Has the WFP become toxic on Long Island?

After several years of tough elections for Democrats on Long Island, fewer candidates than ever are opting to run on the left-wing Working Families Party line. Democratic politicos on the island have privately said that the increasingly progressive third party is becoming a liability in the generally moderate suburbs. While some candidates on Long Island are still choosing to take the WFP line, many Democrats in the most competitive districts are either running on other third-party lines or not running on any additional third-party lines. That’s in stark contrast with the Hudson Valley, where the WFP line has remained a sought-after endorsement.

Primary losses

The story of the WFP’s apparent woes on Long Island starts with the Democratic primaries, where candidates backed by the progressive third party lost nearly every competitive election in June. At the congressional level, Nancy Goroff, the pick of the WFP for the 1st Congressional District, lost to John Avlon in the Democratic primary. After that loss, Goroff dropped the line to allow for a two-person race between Avlon and incumbent Republican Rep. Nick LaLota in November. Rob Lubin, who is running in the 2nd Congressional District with the support of the WFP, faced no primary for the Democratic line. But he is also running against the safest Republican on Long Island, two-term Rep. Andrew Garbarino, in a district that has not received much attention in Democrats’ congressional battleground strategizing. 

At the state legislative level, two Long Island candidates backed by the WFP lost their primary elections. Brad Schwartz, who had the progressive party’s endorsement, lost to Kim Keiserman in the Democratic primary for the 7th state Senate District. Keiserman will now take on Republican incumbent state Sen. Jack Martins, while Schwartz has dropped out of the race. Similarly, WFP-backed candidate Skylar Johnson lost the Democratic primary for Assembly District 4 to Rebecca Kassay. Johnson also dropped out after losing the primary, and Kassay will now run against Republican incumbent Assembly Member Ed Flood.

Noah Burroughs is a notable exception to the trend, winning his primary for Assembly District 18 with the support of the WFP. But unlike the other candidates, he won’t face a competitive general election – Burroughs is running to replace Assembly Member Taylor Darling in a solidly Democratic district. He directed questions about his decision to run on the WFP line to his campaign manager, who did not return several requests for comment. But in a brief phone call, Burroughs said there are a considerable number of registered WFP voters in the district.

An empty line

Almost no Long Island Democrats in competitive races are running on the WFP line this year. Keiserman has said that the WFP’s politics are too liberal for the district. Instead of the WFP, Avlon is running on his own third-party line called “Common Sense Suffolk” that he independently petitioned to create. “John is a common sense Democrat, so it only makes sense that he's running on the Common Sense line,” said his campaign manager Bryan Sokolowski, without directly opining on the WFP. Kassay is also running on the Common Sense Suffolk line rather than the WFP line – as is Democrat Sarah Anker, who has mounted an under-the-radar but serious challenge to incumbent Republican state Sen. Anthony Palumbo. The “Common Sense Suffolk” line is separate from (but seems inspired by) the existing Common Sense Party, which in recent years has endorsed a handful of moderate Republicans and Democrats.

This year, the Common Sense Party has endorsed Democratic Rep. Tom Suozzi and Democrat Laura Gillen, who is running against Republican incumbent Rep. Anthony D’Esposito in the 4th Congressional District. Both Suozzi or Gillen are running on the Common Sense line, not the WFP line. “There is too much extremism and divisiveness on both sides, and voters are tired of it,” Gillen said in reference to running on the Common Sense line. “They don’t want partisan hacks who bow to political bosses – they want independent leaders who will reach across the aisle to deliver results.” Although Suozzi ran on the WFP line during his last congressional general election in 2020, he is not running with the support of the progressive group this year. He did not return multiple requests for comment about his decision to eschew the WFP line this year.

In the open race for Assembly District 11, Democrat Kwani O’Pharrow is also not running as a WFP candidate. Assembly Member Kimberly Jean-Pierre dropped out fairly late in the cycle, but her reelection in 2022 was among the closest in the state. O’Pharrow’s campaign manager said the WFP did not approach them about appearing on the line, but said they would have considered it if given the option and had the time.

Even some Long Island Democrats running in solidly Democratic districts have chosen not to  run on the WFP line. Neither Darling nor Siela Bynoe had the party’s endorsement when they went head-to-head in the June primary for the 6th state Senate District. After winning the primary, Bynoe will not appear on the WFP line in November. A spokesperson for her campaign did not return a request for comment. 

Not on Our Dime

Many Long Island Democrats see the WFP’s progressive and pro-Palestine politics as more of a hindrance than a help in the moderate suburbs. “I did not pursue the Working Families line because I strongly oppose the Not On Our Dime Act and the uncommitted movement, two WFP priorities that are (out) of step with the core values I share with the residents of my district,” Keiserman said in a statement. “I’m a proud proponent of fully funding public schools, workers’ rights and cutting costs for working families, but I cannot get behind some of the recent positions the WFP has endorsed.”

Keismerman isn’t the only Long Island Democrat to cite the Not On Our Dime Act as a key point of contention with the WFP. The controversial legislation would penalize New York charities that provide aid to Israeli settler organizations in the West Bank and has drawn staunch opposition from many Jewish lawmakers in particular over the belief that it unfairly targets Jewish charities. Although the WFP has not taken a formal position on the bill yet, members voted at their convention in July to advance it to leadership for consideration, drawing both attention and criticism to the party. “At this point I wouldn’t seek the Working Families Party endorsement and don’t want it because of some of their very left positions and clearly some of their anti-Israel positions and something like this would certainly be one of them,” Assembly Member Charles Lavine told the New York Post last month. He has sought and run on the line numerous times in the past, but did not do so this year. Lavine represents a safe Democratic seat and has held it for two decades.

