Jasmine Wynn is a former employee of TREEage, and volunteer organizer with the 2021 Tiffany Cabán campaign and the 2022 Kristen Gonzalez campaign, where she worked under interviewee Kathryn Gioiosa. Interviewees Shawna Morlock and Bright D. Limm also volunteered at the Cabán and Gonzalez campaign as co-organizers alongside Wynn.
For most outside observers, the visible beginning of America’s 21st century socialist renaissance was Bernie Sanders’ presidential run in 2016. Senator Bernie Sanders, contrasted with the campaign of Donald J. Trump, offered an appealing alternative to the staunchly right-wing politics that Trump represented — especially combined with voter dissatisfaction over the potential re-entry of the Clinton family into the presidency.
Although many socialist electoral successes followed from his 2016 primary run, such as the victories of Rep. Cori Bush (MO-1) and Rep. Primila Jayapal (WA-7), no other district in the United States has seen as much post-Sanders socialist success as the New York City neighborhood of Astoria, Queens.
In January 2023, Astoria officially became the only district in the United States with an openly-socialist representative at all levels of government: municipal, state, and federal. However, it is important to recognize that such political evolutions do not occur in a vacuum. To understand the development of Astoria’s socialist strength, it is necessary to delve into the last decade of developments in Queens politics, starting with 2013.
2013: New Beginnings
Throughout the 21st century, the demographic makeup of Astoria, and Queens generally, has shifted away from its historical predominantly White, middle class background. Today, 75% of Queens residents are non-White. In an interview with The HPR, Anthony Maniscalco, co-author of “New York Politics” and former professor-in-residence for the New York State Assembly, asserted that the racial demographic shift is what led to a more “diverse Democratic constituency.”
In addition to racial demographics, Maniscalco attributed a large portion of Astoria’s leftward shift to younger constituents “coming in and replacing the core Democratic constituents that tended to vote for more moderate candidates,” as well as an influx of constituents from “all areas of the country.” As a result, this drew younger constituents toward transformative candidates such as Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the New York Congresswoman commonly referred to as “AOC.”
In 2013, Astoria took the first step toward its leftward shift by electing Democratic candidate Costa Constantinides, a local attorney, to the New York City Council. Prior to 2013, Astoria was represented in municipal government by primarily Republicans. However, with backing from the New York Working Families Party (NYWFP), Costantinides was able to successfully maintain his role on the City Council until his departure in 2021. Maniscalco explained that the NYWFP “was the most important force in shaking things up and creating Democrats that were more left-leaning” throughout the early-to-mid 2010s. In an interview with The HPR, Bright D. Limm, a Queens Working Family Party Organizer, pinpointed Constantinides’ election as the beginning of the leftist transformation of the next decade of Astoria’s politics. While the election of Constantinides was important, the 2016 presidential election had a far greater impact on Astoria’s politics.
2016: Feeling the Bern
For Queens, one of the most notable events of the 2016 presidential race was a rally hosted by Bernie Sanders in the neighborhood of Long Island City, which is directly south of Astoria. On the eve of the primary in New York, Sanders drew a crowd of 3,000 supporters. There, he critiqued big business and pushed back on Donald Trump’s anti-immigration policies. His discussion of these two issues was particularly resonant in Astoria, given issues with increased gentrification in the majority immigrant community. One Astoria resident mentioned how Sanders “inspired him” to delve further into political advocacy.
Although Sanders lost by over 250,000 votes to Hillary Clinton in the 2016 New York State Democratic Primary, it is worth noting that Sanders gained 76,305 votes within Queens country. Despite Sanders’ loss, the significant number of votes cast in favor of Sanders’ socialist policies were strongly indicative of the growing socialist force within Queens, which would later come into full force in 2018 with Ocasio-Cortez’s upset of Joe Crowley.
2018 – 2019: AOC’s Aftermath
Today, Rep. Alexandria Oscasio-Cortez (NY-14) is the most famous representative of Astoria because of her staunchly socialist stances and her 2018 upset of 10-term incumbent Joe Crowley. However, she did not rise to significance simply due to charisma or political luck; rather, her successes were enabled by the strong organization foundation built between the New York Working Families Party and the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) in the five years prior.
