Allen Roskoff said his club will 'see to it' that Eric Adams and Andrew Cuomo don’t get elected

New York Democrats may not agree on who should be the city’s next mayor, but they can agree that President Donald Trump represents an existential threat to New York and must be actively opposed. That was evident at the Jim Owles Liberal Democratic Club’s annual gala, held at the Hard Rock Cafe in midtown Manhattan on Saturday night.

The most powerful LGBTQ+ political club in the city brought together a who’s who of powerful Democratic politicians to condemn Trump’s attacks on marginalized communities. The speakers at the event included Gov. Kathy Hochul, state Attorney General Letitia James, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, Rep. Jasmine Crockett of Texas, Assembly Member Tony Simone, New York City Council Member Crystal Hudson and United Federation of Teachers President Michael Mulgrew. New York City Council Member Erik Bottcher emceed the event, which also featured performances from actors Lorna Luft and Anthony Rapp.

A common theme of the speeches was the importance of Democratic unity in taking on Trump. “The reality is that united we stand, divided we fall, and so I am begging of you to make sure that we stand united. We won’t always agree on everything, and I tell people all the time, you don’t agree with your spouse on everything, but you stay with them,” Crockett said.

But not everyone was united when it came to their thoughts on this year’s mayoral race. Allen Roskoff, the outspoken president of the Jim Owles Liberal Democratic Club, is known for his opposition to Adams. The invitation to Saturday night’s gala promised both “Live entertainment provided” and “Donald Trump and Eric Adams are banned from the premises.” He’s also no fan of former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who announced his candidacy earlier in the day.

“Our club is going to see to it that Eric Adams and Andrew Cuomo are not elected,” he announced on stage, to loud applause. Then he introduced the elected officials and other prominent politicians in the audience, and it became clear that not all of them were part of the progressive resistance to Adams and Cuomo.

Roskoff gave a special shout-out to Assembly Member Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn, whom he said “represents the entire borough of Brooklyn as Brooklyn county leader, who actually is here with an entire table.” He also recognized “honorary member of the LGBTQ community Frank Seddio,” the former head of the Brooklyn Democratic Party. Bichotte Hermelyn remains a supporter of Adams’ reelection, while Seddio is now supporting Cuomo’s mayoral bid.

“There are some people for Cuomo, they think he’s going to win, and that’s the way they do their politics and that’s OK,” Roskoff told City & State after the event. “They support the club, they’re still my friends and we just agree to disagree. … If I know that they’re playing with making a terrible endorsement, I call them on it, we speak, sometimes I’m persuasive, and sometimes we agree to disagree.”

Whatever their thoughts about the mayoral race, though, gala attendees were united in their opposition to Trump. “Everybody in this room wants Donald Trump defeated, and everybody knows that we play a major role,” Roskoff said.

At the gala, Hochul spoke about the need to defend transgender children’s rights – “leave our kids alone, leave our communities alone,” she said – while James promised to continue opposing Trump’s illegal executive orders in the courts. Mulgrew discussed the Trump administration’s attacks on public schools, and Pritzker, who’s already being eyed by some as a potential 2028 presidential candidate, spoke about the importance of opposing Trump’s attempts to subvert democracy.

The gala itself leaned into the occasionally cringey anti-Trump rhetoric. In between the speeches, the club played a parody version of “We Didn’t Start the Fire” mocking Trump. (A sample of the lyrics: “Muslim ban, fake tan, Can we buy Greenland? Nepotism, crowd size, windmills, magnets, ‘Yo-semite’ … Vote out this Dumpster Fire!”) Gala attendees were offered mugs that said: “The real state of emergency began in 1946 at Jamaica Hospital in Queens, NY. Definitely not human. Defeat the orange abomination!”