With Harlem Assemblywoman Inez Dickens stepping down at the end of her term this year, there’s a four-way battle to succeed her in this month’s Democratic primary.

In the fight for Harlem’s 70th Assembly District, the candidates are hitting similar themes.

A housing organizer and Democratic state committee member, Maria Ordonez, represents the party’s left flank in the race.

“It’s time for that change, to take on the decades-old establishment that has forgotten our community,” Ordonez said. “We need someone who’s gonna fight for truly affordable housing, to fund our schools and health care for all because it’s time that we have progressive leadership in Harlem to fight for us.”

For Jordan Wright, it’s personal. He ran City Councilman Yusef Salam’s campaign and then was his chief of staff. And Wright’s father is Keith Wright, the Manhattan Democratic Party Chair — and a former occupant of the seat.

“I’m running because I love my community. I’ve been a fourth generation Harlemite,” Wright said. “It’s my honor to be able to have that same kind of opportunity to represent my community at a whole other level.”

Born in Harlem, Shana Harmongoff is a lawyer who worked for former Lieutenant Gov. Brian Benjamin.

“I truly believe that I’m gonna deliver just because I’ve done it in the past and I’ve helped so many people,” Harmongoff said. “I got to hear what the community actually needs. We have a homelessness crisis going on. We have a mental health crisis that’s going on. Our mom and pop businesses, who’ve been in business for 50 years, have closed during COVID time.”

Craig Schley is a former model, electrician and now law clerk contracted by the U.S. Department of Justice. He lives in Harlem but originally hails from Philadelphia.

“A real chance to take the district in a different direction. I’m from a family of public servants. My great grandfather was North Carolina’s first African-American legislator after slavery,” Schley said.

He said he will focus on education funding, citing recent state test scores.

“36% [of students] are at proficiency in reading? That’s unacceptable. I think we need as much money as we can to bring our public schools up to par.”

They all support stalled legislation, creating a single-payer, universal healthcare system. They also agree Harlem needs more help handling New York’s drug addiction crisis. The district houses one of the city’s two supervised injection sites.

“We need to be very conscious about the places where we place safe injection sites. I am supportive of having an extra hospital, where you can immediately access health care, or medical attention, but next to a school or next to a daycare center? It’s absolutely wrong,” Ordonez said.

Wright, Ordonez and Harmongoff disagree with pausing congestion pricing. But Schley agreed with Gov. Kathy Hochul’s decision.

“There’s too much taxing of our mobility and moving back and forth. Congestion pricing would’ve also affected the flow of businesses,” he said.

When it comes to the migrant crisis, Wright says he thinks it’s up to the state and city to help new arrivals find work.

“There’s really no easy way to discuss it. One thing that I can say is: the migrant folks, they definitely want to come here and more than enough of them, they want to work. They want to get to work. They want to be helpful,” he said.

Harmongoff said she would focus on migrants, but wants to target the shelter system as a whole.

“We need an overhaul on the shelters, but more importantly, we need more affordable housing,” she said.

Only Schley did not qualify for campaign matching funds, under the state’s new public campaign financing program. Wright leads the pack in fundraising.

He’s been endorsed by Inez Dickens, who recently sparked controversy, saying Harlem needs to return to “Black” representation — an apparent slight at the district’s Dominican-born Democratic Congressman, Adriano Espaillat.

“That statement was very personal to me, as someone was running in this district. And I think that we need to make sure that we’re inclusive of everyone, this district — it’s Latino, it is Black, it is Asian,” Ordonez said.

With the district overwhelmingly Democratic, the winner of the primary will likely be going to Albany next year.

Early voting begins this Saturday, June 15 for a ten-day period before election day on June 25.