Julia Salazar | |
---|---|
Member of the New York State Senate from the 18th district | |
Assumed office January 1, 2019 | |
Preceded by | Martin Malave Dilan |
Personal details | |
Born | Miami,Florida,U.S. | December 30,1990
Political party | Republican (Before 2010) Independence (2010) Democratic (2017–present) |
Other political affiliations | Democratic Socialists of America |
Education | Columbia University |
Website | Official website Campaign website |
Julia Salazar (born December 30,1990) is an American politician and activist. She is the New York State Senator for the 18th district,which covers much of northern Brooklyn,centered on Bushwick. She won the seat as a first-time candidate after unseating incumbent Senator Martin Malave Dilan in the Democratic Party primary in 2018. [1] She attracted national media attention for her support for sex workers' rights and other views. A member of the Democratic Socialists of America,she became the first member of the organization to serve in New York's state legislature. [2] [3]
Salazar was born in Miami on December 30,1990. [4] [5] [6] Her mother is an American citizen by birth,and her father a naturalized American citizen from Colombia. Her parents divorced during her childhood. [7] [8] Salazar was raised in a secular [9] conservative home [10] and at 18 registered as a Republican. [11] In March 2010,she registered with the Independence Party of New York,believing it meant she was an independent voter. [11]
Salazar attended Columbia University,but did not earn a degree. [12] [13] [14] While there,Salazar was pro-life and a member of pro-Israel Christian student groups,but after a trip to Israel with Birthright Israel,her political views began to shift and she became involved in campus Jewish life and tenant organizing. [6] [7] [15] After college,she became a grassroots organizer and campaigned extensively for legislation around police accountability. [6]
While attending college,Salazar worked as a nanny for four years on the Upper West Side and as a housecleaner, [16] [17] [18] and in combination with her study of Middle Eastern history this led her to become more class-conscious. [10] She began as an activist by organizing a tenant group [17] [19] [20] [21] with which she launched a rent strike against poor conditions in her housing block. [10] She then worked at a social justice non-profit,Jews for Racial and Economic Justice (JFREJ) as an organizer. [21] [18] [22] [23] [24]
In April 2018,Salazar announced her candidacy for the 18th district of the New York State Senate in the Democratic primary against incumbent Senator Martin Malave Dilan, [25] [26] who had held his position since 2002. [9]
She ran as a democratic socialist. [9] Her campaign gained significant attention after the primary victory of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in New York's 14th congressional district. [26] She was endorsed by Our Revolution, [27] the Democratic Socialists of America, [28] Cynthia Nixon, [29] and Ocasio-Cortez herself. [6] [30] Citizens Union initially endorsed her but later revoked their endorsement,citing discrepancies in information she provided about her academic credentials. [31]
On September 13,2018 Salazar defeated Dilan for the Democratic Party nomination. [32] She was elected unopposed at the November 6 general election. [33] [34]
Salazar handily won re-election in 2020,with 86.7% of the votes in the Democratic primary,and 97.5% in the general election. [35] [36]
Salazar is a self-described democratic socialist, [37] a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, [27] and a staff organizer for Jews for Racial and Economic Justice. [25] She supports universal rent control in New York City, [38] decriminalization of sex work, [39] [40] Medicare for All,the abolition of Immigration and Customs Enforcement,and access to abortion services. [41] She also states that she supports the Boycott,Divestment and Sanctions movement which advocates boycotting Israel. [5] She also supported the Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act of 2019. [42] [43]
Salazar characterizes democratic socialists as those who recognize capitalism to be an inherently oppressive and exploitative system and who actively work to dismantle it in favor of a socialist economic system. Contrasting progressives from democratic socialists,she identifies the former as those offering palliative solutions within capitalism (without advocating for changing the system);however,she highlights the overlap between the two groups in regard to short-term policy goals. [37]
She endorsed Bernie Sanders for the 2020 Democratic presidential primary. [44] [45] For the 2021 New York City mayoral election,she endorsed Cathy Rojas,the candidate of the Party for Socialism and Liberation. [46]
Armin Rosen of Tablet has questioned Salazar's Jewish identity. [8] [47] [7] Salazar describes herself as Jewish,has said that she has some Sephardic ancestry through her father,including a Sephardic surname,and that she started to explore Judaism while attending college. [7] [9] According to Rosen,her brother claimed their father "never mentioned" any Sephardic heritage before his death, [8] though Salazar's mother stated that her husband's family had a Sephardic background, [7] [14] and Salazar's former classmates attested to her Jewish faith in college. [47] [48] Salazar accused Rosen of engaging in "race science" and claimed he had threatened to publish her mother’s personal information if she didn't cooperate. [49]
On September 11,2018,Salazar accused David Keyes,a spokesperson for then Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu,of sexual assault,stating she was preempting being outed in a story about to be published by The Daily Caller . [50] [51] Keyes denied assaulting her in a statement to Israeli newspaper Haaretz . [52] Eleven additional women subsequently alleged similar instances of harassment or assault by him. [53] Keyes resigned from his position in December 2018. [54] [55]
Martin MalavéDilan is a former member of the New York State Senate representing the 17th and 18th Senate Districts. The 18th Senate District encompasses the northern Brooklyn communities of Bushwick,Williamsburg,Greenpoint,Cypress Hills,City-Line,East New York,Bedford-Stuyvesant and Brownsville.
The Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) is a multi-tendency,democratic socialist political organization in the United States. After the Socialist Party of America (SPA) transformed into Social Democrats USA,Michael Harrington formed the Democratic Socialist Organizing Committee (DSOC). The DSOC later merged with the New American Movement to form the DSA. The organization is headquartered in New York City and has about 80,000 members. It leads organizing and protest campaigns,and has members in the House of Representatives,state legislatures,and other local offices.
Luis R. Sepúlveda is an American attorney and politician who currently serves as the New York State Senator from the 32nd Senate District,which includes parts of the Bronx. Prior to being in the state senate Sepúlveda was a member of the New York State Assembly from 2013 to 2018.
The 2018 New York gubernatorial election occurred on November 6,2018. Incumbent Democratic Governor Andrew Cuomo won re-election to a third term,defeating Republican Marc Molinaro and several minor party candidates. Cuomo received 59.6% of the vote to Molinaro's 36.2%.
Ross Elliot Barkan is an American journalist,novelist,and essayist.
The 2018 United States House of Representatives elections in New York were held November 6,2018 to elect a U.S. Representative from each of New York's 27 congressional districts. The elections coincided with the gubernatorial election,as well as an election to the United States Senate and various state and local elections.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez,also known by her initials AOC,is an American politician and activist. She has served as the U.S. representative for New York's 14th congressional district since 2019,as a member of the Democratic Party.
The 2018 New York Attorney General election took place on November 6,2018. New York City Public Advocate Letitia James,a Democrat,was elected. James is the first woman and the first African-American to be elected New York Attorney General.
Jabari Brisport is an American politician,activist,and former public school teacher. He is the state senator for New York's 25th State Senate district in Brooklyn,and the first openly gay person of color to be elected to the New York State Legislature.
Kerri Evelyn Harris is an American activist and politician who is the Democratic state representative for Delaware's 32nd district. She was previously a Democratic candidate for United States Senate in 2018,mounting an unsuccessful primary challenge to incumbent US Senator Tom Carper.
The 2020 United States House of Representatives elections in New York were held on November 3,2020,to elect the 27 U.S. representatives from the State of New York,one from each of the state's 27 congressional districts. The elections coincided with the 2020 U.S. presidential election,as well as other elections to the House of Representatives,elections to the United States Senate and various state and local elections. The primary election was held on June 23,2020.
The 2022 United States Senate election in New York was held on November 8,2022,to elect a member of the United States Senate to represent the State of New York.
Tiffany Cabán is an American attorney,politician,and political organizer who has served as a member of the New York City Council for the 22nd District since the 2021 New York City Council election. She won the Democratic primary for the seat after the incumbent,Democrat Costa Constantinides,retired.
The Squad is an informal group of eight Democratic members of the U.S. House of Representatives. It was initially composed of four women elected in the 2018 United States House of Representatives elections:Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York,Ilhan Omar of Minnesota,Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts,and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan. They have since been joined by Jamaal Bowman of New York and Cori Bush of Missouri following the 2020 United States House of Representatives elections,and Greg Casar of Texas and Summer Lee of Pennsylvania following the 2022 elections. The Squad is well known for being among the most progressive and left-wing members of the United States Congress.
The 2021 New York City Council elections were held on November 2,2021. The primary elections were held on June 22,2021. There were several special elections for seats vacated in 2020 and early 2021;these special elections were the first to use ranked-choice voting in city council elections after it was approved by a ballot question in 2019 and the second to use ranked-choice voting since New York City repealed PR-STV in 1945. Due to redistricting after the 2020 Census,candidates also ran for two-year terms instead of four-year terms for the first time,stemming from the New York City Charter overhaul in 1989. Four-year terms will resume in the 2025 election after another two-year election in 2023.
Marcela Mitaynes is a Peruvian-American politician and tenant organizer. She is a member of the New York State Assembly,representing the 51st district as a Democrat. Mitaynes is a member of the Democratic Socialists of America.
The 2018 New York's 14th congressional district election was held on Tuesday,November 6,2018. The primaries for New York's federal elections were held earlier in the year on June 26. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez defeated incumbent congressman Joe Crowley in the primary,and went on to defeat Republican opponent Anthony Pappas in the general election.
Phara Souffrant Forrest is an American politician,nurse,and tenant activist. A member of the Democratic Socialists of America,she is the assembly member for the 57th district of the New York State Assembly. After defeating incumbent Assembly Member Walter T. Mosley in the Democratic primary in June 2020,Forrest won the general election in November of that year. She defeated former District Manager of Community Board 2 Olanike Alabi in the primary to defend her seat in 2022. She was unopposed in the general election.
Sandra Nurse is a Panamanian-born American carpenter and Democratic politician from New York City who has served as the New York City Council member for the 37th district since 2022. District 37 covers Bushwick and other neighborhoods in northern Brooklyn.
Alexa Avilés is an American politician,community activist,and non-profit manager from New York City. She is a member of the New York City Council for the 38th district,which covers Sunset Park along Brooklyn's western shoreline,also covering Red Hook,Greenwood Heights,and small parts of Windsor Terrace,Dyker Heights,and Borough Park neighborhoods in western Brooklyn.
The proposals are being sponsored by progressive freshman Democrats like state Sens. Julia Salazar and Zellnor Myrie, and born of tenants' rights organizing around the state by the Upstate/Downstate Housing Alliance.
State Sen. Julia Salazar led a protest on April 18 urging Albany legislators to adopt protections for tenants across the state, which they agreed to do earlier this week.