AOC WINS MASSIVE UPSET for Latina Tiffany Cabán & Makes History in Queens, Claims Shocking New York District Attorney Primary Win; The 31-year-old leftist public defender is poised to take charge of one of the largest jurisdictions in the country.
Gideon Resnick Political Reporter
Updated 06.26.19 6:49AM ET / Published 06.25.19 11:37PM ET
thedailybeast.com
Scott Heins/Getty
Another earthshaking political upset roared through Queens, New York, on Tuesday night.
Nearly a year to the day that Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez burst onto the national political scene with a shocking primary upset win against the powerful House Democrat Joe Crowley, Tiffany Cabán emerged victorious in a six-person primary race to succeed deceased Queens District Attorney Richard Brown.
With high-profile endorsements from Rep. Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Elizabeth Warren, Cabán, a 31-year-old Latina public defender who identifies as queer, is now poised to be put in charge of one of the largest jurisdiction populations in the country, with nearly 2.4 million people living in Queens. Her platform of “people-powered justice,” including ending cash bail, not prosecuting subway turnstile jumping, prosecuting the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, closing Rikers Island and decriminalizing sex work marks a massive departure from the traditional tough-on-crime, prosecutorial approach of DAs around the country including the longtime Queens DA, Richard Brown. The apparent win, with Queens Borough President Melinda Katz yet to concede, would be not only an unprecedented victory for the left in New York against a borough-wide president, but a sign of the energy around the criminal-justice movement in races nationwide. The official result will not be announced for a few days due to mail-in ballots.
At her victory event at the La Boom nightclub, nestled next to a Volkswagen dealership, a diverse crowd of supporters erupted into a frenzy every time New York 1 broadcast a new uptick in her extremely close race. They chanted “People Power!” “Tiffany, Tiffany, Tiffany!” and “Black Lives Matter” as the numbers slowly trickled in, shifting between jumbles of nerves and excitement. As the bouts of exuberant mayhem ensued, the DJ announced that the bar in the room was closing at 10 p.m., and people milled about under throbbing halos of green and red lights. The rollercoaster of a race was decided between two candidates, Cabán and Katz, who barely topped 30,000 each votes in a county with 766,117 active Democratic voters.
“When we started this thing they said I was too young. They said I didn’t look like a district attorney,” Cabán said stepping to the microphone a little after 11 as she continued to lead with 99 percent of precincts reporting. “They said we could not win but we did, it y’all.”
In an indicator of how significant the primary race is in the heavily Democratic borough, Cabán declared: “Tonight, we won the Queens District Attorney’s Office!”
Among the candidates the political neophyte dispatched were Gregory Lasak, a former judge who drew support from law enforcement unions, and Katz, who had strong institutional and union support from the borough’s Democratic machine including Crowley. Katz also was backed by Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-NY), who took over for Crowley as the chair of the Queens Democratic Party.
After being endorsed by the Working Families Party and Democratic Socialists of America, Cabán gained more national headlines as endorsements piled up, with two 2020 presidential candidates, Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, throwing their support behind her, along with Rep. Cortez and The New York Times. The endorsements from the presidential candidates appeared to rub Meeks the wrong way, who tweeted: “If either of them wants to be President, I suggest they speak with us before they decide to speak for us.”
But they and the Times ultimately did pick the candidate voters wanted.
“Ms. Cabán identifies as a queer Latina,” the Times wrote in its endorsement. “She is of Puerto Rican descent and is the first in her family to graduate from college. She would bring a perspective suited to one of the world’s most diverse communities, one where elected officials have rarely reflected that reality.”
Her victory, which will pit her against Republican Daniel Kogan in the general election in November, comes as a wave of more progressive prosecutors have been elected throughout the country, including Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner, St. Louis County Prosecutor Wesley Bell, and Suffolk County District Attorney Rachael Rollins.
The second major upset in Queens in the past year represents a broader leftward lurch in the city with more organizing and resources devoted to down-ballot races and progressive causes. Last September, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo dispatched a high-profile challenge from Cynthia Nixon but a host of state senators in the Independent Democratic Conference or IDC lost to primary challengers, which has resulted in the passage of a progressive agenda that had long been stymied in Albany. Progressives also helped lead a major backlash to the planned construction of an Amazon campus in Long Island City.
Cabán—who has talked about decriminalizing sex work and also talked about arresting ICE agents in courtrooms—envisions an office that will not evaluate performance based on convictions but rather reduced incarceration and recidivism and increased community engagement, and that will provide updated information about sentencing policies, arrest rates and charging decisions. |
