Early in the humid afternoon on Wednesday, New York State Assembly member Harvey Epstein stood at a table on the corner of East 7th Street and Avenue B, handing out free vegan hot dogs. A day earlier, he was confirmed the winner of the primary election to represent Manhattan’s District 2 in City Council.
Wearing a navy T-shirt proclaiming “Plant Powered Dad,” Epstein, along with representatives and volunteers from animal rights activist groups PETA and NYCLASS, stood outside his district assembly office, calling out to passersby, “Would you like a free vegan hot dog?”
“During Thanksgiving we did a tofu turkey giveaway, and during Christmas we did a vegan roast,” Epstein told the New York Jewish Week. “And it made sense for Fourth of July to do vegan hot dogs.”
Hot dogs and Independence Day go together like peanut butter and jelly, of course. But there was a symbolism to the giveaway that was hard to ignore: To secure his spot on the ballot this fall, Epstein had just beaten four other candidates — including, notably, disgraced former New York Rep. Anthony Weiner, who in 2017 pleaded guilty to transferring obscene material to a minor.
The 58-year-old Epstein, who is Jewish and ran on a platform centered on housing and affordability, was endorsed by the Working Families Party, winning the final round of ranked-choice voting with 56.7% of the vote. In November, he will run against Republican Jason Murillo, but as the Democratic candidate in deep-blue New York City, Epstein is all but certain to win.
Weiner, meanwhile — who was the subject of awkward profiles during his unlikely comeback bid — only made it through the first round, with 10.3% of the votes. (Weiner’s ex-wife, Huma Abedin, a former Hillary Clinton aide, has also garnered a lot of media attention of late, for a very different reason: In June she married Jewish philanthropist Alex Soros, the son of billionaire and prolific political donor George Soros.)
Asked whether the hot dog giveaway had anything to do with Weiner, Epstein said no.
“It is kind of funny though,” Epstein said. “We never even thought about it till this morning, when someone brought it to our attention.”
A note in a special newsletter from The City Wednesday morning drew the connection between his opponent’s name and the hot dogs: “He trounced Anthony Weiner, and now he’s giving out vegan wieners!”
Epstein told the New York Jewish Week that he has been a vegan since his student days at Ithaca College, where he served as Hillel president. Before that, he grew up in a Conservative, kosher observant home in Wantagh, Long Island, where he attended Levittown schools.
“So I guess I’ve been kosher my whole life,” he said.
Epstein and his wife, Anita, are members of the East End Temple on 17th Street, where their two children, Leila and Joshua, had their bar and bat mitzvahs. Epstein has lived in the East Village for about 30 years, where the family also resides with their 11-year-old rescue dog, Homer.
State Assembly member Harvey Epstein, center, feeds a piece of vegan hot dog to his rescue dog, Homer, during an event in the East Village on July 2, 2025. (Jackie Hajdenberg)
“I call myself an agnostic Jew,” said Epstein, who in February 2024 was among five Jewish elected officials in New York who signed an open letter condemning Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 attack in Israel while also condemning “the actions of the current Israeli government.”
Epstein’s campaign for City Council caught the attention of the wider American public when it was spoofed in an episode of “Saturday Night Live” last November. In the spot, comedian John Mulaney, wearing a bald cap, portrays Epstein, and repeatedly insists that he isn’t the former movie producer and convicted sex offender Harvey Weinstein, nor is he the late sex offender and financier Jeffrey Epstein, nor is he some abominable combination of the two.
“Listen, is my name ideal? Of course not,” Mulaney’s Epstein says in the sketch. “I share names with two of the most notorious perverts of all time. You think I don’t know that? But thankfully, I’m a different guy.”
Epstein, a regular “SNL” viewer, told The New York Times in November that he woke up the following morning to hundreds of text messages telling him to watch the episode.
“So I watched it and I’m like, ‘Oh, my God, that’s me,’” the real Epstein told The New York Times. “It was, like, ridiculously funny. I couldn’t stop laughing.”
But he didn’t stop there. He took the opportunity to drum up support for survivors of sexual assault. “All joking aside,” Epstein shared on X, “I hope my newfound followers will consider donating to @RAINN, who do extremely valuable work supporting survivors.”
A former lawyer and tenant organizer who has served in the state legislature since 2018, Epstein attributes his victory in his city council campaign to old-fashioned hard work.
“I worked hard and I won,” Epstein said. “People voted for me more than they voted for other people. And I have a long history in this community. People know that and respect that.”
On Wednesday, as a small crowd gathered on the otherwise quiet street, locals seemed to enjoy the chance to meet with their political leadership, if only for a minute.
“It’s been great,” Epstein said. “People have been happy and joyful and taking food. It’s a little slower than other events we’ve had, just because a lot of people are away around the holidays, but it’s been fun.”
“I think that it’s very nice that [the] candidate is coming up and talks to people and shares his ideas, and how he’s looking to make the city better,” said Taisiia, a young woman living in the East Village who declined to share her last name. “That’s great to see someone we’re voting for in person to just — it’s always good to know [who] the person you’re voting for is, you know, see the smile and maybe eyes.”
One couple, a 20-something-year-old young man and woman walking hand-in-hand, passed the table and asked what the hot dogs were for. Volunteers at the table told them they were with Harvey Epstein’s office.
“I voted for Harvey Epstein!” the man said.
“Is that you?” the man asked, turning to the victor. “Oh my God, I voted for you!”
“You get two hot dogs!” Epstein joked.
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