Yusef Salaam, national Democratic star, gets slow fundraising start

Council Member Yusef Salaam may have the biggest profile of any member of the New York City Council, but the Harlem legislator had raised just $660 for his reelection campaign as of the latest filing in early October – among the lowest of any incumbent council members. Why the anemic campaign cash haul? Salaam’s campaign says it’s not a sign that he’s got his sights set somewhere other than reelection, but that they don’t expect to start fundraising in earnest until after the presidential election. “In addition to being a council member, he’s been traveling the country to encourage people to vote for Kamala Harris, so he’s definitely taken a backseat to his own fundraising efforts because he doesn’t really need to do it right now,” said Kyle Ishmael, whose consulting firm is working on Salaam’s reelection campaign.

Salaam did have a campaign kickoff fundraiser on Oct. 17 – Council Speaker Adrienne Adams was a featured guest – but any donations received there wouldn’t have made it into the most recent campaign finance filing, which had a deadline of Oct. 7. So far, Salaam isn’t facing any challengers for the seat.

Salaam, who is a member of the Exonerated Five and was elected to the council as a first-time politician in 2023, has seen his already national profile grow in the last year. He and three other men who were wrongly convicted in the 1989 attack on a Central Park jogger spoke in a primetime slot at the Democratic National Convention in August. Salaam also did post-debate spin for Harris in Philadelphia following the September presidential debate. (Salaam and the other Black and Latino men formerly known as the Central Park Five have also sued Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump – who once called for their execution – for alleged false and defamatory statements made about them at the debate.)

Ishmael said that Salaam has focused on getting out the vote in Black communities, particularly among Black men. Salaam did a radio ad for Harris with Left of Center PAC that’s running in North Carolina and Georgia.

Salaam’s council office will be in for a shakeup soon – his current chief of staff is Jordan Wright, the Democratic nominee for a Harlem Assembly seat that he’s well positioned to win in November. Plans are still underway for Wright’s exit date from the council office, if he wins.