U.S. House New York District 18 on August 23, 2022.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Pat Ryan | 83.8 | 30,093 |
 | Aisha Mills | 13.2 | 4,730 | |
 | Moses Mugulusi | 2.8 | 993 | |
| Other/Write-in votes | 0.3 | 108 | ||
| Total votes: 35,924 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
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Withdrawn or disqualified candidates
- Michael Berean (D)
Republican primary election
The Republican primary election was canceled. Colin Schmitt advanced from the Republican primary for U.S. House New York District 18.
Conservative Party primary election
The Conservative Party primary election was canceled. Colin Schmitt advanced from the Conservative Party primary for U.S. House New York District 18.
Working Families Party primary election
The Working Families Party primary election was canceled. Incumbent Pat Ryan advanced from the Working Families Party primary for U.S. House New York District 18.
Campaign themes
2022
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Aisha Mills completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2022. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Mills' responses.
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Aisha Mills has spent more than twenty years advocating for underserved, under-represented and under-resourced communities, and she has fought and won campaigns from the front lines of some of the most consequential movements of our time. She crafted and helped implement federal policy during the Obama Administration as a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, the largest progressive think tank in the country. She won marriage equality in the District of Columbia as President of that campaign in 2009, and she has helped to elect hundreds of people of color, LGBTQ people and women across the United States at the local, state, and federal level as president & CEO of the Victory Fund & Institute and executive director of the Congressional Black Caucus PAC.
Aisha’s advocacy extends beyond the campaign trail to media and academia. A nationally respected voice on social justice and progressive politics, she frequently appears on MSNBC and CNN. She has also published dozens of policy reports and cultural analyses on issues of race, gender and sexuality.- Representation Matters. Politics are deeply personal for me. As a Black lesbian, raised in a working-class family by grandparents who left South Carolina in the 1950s to flee Jim Crow, I saw firsthand the consequential role that government can play in disenfranchising citizens — I choose to use my voice and my platforms to help government empower others.
- Experience Matters. I am the product of people who built this country and fought for its freedom even though they weren’t fully free themselves. As the granddaughter of Navy veterans, I was raised to never back down from fighting for what’s right! That’s how I helped to elect hundreds of people of color, LGBTQ people, and women across the country.
- The people of the New York 18th Congressional District deserve a principled, experienced Representative who knows how to fight and win. I am running because all of us in the Hudson Valley deserve a Representative who still believes that our democracy is worth fighting for.
Our communities are less safe because our voices are being silenced by a national tide of anti-voter laws. Aisha knows that the work ahead is far more than business as usual and she will be our champion in Congress fighting every day to protect our rights and fend off the assaults on our people, especially the most marginalized.
AFFORDABLE HOUSING
Protecting tenants from eviction, providing relief for homeowners facing foreclosure, and building more affordable housing for all.
SMALL BUSINESSES
Expanding access to funding and credit for existing small business owners and entrepreneurs looking to start their own businesses; leveling the playing field where giant corporations have the upper hand when it comes to regulatory requirements and compliance; and using the full purchasing power of the federal government to support small businesses when it comes to federal contracts.
A NEW FARM ECONOMY
Giant corporations are gaming the current system and leaving our independent and family farmers behind without the resources or the infrastructure to compete fairly. Overhauling the system that benefits corporate farmers and guaranteeing Hudson Valley farmers a fair price, reducing overproduction, and paying farmers for environmental conservation.
TRANSPORTATION + INFRASTRUCTURE
Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.
Campaign website
Mills' campaign website stated the following:
| “ |
PROTECTING OUR RIGHTS Our fundamental freedoms are being eroded by extremist lawmakers who have proven that they are willing to topple our government and trample on our basic civil rights in order to gain and hold power. For the first time ever, the Supreme Court has taken a constitutional right away from more than half of the population, and they won’t stop there. Abortion is health care, and the government has no right to dictate what women do with our bodies or the private decisions that we make with our families and doctors. Our communities are less safe because the extreme right cares more about guns than they do lives, and our voices are being silenced by a national tide of anti-voter laws. Our core values are being undermined and our way of life upended, and we can’t simply respond to this crisis with the same old routines. Aisha knows that the work ahead is far more than business as usual and she will be our champion in Congress fighting every day to protect our rights and fend off the assaults on our people, especially the most marginalized.
Housing is a human right. Every member of our community deserves to have a safe, secure, and affordable home. Yet skyrocketing housing and utility costs all across the Hudson Valley have made it harder to make ends meet and far too many families are worried about whether they will be forced out of their homes. This crisis of affordability affects everyone–renters, homeowners, and the unhoused–and we must fight to protect tenants from eviction, provide relief for homeowners facing foreclosure, and build more affordable housing for all. Aisha will work to bring down the cost of rental units by investing in and increasing the stock of new and safe affordable housing; use the power of the federal government to drive down construction costs; and address the systemic discrimination that has prevented access for so many people. Small businesses are the heart and soul of the Hudson Valley economy, when our local businesses thrive the entire community thrives. Aisha will help to grow our “Main Street” economy by expanding access to funding and credit for existing small business owners and entrepreneurs looking to start their own businesses; leveling the playing field where giant corporations have the upper hand when it comes to regulatory requirements and compliance; and using the full purchasing power of the federal government to support small businesses when it comes to federal contracts.
Small businesses are the heart and soul of the Hudson Valley economy, when our local businesses thrive the entire community thrives. Aisha will help to grow our “Main Street” economy by expanding access to funding and credit for existing small business owners and entrepreneurs looking to start their own businesses; leveling the playing field where giant corporations have the upper hand when it comes to regulatory requirements and compliance; and using the full purchasing power of the federal government to support small businesses when it comes to federal contracts.
Giant corporations are gaming the current system and leaving our independent and family farmers behind without the resources or the infrastructure to compete fairly. It’s time to level the playing field. Aisha will work to overhaul the system and guarantee Hudson Valley farmers a fair price, reduce overproduction, and pay farmers for environmental conservation.
Congress just enacted the largest investment in infrastructure initiative in more than 50 years, and Aisha will work to make sure that the Hudson Valley receives its fair share of resources to respond to its transportation, environmental, and economic growth.[2] |
” |
| —Aisha Mills' campaign website (2022)[3] | ||
See also
2022 Elections
External links
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Candidate U.S. House New York District 18 |
Personal |
Footnotes
- ↑ Information submitted to Ballotpedia through the Candidate Connection survey on July 20, 2022
- ↑ Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
- ↑ Aisha Mills for Congress, “Policy,” accessed August 13, 2022
