This year’s June primaries are turning out to be pretty competitive, with incumbent Black electeds, such as Assemblymember Stefani Zinerman and U.S. Rep. Jamaal Bowman, being challenged in the state assembly and Congress.
At the moment, Zinerman is gearing up for budget season in Albany but will be ready to seek reelection once petitioning begins. She called her district her “heartbeat.”
“I think my record speaks for itself. People know I’m a community-based legislator, a community builder, and coalition builder. I’m very intentional about how I spend the people’s money to support organizations that support them,” said Zinerman. “I’ve shared my vision with those who want to listen about where this community can go and what we still need to do, and I believe that can only happen if we’re doing it together.”
Zinerman is the incumbent in the 56th District. She grew up in the Gowanus New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) housing in Downtown Brooklyn. She has represented “historically Black” and gentrified Bedford-Stuyvesant and Crown Heights in Brooklyn since 2021. As of now, her main opponent is newcomer and socialist Eon Huntley.
An East New York native, Huntley is a “lifelong renter,” a union committee member of Workers United Local 340, president of his kid’s parent-teacher association, and a Democratic Socialist with backing from the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA). He grew up with his family in NYCHA housing. They eventually moved to apartments that were converted to condos, allowing the opportunity for his family to buy in. He prioritizes security and housing stability for tenants and is against mayoral control of city schools.
Housing issues are at the heart of the split between the two competitors, the picture being that Huntley would be for youthful tenants and Zinerman for homeowners. He views Zinerman as being “somewhat representative of the establishment” because of her stance on the Good Cause Eviction law, a bill that would prohibit landlords from ending a renter’s tenancy except in cases of lease violations such as not paying rent.
Zinerman, who said she currently is a “renter” in Bed-Stuy, supports using community-based Area Median Income (AMI) for affordable housing criteria, community-based and small homeowners, creating a pipeline for younger generations to buy homes, and protecting tenant rights in the district. Zinerman said Good Cause is a great regional housing law but not entirely suited for her district without amendments. She understands holding corporate landlords to account for deplorable conditions, but would rather have language in the bill that excludes small Black and brown homeowners with four units and under.
“The district definitely deserves to be represented better,” said Huntley. “Right now, there’s a large group of people—tenants—who are not being served in the assembly.”
Huntley has been endorsed by fellow progressives like Senators Julia Salazar and Jabari Brisport. “I’m really proud to have received this endorsement,” said Huntley. “I think that Jabari and the other socialists in office, who are all Democrats, really speak to the nature of where the party is and what people in the community are looking for in terms of progressive, moving forward, people-centered legislation.”
Zinerman said she is “curious” about her progressive colleagues in the Senate banding together behind Huntley to unseat her, since they usually agree the majority of the time, but doesn’t feel pressured. She maintained that small Black and brown homeowners already have tenuous financial situations that affect their families as well as their tenants, and rejects the idea of being a “corporate darling.”
“I’m clear that people come from all different perspectives and they don’t always agree, but I don’t think you can survive in politics if you’re a purist, like you think people have to agree with you 100% of the time,” said Zinerman.
Even more interesting this election season is the upcoming battle between U.S. Rep. Jamaal Bowman, the first Black representative of the 16th congressional district, and Westchester County Executive George Latimer. The district covers northern Bronx and parts of Westchester County, including Yonkers, New Rochelle, and Mount Vernon.
“I first ran for Congress because too many of our children, from the Bronx to Westchester, were dying of gun violence with too little attention and action,” said Bowman in a statement. “Career politicians and a broken status quo want to keep leaving behind the same communities, over and over again. But we stand up, we fight, and we win real progress.”
He said he has worked with the community for the last three years to build a diverse, grassroots movement. Known to be an outspoken and passionate orator who doesn’t hold back, Bowman garnered a lot of negative attention nationally from Republicans when he falsely pulled a fire alarm in the Capitol during a contentious vote on a spending bill last year. He was fined, pled guilty to a misdemeanor, and was censured.
However, it’s Bowman’s stances on the Israel-Hamas war and a call for a ceasefire in Gaza that Latimer seems to mainly take issue with, although he’s said that’s not the only reason. Latimer is a Westchester native, the first Democrat to hold his position for the county, and is also pro-Israel.
“Throughout my career, as a legislator and executive, I’ve delivered real progressive victories on protecting abortion rights, expanding civil rights, increasing affordable housing, addressing Black maternal healthcare, flooding, and the high cost of living,” said Latimer in a statement. “I believe that government needs to be a place where people come together and get things done, for all of their constituents.”
Latimer said he is choosing this moment to run because Washington is “mired in dysfunction and performative politics instead of dealing with the nuts and bolts issue of making people’s lives better, and as Democrats, we can’t allow that.”
Bowman maintains that Democrats universally in the district, state, and country should reject “hateful, divisive, racist politics of MAGA Republicans.”
“It’s straight up damning that George Latimer would rather stand with Trump donors than help hard working people in our NY-16 community,” said Bowman.
[updated Friday, Feb 2]
Ariama C. Long is a Report for America corps member who writes about politics for the Amsterdam News. Your donation to match our RFA grant helps keep her writing stories like this one; please consider making a tax-deductible gift of any amount today by visiting https://bit.ly/amnews1.