Community News
END OF THE
ROAD FOR A
QUEENS DA
HOPEFUL Mark Hallum
Queens DA primary finally resolved as Cabán
concedes to Katz following six-week ballot struggle
22 AUGUST 2019 I LIC COURIER I www.qns.com
Public defender Tiffany Cabán conceded the Democratic primary
for Queens district attorney during a party in Astoria on Aug. 6.
BY MARK HALLUM
Public defender Tiffany Cabán conceded
to Borough President Melinda Katz
after a faltering court battle today to
win back the majority by redeeming a
number of invalidated ballots.
But Cabán and her supporters were
jubilant in the strong challenge their campaign made
to the Democratic establishment in Queens. The final
margin in the race was 55 votes between the two out
over 91,000 cast.
Cabán delivered a concession speech at Katch in
Astoria, where the expressions on the faces of the
people standing beside her were in sharp contrast to
those on stage after the June 25 primary, in which
she ended the night ahead of Katz by 1,100 votes.
Members of VOCAL NY stood with her, but the only
politicians who endorsed her run who were present
on Tuesday night were state Senator Michael Gianaris
and Assemblyman Ron Kim.
“I’ve never run for office before. I didn’t come from a
particularly engaged political family,” Cabán said. “On
that NY1 debate stage, I said stages like this were not
made or built for people like me and that has changed
… We completely transformed the conversation around
criminal justice reform. We forced the next district attorney
to commit to ending all cash bail. We pushed
for the decriminalization of sex work and we pushed
it all the way into the presidential campaign.”
Cabán entered the field of seven candidates in the
DA race later than some of the other frontrunners,
having announced her run in January. In that time,
she won support from the two presidential candidates,
Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, and gathered
financial support from across the nation.
“We may have even scared Cy Vance out of running
for office; we terrified the Democratic establishment,”
Cabán added.
In a statement, Katz thanked Cabán for conceding,
claiming primaries accentuate differences between
more traditional Democrats and progressives rather
than bringing them together.
“I want to thank Tiffany Cabán for bringing closure
to this long and hard-fought race. Too often, the
process of primary campaigns obscures the vast
commonalities we share as Democrats and reformers.
We all want a safe Queens where everyone is treated
equally,” Katz said.
Working Families Party Executive Director Bill
Lipton said the race highlighted a number of issues
as well as illustrating the amount of public support for
criminal justice reform.
“Tiffany Cabán transformed the debate on criminal
justice reform, not just in Queens but across the city
and country as well. She proved that progressive
campaigns and the progressive movement can succeed
across a borough as big and diverse as Queens, and
that voters want fundamental changes to our justice
system. We hope more courageous candidates like
Tiffany run for office everywhere,” Lipton said. “This
race also exposed how broken our election system
remains. Let’s be clear: eligible Queens voters were
disenfranchised by the mistakes and incompetence
of the BOE. We must enact reforms to ensure that
every vote is counted.”
Cabán said she would continue to advocate for
justice reforms and would continue being a feature
in activism in Queens.
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