Former Assembly Member Judy Griffin, who is seeking to take back her old seat in Nassau County from incumbent Republican Assembly Member Brian Curran, also ripped the WFP over the Not On Our Dime Act last month. “I am vehemently opposed to this dangerous and hateful legislation since it targets Jewish non-profit organizations,” Griffin said in a statement posted to X. “I have not sought to run on the WFP Ballot Line in 2022 and did not seek this ballot line in 2024 because they have gotten far too extreme over the years.” Griffin said that the WFP had endorsed the legislation – which is inaccurate, as the party has not yet decided whether to formally endorse the bill – and cited that as a reason to “double down on this decision.”

Democrats on Long Island have privately groused about the increasingly leftward shift of the WFP, which they fear has become a liability in the more moderate suburbs. One Democratic consultant who has worked on Long Island campaigns said that the party’s questionnaire this year is “pretty much pro everything Long Island isn’t.” A former Long Island Democratic staffer said that the “WFP on Long Island is the electoral equivalent of a pile of smoldering graphite on the roof of Chernobyl just after it exploded.”

“Clearly, the Democratic Party as reflected in the rhetoric of the Harris/Walz ticket and the positioning of many congressional and state legislative candidates is trying to move to the moderate middle,” said Lawrence Levy, the executive dean of the National Center for Suburban Studies at Hofstra University. “This is especially true and recognizing the particular potency of moderate suburbanites in swing districts. And, fair or not, the Working Families Party falls in the same basket as many progressive who are out of sync with these voters.”

Upstate support

While Democrats on Long Island are running away from the WFP, the opposite is true in the Hudson Valley, the other major battleground in the state for Congress and in the state Legislature. Almost every Democratic candidate for Congress is either running on the WFP line or has actively sought it. Democratic Rep. Pat Ryan and candidate Josh Riley, who is challenging Republican incumbent Rep. Marc Molinaro, will both appear on the third party line in November. Former Rep. Mondaire Jones, who is challenging Republican incumbent Rep. Mike Lawler, was initially endorsed by the WFP but wound up losing a primary for the line against a candidate seen by many on the left as a conservative plant. All three candidates face highly competitive races in November that have attracted national attention. Only one congressional candidate has rejected the progressive third party: George Latimer, who earlier this year defeated incumbent Rep. Jamaal Bowman, whose primary campaign received extensive support from the WFP. Unlike Ryan, Riley and Jones, Latimer does not face a competitive general election. Even further upstate, Democratic candidates are still happy to run with the WFP’s support. In Central New York, State Sen. John Mannion won a contested Democratic primary for the 22nd Congressional District with the backing of the WFP and will run on their line when he takes on incumbent Republican Rep. Brandon Williams in November. 

At the state legislative level, candidates in the Hudson Valley show few signs of turning away from the WFP. State Sen. James Skoufis – who won an incredibly tight reelection in 2022 and has been a leading moderate, suburban voice in his chamber – is endorsed by the WFP and is still running on the WFP line in the general election this year. So is state Sen. Peter Harckham, who has faced some tough races since he was first elected in 2018, and state Sen. Michelle Hinchey, whose district was also held by Republicans in the recent past. Yvette Valdes-Smith, who is challenging incumbent Republican state Sen. Rob Rolison in Poughkeepsie, opted to run with the WFP endorsement. And former state Sen. Elijah Rechlin-Melnick found himself in a position similar to Jones – he lost the WFP line in a primary, despite maintaining the party’s endorsement.

Leaving votes on the table?

State Sen. Monica Martinez is one of the few candidates on Long Island who has opted to stick with the WFP, and in a fairly conservative district to boot. She originally flipped her seat in 2018, lost as a freshman in 2020, won in a new district in 2022 after redistricting and is now fighting for a second term. Martinez told City & State that she’s “appreciative” of the current leadership at the WFP. “ There’s an understanding about the nature of my district that has enabled us to build a partnership,” she said. “It’s a politically mature partnership which recognizes differences, but builds on commonalities. 

Assembly Member Michaelle Solages is another Long Island Democrat running on the WFP line. She represents a safe Democratic district in Nassau County and chairs the Black, Puerto Rican, Hispanic and Asian Legislative Caucus, which generally puts out a fairly progressive policy agenda. Solages did return a request for comment.

New York WFP co-executive director Jasmine Gripper dismissed the idea that her party has become a liability on Long Island. “There are still a good number of Democrats who are running on the Working Families Party line in Long Island and are proud to have the endorsement,” Gripper told City & State. “The candidates who don't have the line or chose not to seek it, honestly, are just really leaving behind, leaving votes on the table from New Yorkers in Long Island who look to the party for guidance on who to vote for.” She said that in 2022, Hochul received about 9,000 votes in Nassau County and about 12,000 votes in Suffolk County on the WFP line in her race for governor. According to official election results, Hochul received 9,700 WFP votes compared to 222,000 votes on the Democratic Party line. In Suffolk, 12,000 voted for her on the WFP line compared to almost 224,000 on the Democratic line. But Hochul still lost both counties in that election.