The surprising upset by Donald Trump over Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential race was a crucial aspect in DSA’s growth as an organization. Following the 2016 election, the membership of dues-paying members of DSA reportedly grew by over 312% for the 2017 fiscal year. This provided a larger network of organizers to aid with the complex of grassroots fundraising, communications, and field work needed to compete with a well-endowed political establishment, such as the Crowley family of Queens.
In an interview with The HPR, Astoria’s Democratic District Leader Shawna Morlock shed light on her experience as an organizer in the DSA post-2017. Morlock initially moved to Astoria in 2016, but prior to Ocasio-Cortez’s run, she noted that the extent of her political involvement was mostly limited to financial donations. Motivated by the Sanders campaign, she decided to volunteer for Ocasio-Cortez starting in January of 2018.
Initially, Morlock was drawn to Ocasio-Cortez as a candidate due to her “incredible” presence in Astoria’s community spaces; this eventually led to her completing multiple canvassing shifts a week for Ocasio-Cortez’s campaign. Notably, Morlock remarked how “through organizing for [the] campaign, I met a lot of DSA organizers,” which eventually led to her heavy involvement in subsequent races, such as the 2019 run of DSA candidate City Councilmember Tiffany Cabán.
After Cabán’s 2019 failed run for Queens District Attorney, Morlock formally joined the DSA. Through her increased involvement with NYC-DSA, she frequently encountered a fellow progressive stronghold: NYWFP.
Maniscalco stated that, prior to DSA’s late-2010s renaissance, NYWFP had “really made its imprint in New York City, state, and beyond for a good 10 to 15 years” due to its string of Democratic Party successes. From his perspective, such influence provided critical groundwork for DSA to build upon. Regarding Cabán’s District Attorney Race, NYWFP Organizer Limm noted that “the reason why [NYWFP] spent a lot of time in Astoria is because we knew we could get a lot of votes there.” He also commented that data from the 2018 NYWFP-endorsed Cynthia Nixon gubernatorial campaign indicated that Astoria and Western Queens were particularly receptive to left-wing messaging.
With the combined efforts of NYWFP and NYC-DSA, Councilmember Cabán lost the District Attorney race to moderate Melinda Katz by only 55 votes. Despite Councilmember Cabán’s initial loss, the relationship between NYWFP and NYC-DSA continued to flourish in subsequent successful races, namely the Cabán 2021 City Council Race, and the Gonzalez 2022 State Senate race.
Social media also played a significant role in fostering bonds within NYC’s far-left organizing scene. After meeting each other through Cabán’s 2019 campaign, District Leader Morlock and WFP Organizer Limm remained in touch by engaging with one another through the platform X, then known as Twitter. During the 2020 quarantine period, this would prove especially useful. In 2020, Limm approached Morlock on the behalf of another progressive coalition organization, New Reformers, to encourage her to run for Democratic district leader in Astoria. After some deliberation, Morlock entered the race and successfully secured the position. Morlock’s election functions as a microcosm of the intertwined solidarity between NYWFP and NYC-DSA members in the realm of Astoria, even in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic.
2020: Covid-19 and the Mamdani Campaign.
Generally speaking, the onset of the pandemic in the United States posed a unique challenge to the deeply interactive nature of electoral work. With newly imposed restrictions on non-essential forms of travel, this rendered canvassing, rallies, and fundraising events virtually impossible.
Despite this, the newfound political power possessed by Ocasio-Cortez and DSA on the national and local scale helped to push forth efforts for electing fellow socialist candidates like Assembly member Zohran Kwame Mamdani.
Mamdani formally entered the assembly race against non-socialist incumbent Aravella Simotas in October 2019. However in March 2020, his campaign was suddenly hit with the restrictive realities of the Covid-19 pandemic. This forced the progressive coalition to re-organize their approach to voter contact beyond the traditional no-contact method of phone-banking.
