Kevin O’Keefe Candidate Q&A: (New York State Assembly – District 74 Primary on June 23rd)

What are your top priorities for the district including neighborhoods like Murray Hill?

Our grassroots campaign is powered by a clear vision on how to deliver on everyday priorities for Murray Hill and the full district, including on affordability, healthcare equity, a welcoming streetscape, and protection and improvement of our public green space.

My fight for everyday priorities has delivered significant advances for the Murray Hill community, the neighborhood where I serve as the founding president of the all-volunteer St. Vartan Park Conservancy with the mission to improve the park and its surroundings.

Here are three of my top priorities: 


AFFORDABILITY: Our fight to reduce the cost of living starts with housing affordability. Lasting solutions, including more limited-equity co-ops, will rise from people-powered community collaboration, not from allies of big-money developers and lobbyists. 

Reality will anchor our remedies, including the knowledge that developers have too often used affordability as a guise to build market-rate housing from the ground up. Many existing commercial buildings can be converted into inclusive housing and tens of thousands of apartments in the city sit unused.



FIX OUR HEALTHCARE CRISIS: I will continue my strong advocacy for the New York Health Act until it’s signed into law. Residents across the district are struggling with rising healthcare costs and limited access to mental health services. I am committed to working with local providers and state partners to reduce healthcare costs and expand access to community-based mental health programs. As a current member of the Bellevue Hospital Community Advisory Board and a former chief consultant for a hospital network, I have seen up close that residents should not have to choose between paying their bills or managing their health.

PROTECT OUR ENVIRONMENT: We must prioritize environmental protection to preserve the earth’s health benefits and strengthen our economy. By mobilizing grassroots-level local actions, investing in sustainable practices, and supporting clean energy initiatives, we can deliver significant safeguards for future generations. Many of our district’s valuable community gardens are on public land recently put at risk of development. In Albany, I’ll stridently work to save the community gardens through legislation granting them land-trust protection.

How would your policies improve our safety, affordability, and quality of life?

I’m proud that by listening to a wide range of voices in the community — including input from middle-class residents too often bypassed by politicians — I’ve been able to bring progress in public safety, affordability and quality of life in Murray Hill and other neighborhoods. 

This approach — taken in my current roles as a citizen advocate, nonprofit leader, and Manhattan Community Board 6 member — will be turbocharged when I introduce legislation as your Assembly Member.

The policies’ focus on better everyday living benefits from my people-over-profit community mindset. It’s a pathway I’ve effectively used to help improve the Murray Hill community. My grassroots Assembly campaign is not influenced by for-profit entities, and I refuse to accept any campaign donations from corporate special interest groups.

A park initiative I implemented in Murray Hill illustrates how the people-first approach has improved everyday quality of life and has delivered equity.

When I was chair of Community Board 6’s Parks Committee, I set a goal to open the St. Vartan Park garden in Murray Hill. Then Midtown East’s largest city-owned locked green space, the land had been closed to the general public for decades, accessible only by a select few.

I led an aggressive campaign and won the fight. The city greenlit perpetual public use of the garden in coordination with my launch of St. Vartan Park Conservancy. I designed and managed a five-phase garden equity plan that was completed ahead of time with the addition of an ADA-accessible garden entrance and pathway through funds raised by the Conservancy.

As recognition of this progress and additional volunteer advocacy that has benefited the people of our community, I was honored to receive the 2025 State Senate 2025 Commendation Award.

How have you supported, and how will you continue to support our community and the Murray Hill Neighborhood Association if elected or re-elected?

As president of St. Vartan Park Conservancy and MHNA business partner Manhattan East Community Association, I enjoy working on initiatives with the MHNA team and its members and others in the community. The collaboration with MHNA has included Conservancy and MECA hosting kids activities at Park Avenue Day each year since 2022, our participation in other MHNA events, and MHNA members serving as volunteers at Conservancy experiences.

As a former MHNA trustee and former resident of Murray Hill, where my wife and I raised our three children in their early years, I look forward to continuing my longstanding MHNA support.

Photo showcasing your involvement in the Murray Hill community

Anything else you would like to highlight?

I’m campaigning for the full two-year 74th Assembly District term that starts in January 2027. The voting for the full term starts with this year’s June 23 Democratic primary and is separate and removed from voting in February for a partial District 74 term that ends this year.

If you live in the 74th Assembly District, any donation you make to the campaign will be matched up to 12 times by the state — part of New York’s pubic matching funds program that helps level the playing field for candidates. A map of the district appears at kevinok.org/map.

There will be a Special Election for Assembly District 74 on Tuesday, February 3, 2026, following Harvey Epstein’s resignation after winning the NYC City Council District 2 seat, with early voting from January 24 and January 26–February 1, mail-in and in-person voting available through the NYC Board of Elections, and candidates Keith Powers (Democrat) and Joseph W. Foley (Republican/Conservative).

The Murray Hill Neighborhood Association invited all candidates running for office whose districts intersect the Murray Hill neighborhood to respond to the following questions, which were sourced directly from our members. Responses and images as they were provided directly to us have been published above to provide all residents with helpful information about each candidate’s priorities and perspectives. The Murray Hill Neighborhood Association does not endorse any candidates for public office.