Queens, one of New York City five boroughs is looking to elect its first Green council member for the city of New York. Edwin DeJesus is is the youngest Puerto Rican/Italian candidate to participate for NYC Council race.
Third party wave
Edwin DeJesus is a 24 year old Green Party candidate for the 22nd District in Queens, New York. He gathered the required signatures to run for the District needing a minimum of 450 local residents signatures, he cumulated 696 signatories. Moreover, despite his young age and being a novice in the area, DeJesus intends to make a name for himself.
DeJesus is endorsed by the Green Party of New York and is looking to become the first third party city council member since Laetitia James, in 2003. Furthermore he is hoping to become the first Green candidate to attain this position in New York City. DeJesus is part of the wave of third party politics that experienced a rise in the last 10 years.
In fact, support for a third parties politics is all time high according to a recent Gallup survey. Moreover this report also shows that support for Republican or Democrats parties is dwindling down, and the support for a third party is increasing. This is a result of ineffective politics by each side for the last 10 years, and the growing need of different representations. Furthermore the survey shows that 50% of the adults are viewing themselves as political independent.
“At 24 years old, I am the youngest Puerto Rican candidate to run for office. If elected, I would be the youngest member of the council in history.” – DeJesus in an Interview for The Queens post.
Democratic stronghold
DeJesus will have a daunting task ahead of him, as the 22nd District is known to be a democratic stronghold. Since 2013, only democratic candidates have won this district by a overwhelming majority. DeJesus is building a coalition with people from all different background and ideas. They hope together to achieve victory.
“The other day I was speaking with voters at Eddie’s Barber Shop when a Republican promised he would vote for me simply because I am not a Democrat. I’ll take it!” –DeJesus said
Strong advocator for the original Green New Deal, DeJesus holds strong ideas as part of his plan with notably, 11 important points. Examples of the main points are; targeting the housing problem with stabilization of rent, better and more affordable healthcare, police reforms, and improving New York City’s transport issues.
What’s next ?
For DeJesus, time is an important factor. The upcoming election in November 2021 holds great uncertainty regarding the circumstances around the COVID-19 pandemic. However, DeJesus hopes to gather as many votes as he can for his candidacy run in efforts to counteract last year new implementation by governor Cuomo. Governor Cuomo pushed forward higher ballot access for third parties. This allowed parties like the Green Party or Libertarian to lose their ballots. Thus DeJesus hopes to fight back against Cuomo’s implementation plan with this year election.
DeJesus intends to win the city council seat, and push back against this new regulation.
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