POLITICS
Ritchie Torres on Verge of History in South Bronx
Councilmember, with big lead in votes counted, hopes absentee ballots bolster win
BY MATT TRACY
Out gay City Councilmember
Ritchie Torres
jumped out to a
promising, perhaps insurmountable
lead over his competitors
on election night — and
Ruben Diaz, Sr., appears to be in
big trouble — in the race to capture
the Democratic nomination in the
15th Congressional District in the
South Bronx.
Torres, aiming to become the
fi rst out gay Afro-Latinx member
of Congress, is leading the pack
with 29.44 percent of the 42,193
total votes counted so far as of the
early morning of June 24, while
Assemblymember Michael Blake
has mounted a surprising showing
with 18.74 percent of the vote. Diaz
is in third place, yielding only 14.30
percent and drawing less than half
of the total votes obtained by Torres.
Community organizer Samelys
López has 12.77 percent, followed
by 11.02 percent for Manhattan
Councilmember Ydanis Rodriguez.
Former City Council Speaker Melissa
Mark-Viverito, fresh off a disappointing
showing in the race for
public advocate, has drawn a paltry
3.74 percent of the vote.
Full results are not expected to
be revealed for several more days
because mail-in votes — which are
much more important this election
cycle due to the coronavirus
pandemic — still must be counted.
State law stipulates that absentee
ballots must not be tallied until
eight days after the election
Nonetheless, Torres, who was
endorsed by Gay City News, is in
a commanding position heading
into the fi nal count as he closes in
on an historic victory that would
also put him on track to become
the fi rst out LGBTQ member of the
New York City congressional delegation.
The LGBTQ Victory Fund,
which helps elect queer candidates
and focused heavily on bolstering
Torres’ election effort, claimed victory
for Torres on June 24.
The Victory Fund also claimed
victory for NY-17 candidate Mondaire
Jones, who is running to become
the fi rst out gay Black member
of Congress.
While the 32-year-old Torres
jumped out to an early fundraising
advantage over his competition
and maintained it throughout
the campaign, he drilled the message
from the very beginning that
Diaz was favored to win the election.
Diaz was equipped with a
loyal base that he has galvanized
time and again for rallies opposing
same-sex marriage and he shares
a name with his son, Ruben Diaz,
Jr., who holds the infl uential role
of Bronx borough president and is
a longtime political fi gure in the
Bronx in his own right.
But the elder Diaz, a Pentecostal
minister and former state senator
who has spent decades resisting
LGBTQ rights and reproductive
rights, appears to have watched
the fl ame burn out on his brand
of bigotry in the Bronx as he and
his opponents await the results of
the absentee ballots. Diaz has not
helped his cause in recent years,
making fresh headlines last year
for making homophobic remarks
about out gay Speaker Corey Johnson
and the City Council in a major
controversy that prompted his
colleagues to punish him by dissolving
his Committee on For-Hire
Vehicles.
While the numbers on election
night show Torres in command
and Blake trailing in second
place, many had anticipated the
race coming down to a tight fi nish
between Torres and Diaz. By
the fi nal weeks of the campaign,
progressive groups pushed Democratic
candidates in the race to
rally around Torres in the face of
polling data that showed Diaz and
Torres neck-and-neck while other
candidates were still yielding up to
six percent of the vote.
Candidates likes Mark-Viverito
and Blake, however, remained in
the race, but Mark-Viverito appeared
to express a more conciliatory
tone in a NY1 debate just
MATT TRACY
If his lead holds, Ritchie Torres will almost certainly be trading in his spot at City Hall for a one on
Capitol Hill.
MATT TRACY
PHOTO MATT TRACY days before the election when she
Ruben Diaz, Sr., will be staying right where he is in his City Council district offi ce.
A digital ad promoting Ritchie Torres’ campaign on display in the Mott Haven section of the Bronx on
June 20.
➤ RITCHIE TORRES, continued on p.5
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