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on Twitter, recently launched a new Twitter account called @NoDSANY with the tagline, “The DSA sold-out NYCHA. Now, they are going to find out.” Despite the acrimonious split over the Public Housing Preservation Trust, both NYC-DSA and the Socialists in Office project seem poised to continue to grow. Last year, two DSA candidates won election to the City Council – Alexa Avilés and Tiffany Cabán – prompting the organization to create a nascent City Socialists in Office committee. In the August primary, two more candidates are running for state Senate with the DSA’s endorsement: Kristen Gonzalez and David Alexis. And last month, climate organizer Sarahana Shrestha beat incumbent Assembly Member Kevin Cahill in a Democratic primary. Shrestha is a member of the Mid-Hudson Valley chapter of DSA, and before running for office, she participated in an SIO strategy workshop as an organizer on the DSA’s Public Power NY campaign. If she wins the general election in November, as she is heavily favored to, then she will continue participating in the SIO committee – but this time as an elected official. Shrestha told City & State that she did not originally want to run for office but was persuaded to run in order to expand the DSA’s legislative influence beyond New York City. “I would not have run as a candidate without DSA backing,” she said. “In this case, it was really the organization and the organizers coming together and being like, let’s run this specific member of our organization for this specific reason in this specific place.”
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Peter Sterne is a journalist based in Queens who covers politics and the media.
April July25, 11, 2022
Ill-fated slate Progressive candidates fell short up and down the June Democratic primary ballot.
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ROGRESSIVES IN New York went into the June 28 Democratic primaries with high hopes. The Working Families Party had an ambitious slate of Assembly candidates looking to oust establishment incumbents and win open seats. Its organizers worked together with local branches of the Democratic Socialists of America, and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez threw her support behind the candidates as well. Statewide, progressive lieutenant governor candidate Ana María Archila also had a strong presence on the campaign trail, and boasted numerous high-profile endorsers. By the end of the night, progressive organizers and candidates had come up short in the majority of their races. Archila received less than a quarter of the vote as Lt. Gov. Antonio Delgado emerged with a landslide victory. In the Assembly races, only one DSA-backed candidate won out of the five nonincumbents it endorsed, while only two of the WFP’s nine priority races went its way. Across the state, it was a tough night for progressives. Despite the lackluster performances this year, a number
of different factors, including enormous outside spending and national issues pushing the policy agenda, would suggest that those losses don’t necessarily represent a death knell for the left wing of the Democratic Party in New York. Although moderates and incumbents largely came out on top this time around, differences in policy may not have driven the outcome at the polls. In fact, results in two races in particular offer reason for progressives to move ahead with confidence. Although Archila, and even less surprisingly, New York City Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, lost their statewide races, they each placed second in their contests. Supporters found comfort in the fact that they finished ahead of Rep. Tom Suozzi and Diana Reyna, who had run to Hochul’s right and campaigned heavily on increasing crime rates and denouncing bail reform. Although that pair significantly outspent their leftwing opponents, Archila and Williams ended the night with more votes. “I don’t think the results are ideological,” progressive Democratic consultant Camille Rivera of New Deal Strategies told City & State, referencing the statewide races. “It wasn’t the wins
that we wanted, but if you see the numbers here, Tom Suozzi had millions of dollars and could not outpace people like Jumaane who had none.” Both the WFP and DSA still suffered significant setbacks on June 28 despite noteworthy wins by Sarahana Shrestha in the Hudson Valley over incumbent Assembly Member Kevin Cahill and Juan Ardila in the open race to replace retiring Assembly Member Catherine Nolan. Unlike in 2018 and 2020, when progressives racked up major victories in both the state Senate and Assembly, candidates didn’t have a boogeyman to run against like the Independent Democratic Conference, nor a presidential primary at the top of the ballot where the winner would be taking on former President Donald Trump. On top of those two factors missing this year, outside interests – in particular those with real estate ties – spent big on independent expenditures to oppose the leftwing candidates who would support legislation like “good cause” eviction that would offer stronger tenant protections. “I think real estate decided and made an effort to push back as much as they wanted to … to defend their institutions,” Rivera said. Two
JEFF COLTIN; MICHAEL NIGRO/PACIFIC PRESS/LIGHTROCKET/GETTY IMAGES
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