Another Socialist Will Be Taking a Seat in the New York City Council
Socialist City Council candidate Kristin Richardson Jordan scored a remarkable upset victory in Harlem, with a campaign combining unabashed radicalism with a commitment to the unglamorous work of constituent services.
Kristin Richardson Jordan faced a well-established incumbent in the June primary for a City Council seat in Harlem’s District 9. (Photo via Kristin Richardson Jordan / Medium)
Kristin Richardson Jordan wasn’t supposed to win.
In her June primary for a City Council seat in Harlem’s District 9, she faced a well-established incumbent. She was a lesbian and a socialist, and she campaigned openly on a “defund the police” platform at a time when an alarming spike in murders in New York and other cities was leading some progressives to back away from such ideas. According to conventional wisdom, the political moment in 2021 belonged to big-city politicians in the mold of Eric Adams, the conservative, pro-cop Democrat who is now the presumptive next mayor of New York, having performed especially well in working-class black neighborhoods where people sometimes demand more cops rather than fewer.
Yet Jordan did win.
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