Cynthia Nixon. Photo: Twitter
Democratic candidate for governor Cynthia Nixon has endorsed Julia Salazar, who is running for New York State Senate against Senator Martin Malavé Dilan in the 18th district in Brooklyn.
At a rally in Bushwick, a community that has seen tens of thousands of residents displaced by gentrification, Salazar in turn announced her support for Nixon’s bid for governor. She cited Nixon’s plan to protect tenants, fix the broken subways, and enact progressive policies.
Both candidates are running in the September 13th primary, say they are rejecting corporate money, and that they are challenging establishment taking incumbents backed by luxury real estate developers.
“Cynthia is showing true courage by fighting the real estate interests that have controlled our state for too long,” Salazar said. “We are challenging corporate democrats because we want to build a New York that works for the many, not the few. We know that a better world is possible.”
Both candidates were joined by New York Communities for Change (NYCC) who also announced their support of Salazar. NYCC was one of the first organizations to back Nixon’s bid for governor in April.
Both Nixon and Salazar spoke about the need to fix the broken rent laws by expanding rent stabilization and protecting tenants from corporate landlords. In May, Nixon unveiled her Rent Justice for All platform, one of the most ambitious tenant protection agendas in the country, which calls for strengthening New York’s failing rent laws and ridding them of the loopholes that landlords and real estate developers use to take homes out of rent stabilization. It also calls for passing legislation to re-regulate all of the apartments that are still rentals and were lost as a result of vacancy decontrol under the Cuomo administration.
“Today, we’re thrilled to endorse Julia Salazar for New York State Senate,” said Renata Pumarol, Deputy Director of New York Communities for Change (NYCC). “Like Cynthia, she is running to ensure that working class people of color and immigrants have a real future in New York. Julia has been an effective community organizer and advocate for domestic workers, homecare workers, and other low-income New Yorkers who are getting pushed out of New York City by out-of-control gentrification, real-estate greed, and Cuomo’s pro-landlord agenda. We know Julia will fight hard to implement a progressive agenda that delivers real economic empowerment and social justice to low-income New Yorkers and immigrants, especially in communities of color. The days of the Democratic Party operating as the party of Wall Street and real-estate greed are over.”
Both Nixon and Salazar have announced support for a single-payer Medicare for All healthcare system, abolishing ICE, and fixing the crumbling subway system.
In the last eight years, homelessness has surged by 36 percent to over 89,000 people.
“Julia and I are both running insurgent, progressive campaigns. We share a vision of a New York for the many, not the few– including an end to ICE; an end to cash bail; Medicare for all; affordable housing; and a working subway,” Nixon said. “As proud public school graduates and the proud daughters of single moms, we both know first hand the real impact these programs would have on the lives of working families. We have both seen how our state has been devastated by the leadership of corporate Democrats, which is why we’re both rejecting corporate money. Like thousands of other women across the country who are running for office for the first time this year, Julia and I looked at who is in charge and the job they were doing and realized that if we want things to finally change, we’re going to have to step up and do it ourselves– and we must lift each other up as leaders in the fight against injustice and intolerance.”
Salazar’s endorsement marks the 19th endorsement for Nixon over the last week, following the endorsements from the Democratic nominee for New York’s 14th Congressional District, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, former City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito, Councilmember Jimmy Van Bramer, and 15 Democratic officials from the Hudson Valley area.