Voter outreach efforts began to include mechanisms such as personalized, handwritten postcards to voters from volunteers, which included messages written in “Nepali, Tibetan, Hindi, Urdu, Punjabi, Bengali, Arabic, and Serbo-Croatian.” Such efforts by volunteers reflected a campaign that was acknowledging Astoria’s diverse background, especially considering Astoria’s status as one of the most diverse neighborhoods globally. The ability to conduct such extensive voter outreach was especially aided by an expansion of DSA’s membership base and coalition partnerships.
Additionally, during the spring of 2020, the Mamdani campaign utilized the hosting of weekly Ramadan food banks at the Astoria Pantry as a way to talk to voters without violating state quarantine guidelines. Additionally, the “no questions asked” policy regarding identification made it a welcoming environment for undocumented immigrants and their relatives, which fostered trust between the community and Mamdani.
On June 30, Mamdani officially won a victory over Simotas by 423 votes. Mamdani’s upset laid the final groundwork for post-quarantine socialist victories in Astoria’s city council and State Senate seats.
2021 – 2023: Cabán and Gonzalez
To gain a better understanding of the post-quarantine electoral landscape, The HPR spoke with Kathryn Gioiosa, a student at the City College of New York and Co-Executive Director of TREEage. Gioiosa was a field director on the 2021 Cabán campaign, and more recently served as Cabán’s 2023 campaign manager. When discussing the campaign process at the conclusion of the pandemic’s peak, Gioiosa mentioned that the continuation of the postcard campaign proved beneficial in non-traditional voter outreach efforts, combined with coordinated phonebanking efforts on the behalf of volunteers.
In February 2022, Gioiosa also joined Kristen Gonzalez’s race for State Senate as field director. When discussing both wins, she attributed the two biggest contributors to Gonzalez and Cabán’s field successes to be NYWFP and NYC-DSA volunteers. However, Gioiosa also added that the expansion of the progressive coalition to include organizations such as Make the Road, “the youth climate coalition consisting of Sunrise NYC and TREEage,” and labor unions helped to broaden outreach approaches across different demographics. On Aug. 23, Gonzalez defeated incumbent Elizabeth Crowley by a 25-point margin.
Conclusion
Over the past decade, coordination across NYC’s premier progressive organizations, district demographic shifts, and an increasingly polarized national landscape have contributed to the success of what is now referred to as “The People’s Republic of Astoria.”
However, perhaps what is most important about Astoria’s successful promotion of socialist elected officials at all levels of government is the electoral lessons it offers to districts experiencing similar shifts throughout the United States.
TREEage Co-Executive Director Gioiosa remarked that it was important to “meet people where they are at,” especially considering America’s historical hostility toward socialism. For her, conversations with voters about issues such as “climate and housing, and how they are impacting people’s lives at the moment” was oftentimes all that was needed to eventually draw people into socialist candidates and their policies.
When asked for advice, Morlock and Limm both pointed to the importance of strengthening organizing forces before elections. Limm stressed the significance of being in “conversation and coalition with other organizations in the political ecosystem, and to know the limits of your own organization’s power.” Morlock emphasized that organizers must foster community within their organizations, because doing politics with people you are “deeply connected to” incubates passion, and helps the organization realize subsequent victories.
Heading into a national election year that is bound to be polarizing, the lessons from the NYC-DSA’s branch provide an important lesson about how to advocate for far-left stances in a way that speaks to the average American, especially at a moment where far-right politics have found their own renaissance. The NYC-DSA’s success dispels a common myth that socialist politics and ideas are unpopular within the United States. In Astoria, socialism found its place at all levels of a government that was historically hostile to the ideology — and it did so in a district with a long history of Republican representatives.
Astoria serves as a beacon of hope for the success of far-left movements in a year filled with similarly competitive elections. Hopefully, similar organizational structures can be applied in successful manners throughout the United States this election year.
Limm perfectly summarized NYC-DSA’s triumphs over the past five years: “if you focus on building an excellent organization, then excellent candidates will follow.”
Correction (February 15, 2024): An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that State Senator Jessica Ramos ran for office in 2019 as a DSA candidate. In fact, State Senator Jessica Ramos ran for office in 2018 and was not endorsed by the DSA.
