On November 3, 2020 presidential and congressional elections will be held in the United States. 82-year-old New York Congresswoman Nita Lowey has recently announced that she will not run for re-election. Among others, Evelyn Farkas has thrown her hat into that race. If elected she will be the only Hungarian-speaking member of Congress. The 17th Congressional district is traditionally “blue” with strong Democratic traditions and a large Hungarian American constituency.
Farkas is a 51-year-old Democrat who served in the Department of Defense during the Obama Administration as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Russia, Ukraine, and Eurasia. A respected Russian expert she also advised then Senator Hillary Clinton.
Evelyn Farkas
After earning a Bachelor’s degree from Franklin & Marshall College, she earned her Master’s and PhD from The Fletcher School at Tufts University. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and serves on the Board of Trustees of Franklin & Marshall College, her alma mater.
Her family is well known in the Hungarian-American community, Her father, Charles (Károly) Farkas who came to the US as a refugee after the 1956 Hungarian Revolution, published a critically acclaimed memoir, Vanished by the Danube in 2013.
Evelyn Farkas with her father.
As a Russian expert, Evelyn Farkas was one of the first US politicians to raise an alarm about the cozy relationship between Trump and Putin. She demanded an investigation and “a security clearance on the president” voicing her suspicion that Trump was susceptible to blackmail from a foreign entity or individual.
György Lázár
