Articles

  • The Left Takes Chicago

    At the 2022 Socialism Conference, a new generation of radical young organizers revivifies the US left.

  • The Scion: What happened to Andrew Cuomo?

    In the past year, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has gone from being a national media darling and fantasy presidential contender to a forlorn, scandal-plagued figure, walking the executive grounds enrobed in a blanket. Before the pandemic, most politically engaged New Yorkers knew Cuomo as a bully and a tyrant—traits…

  • DSA Was Only Getting Started

    A few days before May Day, Marcela Mitaynes, a Brooklyn tenant organizer who is running for the New York State Assembly, started getting calls from neighbors she hadn’t heard from in a while. Rent was due, and they were worried about paying. Many were already living paycheck to paycheck before…

  • She Was a Progressive Darling for Years. Now She’s Facing 4 Primary Challenges From the Left.

    Representative Carolyn Maloney was one of a record number of women elected to federal office in 1992 in the wake of Anita Hill’s testimony. She has remained popular, and won every race for reelection to date, in spite of primary challenges. Maloney was already up against three candidates in the…

  • What Happened to New York’s Plans for Single-Payer Health Care?

    New York’s Democratic voters sent a new class of true-blue legislators to Albany in 2018. With the governor’s office and both houses of the state legislature firmly under Democratic control—and a raft of progressive bills rapidly signed into law—many hoped this would be the year New York finally enacted single-payer…

  • Progressive ‘Piss and Vinegar’ Takes On Albany

    It’s a new day in Albany. Democrats finally have full control of the legislature; rising stars like Alessandra Biaggi and Julia Salazar are injecting the state capital with much-needed progressive energy; and the Independent Democratic Conference (IDC), a group that for decades stymied progressive legislation by caucusing with the Republicans,…

  • Albany’s Reckoning With Sexual Harassment Is Long Overdue

    In February, Albany held its first hearing on sexual harassment since 1992, after Anita Hill thrust the issue into the national spotlight. Many women in that pre-hashtag era were inspired by Hill’s testimony to share their own painful stories. One was then Assembly member Earlene H. Hill, who said publicly…

  • Richard Gottfried’s Health-Care Crusade Is Paying Off

    Two posters hang on the door of New York State Assembly member Richard Gottfried’s Albany office. One has a picture of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., underneath a quote: “Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in health care is the most shocking and inhumane.” The other says “Healthcare is…

  • Andrea Stewart-Cousins Is Albany’s Best Hope

    In January, State Senator Andrea Stewart-Cousins, who represents Greenburgh, part of White Plains, part of New Rochelle, part of Yonkers, and Scarsdale in Westchester County, became the first woman—and the first black woman—to lead the New York State Senate in its 242-year history.

  • AOC Responds to Her Critics

    On June 26, few people outside New York’s 14th Congressional District knew who Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was. But by the next day, when news spread that she’d toppled her opponent, 10-term Representative Joseph Crowley, in the Democratic congressional primary, she was a national celebrity. She appeared on CNN, Meet the Press,…

  • Catalina Cruz Dreams Big in Queens

    The streets of Jackson Heights, Queens, bustle with residents wearing kurtas, shalwar kameez, headscarves, and abayas. Signs are in multiple languages; restaurants advertise cuisines from around the world. In the middle sits New York State Assembly candidate Catalina Cruz’s campaign office, in a building that also houses immigration lawyers and…

  • Can Alessandra Biaggi and Julia Salazar Unseat the GOP in Albany?

    At a fundraiser held earlier this year, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo declared that Democrats “have achieved political clarity” by watching Republicans rule in Washington, DC: “Everything we are for, they are against,” Cuomo stated. “It’s that simple.” But politics—especially in Cuomo’s Albany—is never simple. For years, Cuomo enabled a…

  • Chuck Schumer’s Brooklyn No-Show

    On Monday evening, Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer was scheduled to host a town-hall meeting at his reform synagogue, Congregation Beth Elohim (CBE), a historic building on a tree-lined Brooklyn block. Ever since Donald Trump’s election, Schumer has faced growing anger from progressive Democrats infuriated by his stated willingness to…

  • Swearing Off Corporate Cash: A Q&A With Saira Rao

    Sign up for Take Action Now and we’ll send you three actions every Tuesday. In Colorado’s first congressional district, which includes the city and county of Denver and the suburbs of Glendale, Englewood, Sheridan, and Cherry Hills Village, two women are vying for the seat currently held by Representative Diana…

  • Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Fights the Power

    In the Democratic primary on June 26, voters in New York’s 14th Congressional District will choose between two candidates: insurgent Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and incumbent Joseph Crowley. Though they nominally belong to the same party, Ocasio-Cortez represents an ascendant enthusiasm for economic justice that has helped make Senator Bernie Sanders the…