一位亚裔美国软件工程师，因创建一个免费网站，帮助人们找到新冠肺炎疫苗预约，并利用该平台提高对疫情的反亚洲种族主义，已经宣布他现在将竞选国家公职。
巨大的马，在推特上被称为“涡轮增压”或“涡轮增压”，周一宣布他将作为民主党候选人竞选纽约议会代表第37区，该区由纽约市皇后区西部组成。
这位政治新人在今年早些时候声名鹊起，当时他用自己的时间和金钱制作的网站TurboVax成为纽约人广泛使用的工具，试图在令人头疼的疫苗预约搜索中导航。在花了几个小时刷新和搜索多个政府运营的网站后，马设计了一个网站，该网站汇集了来自城市和州网站的信息，并在推特上近乎实时地宣布了预约的可用性。
网站是被《纽约时报》关注马估计，在疫苗推广的初期，成千上万的纽约人用它来预约疫苗接种。然后，当一个针对亚裔美国人的一连串种族主义攻击据信与冠状病毒疫情相关的偏见有关，让全国的社区充满恐惧和愤怒，马硬生生把网站关闭了两天。
阿米尔·哈姆贾/纽约时报
2021年1月31日，软件工程师巨马在纽约。马自己制造了一种疫苗...
“我想通过这两天关闭网站的行动来说明，如果我们作为一个国家不听取亚裔美国人的关切，那么我们也有失去亚裔美国人贡献的风险，”马在3月份告诉美国广播公司新闻。
在网站短暂关闭期间，马敦促他的追随者和网站访问者向一个旨在支持纽约唐人街的社区组织捐款。他当时在推特上写道，“如果你认为亚裔美国人的贡献是可以替代的，问问你的政府他们版本的涡轮增压怎么样了。”
在周一推出的一个竞选网站上，马说，他对3月份关闭该网站两天的决定“深感挣扎”，但最终他为非营利组织“欢迎来到唐人街”筹集了约20万美元，不仅能够强调亚裔美国人对社会的贡献，还能证明他所在社区的苦难许多人觉得自己消失了。
“我建造TurboVax是因为系统坏了，”马在他的竞选网站上说。“当市长和州长不能走到一起提供一个网站来寻找疫苗时，我利用我的技术背景提供了一个平台，帮助成千上万的教师、杂货店工人和其他普通纽约人获得了疫苗。”
他补充说:“但随着纽约对TurboVax的关注，我决定利用它的时刻来引起人们对另一种流行病的关注:反亚洲仇恨的浪潮。
据马的竞选网站显示，他正运行在一个进步的平台上，专注于采取行动减缓气候变化，投资公共交通和经济适用房，建设强大的技术基础设施，以解决问题并增强纽约人的权能。
马在他的竞选网站上写道:“当邻居的需求没有得到满足时，我采取了行动。
“我现在正在采取行动，因为我们需要一名代表来解决我们在37区的需求，”马写道。“我在为住在含铅涂料的皇后区的房客、面临房租上涨的阳光区居民和等待公交车到达的沮丧的里奇伍德通勤者奔走。”
“不一定非要这样。我将以创造力和紧迫感迎接今天的挑战。“让我们共同努力，建设一个适合我们所有人的纽约。”
长期执政的民主党人凯瑟琳·诺兰于1984年首次被选入州议会，目前是马竞选的席位。但是纽约市皇后区的居民以愿意接受政治变革而闻名，毕竟在2018年，选民选举当时的政治新人亚历山大·奥卡西奥-科尔特斯代表纽约第14个国会选区，推翻了一位连任10届的现任议员。
Huge Ma, Asian American activist and TurboVax founder, is running for state Assembly
An Asian American software engineer who was lauded forcreating a free website to help people find COVID-19 vaccine appointments, and using the platform to raise awareness about the uptick inanti-Asian racism amid the pandemic, has announced he will now run for state office.
Huge Ma, known on Twitter as "TurboVax" or "VaxDaddy," announced Monday he is running as a Democratic candidate for New York's Assembly to represent the 37th District, which comprises of western Queens in New York City.
The political newcomer rose to fame earlier this year, when the website he made on his own time and dime, TurboVax, became a widely-used tool for New Yorkers trying to navigate the headache-inducing search for vaccine appointments. After spending hours refreshing and scouring multiple government-run websites, Ma programmed a website that compiled information from city and state websites and announced appointment availabilities in near-real time on Twitter.
The website wasspotlighted in the New York Timesand Ma estimates hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers used it to help book vaccine appointments during the arduous early days of the rollout. Then, when aspate of racist attacks targeting Asian Americans, believed to be linked to biases related to the coronavirus pandemic,filled communities across the country with fear and rage, Ma abruptly shut the website down for two days.
"I wanted to illustrate, through this action of taking the site down for two days, that if we as a country don't listen to the concerns of Asian Americans, then we risk losing the contributions of Asian Americans as well," Ma told ABC News in March.
During the brief website shutdown, Ma urged his followers and website visitors to donate to a community-based group aimed at supporting New York City's Chinatown. He wrote on Twitter at the time, "And if you think contributions of Asian-Americans are replaceable, ask your government how their version of TurboVax is going."
In a campaign website launched on Monday, Ma said he "deeply struggled" with the decision to shut down the site for two days in March, but that in the end he raised some $200,000 for the nonprofit Welcome to Chinatown and was able to highlight not only the contributions that Asian Americans bring to society but also give credence to his community's sufferingthat many felt went unseen.
"I built TurboVax because the system was broken," Ma stated on his campaign website. "When the Mayor and Governor couldn't come together to deliver a single website to find a vaccine, I used my technology background to deliver a platform that helped hundreds of thousands of teachers, grocery store workers and other regular New Yorkers get the vaccine."
"But with the eyes of New York on TurboVax, I decided to use its moment to bring attention to another epidemic: the wave of anti-Asian hate," he added.
Ma is running on a progressive platform, according to to his campaign website, and is focusing on taking action to slow climate change, investing in public transit and affordable housing and building robust technology infrastructure to solve problems and empower New Yorkers.
"I took action when the needs of my neighbors weren't being addressed," Ma wrote on his campaign website.
"I'm taking action now because we need a representative who will address our needs in District 37," Ma wrote. "I am running for the Queensbridge tenant who lives with lead paint, for the Sunnyside resident facing a rent hike and for the frustrated Ridgewood commuter waiting for their bus to arrive."
"It doesn't have to be this way. I will take on the challenges of today with creativity and urgency," he added. "Let's work together and build a New York that works for all of us."
Longtime Democratic incumbent Catherine Nolan, who was first elected to the state Assembly in 1984, currently holds the seat Ma is running for. But residents in New York City's Queens borough are famous for their willingness to embrace political change, after all, in 2018 voters elected then-political newcomer Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to represent New York's 14th congressional district, unseating a 10-term incumbent.
