An Albanian immigrant who fled repressive communism is seeking to oust veteran New York Sen. Chuck Schumer, the powerful Democratic majority leader.
Aleksander Mici, a Republican, said while Schumer voted to raise taxes, “I was suffering, like millions of Albanians, under a tyrannical communist dictatorship and struggling to make it to America.”
“And now almost three decades later, the past is prologue: under Chuck Schumer’s leadership, Democrats are still doing everything in their power to raise costs on everything, while everyday Americans struggle,” Mici, a Bronx resident, told The Post.
Mici, 46, will officially kick off his campaign on Thursday.
He’s running a long-odds, underdog campaign, said former GOP Sen. Al D’Amato, whom Schumer defeated in a tough 1998 race. Schumer, a former congressman, is seeking a fifth-term.
“Schumer is a popular, hard-working and well known senator. It’s a tough battle for anyone, let alone an unknown candidate,” said D’Amato, who is now a lobbyist
“The only thing the Republicans have going for them is Joe Biden,” said D’Amato noting the Democratic president’s growing unpopularity. “That will affect other down ballot races — but not this one.”
Mici, a Bronx resident and lawyer, has previously run for City Council and state Senate. He garnered an impressive 45 percent of the vote in the recent City Council District 34 race, an overwhelmingly Democratic district..
Mici, who fled Albania in 1991, said growing up under the brutal Hoxha regime was a formative experience in his life, and is why he loves America and despises socialism.
“The left’s vision for America is not the America that generations of immigrants like me fought to reach,” said Mici.
“My Congresswoman, AOC [Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez] and my Senator, Chuck Schumer, are pushing every day to make our nation look more like the communist dictatorship I fled, than like the America that has been a shining beacon of hope for generations of people yearning for freedom.
He added, “I know firsthand how dangerous the Socialist creep into American politics will turn out to be.”
Mici recalled his treacherous journey to America as a teeanger, first boarding a packed merchant ship to reach the shores of Italy. People died of thirst and starvation, and some were even killed by gangs.
The wannabe senator reached US shores when he was 15 after working menial jobs in Italy.
“Enough is enough. America is worth fighting for and I can’t sit on the sidelines while out-of-touch socialists disguised as ‘progressives’ try to destroy our great nation,” he said..
“I will fight for the Constitutional principles that our Founding Fathers laid out for us. I will fight for a smaller government and more freedom. That is the only way that we will be able to revive our economy, restore public safety to our communities, provide quality education for our children and make Americans’ lives better.”
Schumer, through a spokesman, declined comment.
