In NY15, AOC, Working Families Choose Samelys López
Insurgent lands key allies in race vs. Ritchie Torres, Ruben Diaz, Sr., Melissa Mark-Viverito
BY MATT TRACY
Progressive congressional
candidate Samelys
López has scored major
endorsements from the
Working Families Party, US Representative
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
of the Bronx and Queens, and
former Queens district attorney
candidate Tiffany Cabán, giving
her a boost in a wide-open June 23
Democratic primary race to replace
outgoing Congressmember José E.
Serrano in the South Bronx.
López, who already had the
backing of the Democratic Socialists
of America, could play a sleeper
role as an outsider in a crowded
fi eld that includes several political
fi gures with years of experience
as elected offi cials. Anti-LGBTQ
Councilmember Rubén Díaz, Sr.,
and his out gay colleague Ritchie
Torres have been the two most
prominent candidates in the race
for the open District 15 seat, but
former City Council Speaker Melissa
Mark-Viverito, State Assemblymember
Michael Blake, who is
also a vice chair of the Democratic
National Committee, and Manhattan
Councilmember Ydanis Rodriguez
are also among those clamoring
for the coveted open seat.
“Samelys defi nes what it means
to be a representative,” Ocasio-
Cortez said in a written statement
announcing the endorsement. “After
growing up in the NYC shelter
system, she’s dedicated her life to
fi ghting housing insecurity and
other injustices in the Bronx. She
supports policies that put working
people before corporations, like
universal rent control, a federal
jobs guarantee, full and fair funding
of NYCHA, Medicare for All, and
a Green New Deal. Samelys would
be an invaluable ally in Congress
and in the Bronx.”
López had already landed an
endorsement in February from
Ocasio-Cortez’s new Courage to
Change political action committee.
Cabán, who electrifi ed progressives
in Queens en route to a razorthin
loss last year in the district
attorney’s primary race against
South Bronx Congressional hopeful Samelys López (left) earned the coveted endorsements of
Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, former Queens DA candidate Tiffany Cabán (right), and the
Working Families Party.
Melinda Katz, who was then borough
president after holding a variety
of other elective offi ces, pointed
to parallels between her own upbringing
and López’s while voicing
her confi dence in the Bronx activist’s
commitment to bring a peoplepowered
agenda to Capitol Hill.
“Like me, Samelys is a workingclass
Latina who grew up in overpoliced,
resource-starved communities,”
Cabán said. “Samelys
knows, fi rsthand, why we need
to deliver real affordable housing,
universal healthcare, and
criminal justice reform for Black,
brown, and low-income New Yorkers
— and I’m proud to endorse her
for Congress today. Too often our
elected offi cials put wealthy New
Yorkers over working people and
communities of color. New Yorkers
deserve leaders in Congress who
will fi ght for tenants, immigrants,
and working families.”
The Working Families Party,
meanwhile, suggested that a driving
factor behind its decision to endorse
López was the need for progressive
policies at a time when the
coronavirus pandemic has taken
a toll on marginalized communities.
The congressional district is
among the poorest in the nation.
“In moments of crisis, we quickly
see which leaders stand with working
people — and Samelys has
been fi ghting for New York’s working
FACEBOOK/ SAMELYS LÓPEZ
families since day one,” the
party’s New York director Sochie
Nnaemeka said in a written statement.
“López has spent her entire
career fi ghting for food access, affordable
housing, and fair wages
— exactly what all New Yorkers
need to have a chance at surviving
this crisis and thriving beyond
it… More than ever before, we need
leaders like Samelys in Congress
who know, fi rsthand, why we must
build a New York that delivers for
the many, not the wealthy few.”
The Working Families Party’s decision
to back López was a blow to
other candidates who have established
ties with the party. Torres,
for example, ran on the Working
Families Party ballot line during
his two Council bids, and the party
helped elevate Mark-Viverito to the
speakership in 2014. Torres declined
comment for this story, and
Mark-Viverto did not return inquiries
seeking comment on April 17.
López trails leading contenders
in funding by signifi cant margins
— she has pulled in just north of
$80,000 compared to a whopping
$1.27 million for Torres, $599,510
for Blake, $270,353 for Mark-Viverito,
and $194,293 for Diaz. But
López has self-imposed fundraising
restrictions as part of her effort
to show the community that she is
not beholden to special interests.
The issue of campaign fi nance
POLITICS
blew up in this race last October
when Torres took heat from members
of the Stonewall Democratic
Club of New York City for his willingness
to rake in real estate cash,
prompting him to shift the focus to
his rival Mark-Viverito, who he said
“presided over four years worth of
rezoning that arguably led to more
gentrifi cation, not less.” Torres was
also soundly ripped for accepting
more than $11,000 from billionaire
Daniel Loeb and his wife, Margaret,
just two years after Loeb made
racially insensitive comments.
Diaz is well being the pack in
his fundraising and he also has a
long history of making bigoted and
infl ammatory comments about
the LGBTQ community as well as
women’s reproductive freedom and
other feminist issues, but his decades
long history in elective offi ce,
on the Council and in the State Seante,
and his strong name recognition,
especially among voters with
ties to socially conservative faith
communities — he himself is a
Pentecostal minister — could offset
those disadvantages.
López, who was among the
candidates who participated in a
January 7 congressional forum at
Destination Tomorrow’s Bronx LGBTQ
Community Center, is running
on a queer-friendly platform
that calls for federal non-discrimination
protections on the basis
of sexual orientation and gender
identity, the requirement of organizations
receiving federal funding
to comply with nondiscrimination
protections, the establishment of
guarantee of housing to to address
LGBTQ homelessness, and the full
decriminalization of sex work.
Despite never serving in elected
offi ce, López has played a role in local
politics. She previously worked
for Serrano, served on Bronx Community
Board 7 as chair of the
Long-Term Planning Committee,
and is currently involved in activist
work with Housing Justice for
All, a statewide coalition. She was
also a member of Public Advocate
Jumaane Williams’ transition
team after he won a special election
last year.
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