Actress Diane Neal played a district attorney for over 100 episodes of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. Now she wants to be come a lawmaker in real life.
Neal, who played Assistant District Attorney Casey Novak on Law & Order: SVU, took to Twitter on Tuesday to announce her independent run for New York’s 19th Congressional District seat.
“Ok, so it’s ON!!! But I’m doing with nearly no staff, no donations (yet), with no party,” Neal tweeted. “Website will be up later today (fingers crossed) and all ready to go. But goal is bigger than parties. Goal is no negativity. Goal is HIGH ROAD all the way.”
The 42-year-old is running for the congressional seat currently held by Rep. John Faso (R) who was elected in 2016. Neal’s own political beliefs are a mix, she told The Daily Freeman.
“I’m a little Libertarian, I’m a lot liberal, mostly progressive, but I have this amazing ability to be able to take really complicated policy and break it down into edible sound bites, which is something most progressive liberals cannot do,” she said.
Neal needs 3,500 signatures in order to secure a spot as independent on the November ballot.
Six Democratic candidates have already announced their intention to against Faso run for the congressional seat, according to The Daily Freeman. A Democratic will take place June 26th.