On the eve of the New York primary election, Councilman Ritchie Torres of the Bronx announced his surprise endorsement of Bernie Sanders for President today.
Torres invoked Sanders’s progressive credentials as the reason for his endorsement:
“Bernie represents a special phenomenon in progressive politics. He singularly has made inequality and poverty the focal point of the presidential election — that is his contribution to progressive politics and he’s energizing young people to an extent never seen before,” Torres said, in an interview with POLITICO New York.
Torres grew up in Bronx public housing, and had previously invited all Presidential candidates to tour public housing to see for themselves the toll taken by the last several decades of diminishing public financial support. Both Hillary Clinton and Sanders accepted and carried out NYC public housing visits the last few days.
Torres noted that personally hosting Senator Sanders’s visit affected him emotionally quite deeply:
“I was just moved — it meant the world to the residents there to have a presidential candidate tour their homes, to have a presidential candidate come to Brownsville and say ‘I see you and I hear you but above all else I’m willing to invest in you and your home,’” Torres said.
Torres, himself a millenial and the youngest member of the New York City Council, had spent months struggling with the decision of which Democratic candidate to endorse. In an interview last week, he stated that he had yet to decide, saying “My heart is with Bernie but my head is with Hillary.”
He expressed praise for the front-runner as well:
“I have immense, deep respect for Secretary Clinton — the endorsement is an affirmation of Bernie Sanders rather than a negation of Hillary Clinton,” Torres said. “I’m endorsing [Sanders] because of what he symbolizes, not because of calculations about his viability but the values that lie at the center of his campaign.”
He was eventually won over by Sanders’s bold progressive agenda and specific commitment to work to close the federal funding gap in public housing.
Torres was impressed by the outreach effort by the Sanders campaign, who contacted him weeks ago in his capacity as the chair of the NYC Council public housing committee, both to give input into Sanders’s own public housing plan, and, later, to personally host the public housing visit he had proposed. Torres was pleased with the result:
“I spoke about NYCHA’s $17 billion capital need and he incorporated it into his speech,” Torres said.
After the speech, Sanders released his full federal housing platform, which itself wove in many ideas and areas of concern championed by Torres. That experience left Torres with the strong view that Sanders possesses the skills to craft specific progressive policy in cooperation with experts knowledgable in the requisite fields:
“I’ve had the opportunity to interact personally with Bernie and I get the sense he is incredibly communicative and open-minded and he would listen to people. There is an opportunity for elected officials and grass roots activists to shape what he thinks,” Torres said.
More globally, Torres also said he was moved and inspired by Sanders’s political revolution, both its depth and breadth, as well as the enthusiasm it has produced in a new generation for real, actual progressive politics:
“He’s tapping into something powerful and energizing young people in a way that has not been seen. Whether you are supporting him or opposing him there is no denying the impact that he’s had on progressive politics,” Torres said. “He’s changed the way we talk about politics and made poverty and inequality the centerpiece of the presidential election.”
Powerful words from a powerful endorsement, simple, true and spoken by a pragmatic local politician whose heart was always with Bernie, but whose mind Bernie had to work hard to win over, with communication, listening, and solid, specific progressive policy formation.
Well done on all sides. Congratulations to Councilman Torres and to Bernie Sanders on this great endorsement!