It is an honor to be here alongside Senator Bernie Sanders. I want to share what Bernie has meant to me.

It was Bernie’s campaign for the presidency in 2016 that gave me the language of democratic socialism to describe my politics. And it was Bernie’s Queensbridge rally on October 19, 2019, that was the first political event of my campaign for state assembly.

That was unbeknownst to Bernie and his team. We were canvassing the line to get into his rally. We were asking for $1, $5, $10, emails — whatever we could. And we walked inside to this rally, and I remember the electrifying feeling we felt of a campaign reborn and a movement reborn alongside every single borough of this city.

And when Bernie walked out to “Back in Black” by AC/DC — those who were there remember — we felt as if possibility was a fact of life. His campaign continued to inspire so many of us. And as I ran for state assembly for the many months beyond that, we continued to look to him and his campaign and his vision as the compass for the work that we wanted to do in electoral politics.

And we knew that, while everyday New Yorkers did not care very much for a New York State Assembly race, if we just had a watch party for a Bernie debate, we could finally get them. We could get them if we said it was about Bernie.

I share this because I know that for so many here, it is a similar story. It is a similar story of seeing yourself in a movement, in a campaign, in a politics that you were told for so long was impossible to find. We know that the fight for each and every person to live a dignified life is a fight that is very popular across this country.

Many of you here, myself included, first knew of Bernie as a senator, as a candidate for president. But before that, Bernie was the mayor of Burlington, a four-term mayor. And in the same year that Ronald Reagan won not just the presidency but the state of Vermont, Bernie was in his thirties, a democratic socialist running against someone who had been powerful and well-known for years — an opponent who struggled to pronounce his last name. There are some parallels.

Bernie won that race by ten votes. And then he won again. And he won again. And he won again.

The motto of not just Bernie’s campaign but governance was, “Burlington Is Not for Sale.” It is a motto that drove the work that he did when he fought back against corporate greed to transform the Lake Champlain waterfront not simply into testaments to profit but instead a living, breathing testament to what is possible for investing in working people. When he fought for affordable housing. When he took on a broken property tax system. When he continued to show what it looked like for city government to understand dignity as its responsibility.

That is how Bernie fought. And we know that in that motto of “Burlington Is Not for Sale,” we see echoes in our own struggle today, where we have to say that “New York City is not for sale.”

New York City is not for sale to Donald Trump’s billionaire donors. It is not for sale to corporations like DoorDash. It is not for sale to corrupt politicians like Andrew Cuomo.

Bernie has continued to lead in this movement, going from “Burlington Is Not for Sale” to fighting back against oligarchy coast to coast in this country. And that fight, not just against oligarchy but for democracy, is a fight that has energized tens of thousands of Americans across this country. It has shown once again that politics is something that can be powered by ordinary people, with not just a rejection of authoritarianism but a belief in what is possible as well.

We know that that oligarchy has an impact right here in New York City. We know it does, because when Donald Trump ushered through his “Big Beautiful Bill,” he ushered through the greatest wealth transfer in American politics. His legislation will throw millions of New Yorkers off of their health care. For a man who campaigned on cheaper grocery prices, it will cut SNAP benefits for the hungriest among us. And all of this to give more money to those who already have more than they know what to do with.

That is the fight that we are seeing taking place here. The interconnectedness of an attack on working people, all to enrich those same billionaire donors who gave us Donald Trump’s second term. That is the fight that unites us across this country in this moment. A fight in which we make clear that this is a city where we will choose our own mayor.

It’s not going to be Donald Trump. It’s not going to be Bill Ackman. It’s not going to be DoorDash. We will choose our mayor.

We know that this fight is not an easy one. It was not an easy fight for Bernie when he led Burlington. It was a fight that took every single thing every single day.

Are you committed to continue this fight? Because I want to be clear. We are not just here together with the message to come out and vote in November, though that is critically important. We will continue to organize beyond the election. We will continue to organize because we have an agenda to win.

The promises we have made are promises we must keep. Together, we will freeze the rent, make buses fast and free, deliver universal childcare. We will do these things, and we will do them together.

If anyone tells you that after you cast your vote, you have done your job, tell them it is just the beginning.

Because in a city where one in four are living in poverty; in a city where for the ninth consecutive year, one hundred thousand children in our school system are homeless; in a city where five hundred thousand of our children go to sleep hungry every single night, it will take all of us to ensure that dignity is not only possible but it is a reality for each and every New Yorker.

One of the many things that we love about Bernie is you could go to any year that he has been in politics, and you will find him saying the same thing. No matter if the photo is in black and white or it’s in color, you know it’s about income inequality. It’s about justice, it’s about dignity.

Today Bernie said to me that no man is an island. We are all in this struggle because someone brought it to us. As we remember that, we must know that now it is also our turn to not only join this struggle, but to lead this struggle. It is a time for all of us to see ourselves as the people who could deliver the world that we deserve.

And in this moment, we must make clear this is an intergenerational struggle. This is a struggle not just for some, not just for the young, not just for the few, not just for those in the beginning of their lives and their careers. This is a struggle for everyone. It is a struggle for everyone because it is about everyone.

We talk about our vision. It is a vision of universality. It is not one where we ask you your name, where we ask you where you were born, where we ask you your religion, where we ask you your status. We simply ask you to join us.