Brooklyn Dems follow up MAGA rally at MSG with call to arms at gala

Get out and vote. It’s the Brooklyn way. That was the resounding theme of this year’s annual Brooklyn Democratic Party Gala. 

On the heels of former President Donald Trump’s Sunday rally at Madison Square Garden, local, state and federal Democratic elected officials gathered at Giando on the Water in Williamsburg to voice their support for Vice President Kamala Harris and their determination for New York to play a consequential role in taking back the House of Representatives. 

The divisive rhetoric spewed at the previous night’s rally loomed large over proceedings – particularly the lewd and racist comments stand-up comic Tony Hinchcliffe had made about Latinos, Black people and Jews. At one point in his speech, he’d called Puerto Rico a “floating island of garbage.” In a city and state with a sizable Puerto Rican population, the comments sparked a resounding roar of anger.  

“I am so angry about that spectacle that occurred in one of those revered arenas that host our Rangers and our Knicks,” Gov. Kathy Hochul said, taking the stage. “They have sullied that place by their presence.”

Thanking New York leaders who condemned the denigration of Puerto Ricans, Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez urged voters not only to win back seats in New York, but to also “retire that man and the people who support those racist comments.”

Clad in a t-shirt bearing political trailblazer Shirley Chisholm’s face and an early voting sticker, Congress Member Yvette Clarke said voting for Harris today moved her to tears. She’d cast her ballot in the late congress member’s name, doing it for “all the ancestors that came before and blazed the trail so that we would have the right to vote and that Brooklyn would stand up and make a difference.”

“To everyone in the room this evening: We got work to do,” Clarke said. “It’s nice to be social, but it’s more important to get the victory.” 

Hochul closed her remarks with a “demonstration,” encouraging voters to flip over their ballots. “Make sure you vote for Proposition 1 to ensure that our rights and reproductive freedom are signed forever in the New York state Constitution,” she said. “This is our chance to fight back against the hatred of Donald Trump.”

Though Hochul’s remarks were perhaps better received than her widely mocked speech at the Democratic National Convention, New York Attorney General Letitia James was a hit as always. Her remarks – brief as they were – were right on topic. 

“I don’t know about you, but I’m voting for reproductive rights,” James said. “Where the ladies at?” 

Cheers rose from the crowd. 

“And where are the men who love them?” 

The shouts that followed were far more muted. 

“About 10,” James quipped. 

U.S. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries didn’t pull any punches as he addressed the crowded ballroom. “If Roe v. Wade can fall, then anything can fall,” Jeffries warned. “You have Supreme Court justices, aspiring Supreme Court justices, go before the Senate, swear under oath that Roe v. Wade was settled law, and then, the first opportunity that they got to execute their extreme MAGA-Republican, far-right agenda, they detonated Roe v. Wade … So we need your help taking back the House, holding the Senate.”

And while the evening was filled mainly with anticipation of Nov. 5’s election and overwhelmingly, state lawmakers, notably absent from the gala was New York City Mayor Eric Adams, and most of the candidates who’ve lined up to challenge him in June’s Democratic primary. The lone exception was state Sen. Jessica Ramos, who told City & State that Brooklyn Democratic chair Assembly Member Rodneyse Bichotte Hermlyn was a friend. 

Her fellow Queens delegation member, state Sen. John Liu, took note of the absent mayoral candidates. “It’s always who’s not here – this Brooklyn gala is so well-attended, the story is about who is not here,” Liu said.