Massive Changes in New York Politics; Tiffany Cabán declares victory in New York race in a major upset
Tiffany Cabán, a 31-year-old public defender, this morning declared victory in a six-way Democratic primary for district attorney in the Queens borough of New York.
The race has yet to be officially called, but shortly after 11pm EST last night, Ms. Cabán told her supporters: “We did it y’all.”
With 99% of precincts reporting, she led her main opponent Melinda Katz by roughly 1,100 votes. Roughly 3,400 absentee ballots have to be counted but they will be split among all candidates.
Why is the election so special? These tweets explain
This is the most stunning win yet in the movement to elect decarceral prosecutors: Tiffany Caban (@CabanForQueens), a 31 year-old queer, Latina public defender will become the District Attorney of Queens, the 11th most populous county in America. That’s people power.16.4K10:09 PM – Jun 25, 2019Twitter Ads info and privacy3,355 people are talking about this
Tiffany Cabán was endorsed by AOC, Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren.
NY Senator Mike Gianaris said this was “the progressive wave taking over New York”.
People for Bernie✔@People4Bernie
“For those people who have their head in the sand and they want to pretend @AOC‘s victory was a fluke, that wasn’t true.” before @CabanForQueens victory @SenGianaris said at a minimum, its time for the Queens machine to “change the way *they’re* doing business”41212:54 AM – Jun 26, 2019115 people are talking about thisTwitter Ads info and privacy
This election has already changed New York’s politics. As the NYT pointed out:
The primary showed how Democratic voters in Queens were willing to entertain major change to the borough’s criminal justice system. All six candidates in Tuesday’s primary had backed proposals to get rid of bail for low-level offenses, move away from prosecuting sex workers and form a conviction-integrity unit.
“It feels like we have already won because we have shifted the debate on not prosecuting a whole list of minor offenses and ending cash bail,” said Bill Lipton, the New York director of the Working Families Party, which helped stabilize Ms. Cabán’s campaign after a rocky launch.
