No DNC for NYC? New York Dems rally for Harris in Harlem anyway

New York Democrats’ no-holds-barred support for Vice President Kamala Harris had its most visible display yet in Harlem on Wednesday night. Gov. Kathy Hochul, Mayor Eric Adams, Rep. Adriano Espaillat and more rallied with local leaders, elected officials and labor reps from around the city, delivering a (mostly) unified message that (mostly) succeeded in drowning out pro-Palestine protesters outside the event.

Ahead of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago next week (Hochul was the only speaker on Wednesday to note New York City’s failed bid to host), uptown leaders including Espaillat, former City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito and District Leader Corey Ortega hosted the kickoff event. 

The dozen or so who took the mic called on New Yorkers to fight hard for Harris and her VP pick Tim Walz – Hochul urged attendees to join a caravan to Chicago; state Sen. Jessica Ramos, who is rumored to be considering a mayoral run, directed them to catch a bus to Pennsylvania to knock on doors. But there was some subtle disagreement about just how much New York City was in play. “Let’s not get tired,” City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams said, warning that many parts of the city are a battleground. Ramos urged hard work and vigilance too, but denied the idea of an increasingly purple New York. “We are true blue in New York,” she said. “Kamala Harris will win by a landslide.”

Several protesters were escorted out of the event in the middle of speeches, including Mayor Adams’ remarks. Not his first experience with that, Adams used the opportunity to mention former Mayor David Dinkins – the city’s only former Black mayor, and one who served just one term – drawing the connection to his political defeat and the rise of Mayor Rudy Giuliani. “I don’t mind you being across the street, because in the days of Giuliani, if you tried to do that, you were automatically locked up,” he said of the protesters still posted outside the event. “But the ability to know when you’re in a real fight – and when you come from south Jamaica, Queens, and Brownsville, when you’re in a real fight, you know how you take off your heels, put vaseline in your face, put your hair in a ponytail and go to the streets. This is a real fight.”

Other attendees included City Council Members Pierina Sanchez, Shaun Abreu, Keith Powers, Julie Menin, Gale Brewer and Diana Ayala, along with Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez, Assembly Members Yudelka Tapia and David Weprin, and more.

In apparent preparation for the long nights that many New York politicos spend gossiping in San Juan bars at the SOMOS conference every November, Ortega announced that the Harris-Walz love fest would continue into the evening at a happy hour a few blocks uptown.