Beltway journalist Edward-Isaac Dovere referred to power-crazed careerist and corporate shill Hakeem Jeffries as the next face of the Democratic Party today. If he’s right about Jeffries being the next speaker or Democratic Minority Leader if McCarthy becomes speaker, that will finish off the party as any remaining semblance of a vehicle for the legitimate interests of the working class once and for all.
Speaking off the record, few members see Jeffries as even remotely qualified for the job he’s working towards winning but say he’s the only one who can put together a majority of the caucus. How sad is that, especially considering he is vehemently anti-progressive– and little more than a Kevin McCarthy kind of character but with a “D” next to his name instead of an “R?” The truest thing Dovere wrote about him is that “Every day, Jeffries stockpiles chits and builds relationships that could aid his run for speaker.” There is exactly one way to stop this fraud from becoming the leader the House Dems– defeating him in the next primary… Something our newest endorsee, Queen Johnson, is trying to do.
Queen Johnson is a community organizer, human rights activist, public servant and progressive candidate running for U.S Congress in the NY-08 district of Brooklyn and Queens. Queen was born and raised in Brooklyn in the 90’s and has been at the frontline of the struggles and knows what it takes to make change happen. Queen isn’t new to community activism. At age 13 she was protesting with her community and Al Sharpton against police brutality when one of her neighbors, Timothy Stansbury, was shot on her building’s roof at the hands of a NYPD officer.
Growing up in poverty herself, Queen has been driven to do more for her community. Although she couldn’t afford a college education, she took out the loans necessary and made it her mission to pursue her bachelors degree in economic analysis at CUNY’s Brooklyn College because she wanted to study how she could help get her community out of the cycle of poverty. She told me she learned that the way to do that would be “by creating and improving access to jobs, raising the minimum wage, investing in and implementing programs that help working people, reforming our criminal justice system and providing all people with access to basic social services, including education, healthcare, adequate food, sanitation, shelter and clean water– all ways to reduce poverty.”
NY-08— a district a few blocks from where I grew up– includes some of the bluest (Bed Stuy and Brownsville) and reddest (Brighton and Howard Beach) neighborhoods in New York. But there are far more blue neighborhood and the district has a D+33 PVI. Biden beat Trump 82.9% to 16.5%. Jeffries was reelected against a Republican vanity candidate with 84.8%. Like with almost all NYC districts, the winner of the primary is the next congress member.
Please read Queen’s guest post below and consider contributing to her campaign by clicking on the Blue America 2022 congressional thermometer (a live link).
Guest Post
-by Queen Johnson
I am raising three African American sons in an injustice system in which the odds are against them based on the color of their skin. I have experienced our broken health care system when my father needed emergency surgery with no healthcare insurance and was put on a breathing machine for four days until his insurance was approved. I have been in the shelter system and currently live in public housing and I know that with the proper funding we can fix our neighborhoods without having gentrification; everyone deserves a dignified safe place to live. There should not be a homeless population in the United States of America.
This race is bigger than Hakeem Jeffries. This campaign and my race are about the representation that my community deserves, as well as what our whole country needs. As a lawmaker you don’t just make laws and co-sponsor different bills.
As we just saw Cori Bush doing so brilliantly, members are also supposed to fight for the people and prioritize the social issues that are affecting their constituents’ lives. In this case we have seen what Mr. Jeffries values, what he prioritizes and what he doesn’t. Medicare For All, Public Housing, Justice Reform, Gun Violence, and a Green New Deal are issues he has not prioritized and hasn’t fought for. Fighting requires more than just a signature. It’s important that Brooklyn and Queens voters in the 8th district keep in mind that Mr. Jeffries is a career politician– our political views are very different.
Hakeem Jeffries’ comments on Shontel Brown’s win proves how out of touch he is with his district. I feel the mainstream Democrats are in lala-land when it comes to the reality of the working families of our country.
Yes the economy has improved but we can’t overlook the ongoing battle last week to extend the eviction moratorium. Due to poor leadership 11+ million people were at risk of being evicted.
We also can’t overlook the current climate crisis we are currently facing. While Congress went on recess I was on the steps of the Capitol pressuring Congress to reconvene because while recess could have waited, the people could not. I contend that that’s called real leadership. Why is it that when a progressive speaks truth about the mainstream Democrats, the establishment Dems get so defensive and call it “attacks?” The main difference between progressives and Democrats who favor the status quo is very simple and has been demonstrated for centuries: status quo Democrats put profit over people and leftists are all about people over profits. Enough about the obvious controversy between the leftist vs mainstream Democrats and let’s focus on the social issues that are affecting everyday people today.
Please visit the issues page of my website and you’ll see the 13 policy priorities this campaign is built on– from rights for veterans, women, the LGBTQ+ community, seniors and immigrants to my plan for ending gun violence, reforming the justice system and for housing reform and Medicare for All.
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