Personality

‘She couldn’t handle it’ – why Kristin Richardson Jordan dropped out

Charles Barron, KRJ’s closest ally in the City Council, said he tried to convince her to stay in the race.

New York City Council Member Kristin Richardson Jordan

New York City Council Member Kristin Richardson Jordan William Alatriste/NYC Council Media Unit

New York City Council Member Kristin Richardson Jordan announced Tuesday morning that she would end her reelection campaign and leave office at the end of the year. And other than KRJ herself – who isn’t talking – there’s probably nobody who understands why she’s leaving better than Council Member Charles Barron. 

“She was under a tremendous amount of pressure. And it’s a damn shame that the machine and the media pressured this young lady – who was a rising star in Harlem, in the electoral arena – out of the race. Because it’s not easy,” Barron told City & State in a phone interview Tuesday. “I make it look easy sometimes, but it’s not easy getting beat up like that by the media, and the machine – two very powerful forces in the electoral arena.”

Sure enough, Richardson Jordan was the subject of numerous negative news stories – for her slow response to police officers being shot in her district, for her tweets justifying the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and for her poor attendance record, missing nearly half the council meetings where she was expected. She was also politically bruised for her role in blocking a major mixed use development project called One45, which she argued contained too many market-rate units and was too tall. 

Richardson Jordan had little to no institutional support, and three serious opponents had stepped up to challenge her in the June Democratic primary: Assembly Members Inez Dickens and Al Taylor, whose districts overlap with hers, and activist Yusef Salaam, who has the backing of Manhattan Democratic Chair Keith Wright. 

“This was her own decision, I was trying to talk her out of it,” Barron said. But all the negative media coverage “was just a fresh wound. And she couldn’t handle it.”

Few friends left

Barron is Richardson Jordan’s closest ally in the council and a mentor to her. They are both Black radical socialists who aren't willing to go along to get along. Both won their seats with little to no backing from interest groups or even progressive organizations like the Democratic Socialists of America and the Working Families Party, so strong support from voters in their districts was the only thing keeping them in office.

Barron, 72 years old, has been in the game a long time. This is his second go-round in the council, after serving 12 years before, and another eight in the Assembly. 

Richardson Jordan represented a new generation. She is relatively young, 36 years old, for a district that usually elects much older politicians, and a lesbian, the first out queer person elected in Harlem. She was new to elected politics – an art teacher, poet and socialist activist who took office in 2022 after defeating incumbent City Council Member Bill Perkins, who just died this week. 

Barron said she should have stuck it out in politics. “I had big, big pages in the Post and the Daily News, even the Times, TV stations… You become hit proof  after a while,” he said. “I was telling her, ‘it’ll bounce right off you.’ What people don't realize, these hits, sometimes it’s just a day in the media. It feels like ‘oh my God, a million people saw this.’ Next week, they’re not even going to remember that happened.”

In recent months, the pressure seems to have gotten to Richardson Jordan. She deleted her campaign Twitter account and largely stopped responding to journalists’ requests for comment. When she did speak to the press, she let her frustration show. She told the Daily News this week “your whole profession is pretty awful” and declined to answer specific questions.

Barron thought Richardson Jordan’s prickly negotiations with developer Bruce Teitelbaum, who is the public leader of the One45 project, played a big role in her leaving the race. “She took a stance, and this low-life developer just castigated her in the media. And the machine was beating her up. Because all of them candidates now, usually are with the real estate industry.” Teitelbaum didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. 

Barron said that Richardson Jordan’s radical politics put a target on her back. “They put pressure on her because she wanted to transfer money, like I do, from the police budget to social services. They put pressure on her because she was against an exploitative capitalist system, like I am, and she supported socialism. They put pressure on her because, like I did, she voted against a speaker who we thought was married to real estate and law enforcement.”

But a consultant for an opposing campaign thought Richardson Jordan was leaving not entirely because of politics, but because of the drudgery of being an elected official. “I think she thought she would come like Che Guevara and ride around Harlem with her fist up,” they said. “I don’t think she appreciated the amount of work it would be.” 

What’s next?

Richardson Jordan’s name will still be on the June 27th primary ballot, since she missed the deadline to decline her spot. And while it can be hard to predict council races, especially in a low turnout year like 2023, Richardson Jordan was widely considered to be the one incumbent most in danger of losing in the primary. 

She was facing three serious challengers, and in a ranked-choice voting primary, any one of them had a shot. She was also expected to be slammed by hundreds of thousands of dollars of outside spending from multiple independent expenditure committees opposing her. And some of those groups welcomed the news of her dropping out. 

“People Enhancing New York is prepared to spend resources across the city defeating elected officials and candidates who espouse anti-common sense and anti-business beliefs,” said Gil Cygler, a car rental magnate who founded the super PAC to support moderate Democrats. “We thank the Councilwoman for allowing us to spend those resources elsewhere.”

“For once,” Richardson Jordan “is doing the right thing for her constituents,” said New York City District Council of Carpenters Executive Secretary-Treasurer Joseph Geiger. A super PAC aligned with the carpenters union, too, was planning to spend in the race, and Geiger said her quitting the race sends a message that you can’t win reelection “if you are against union jobs and affordable housing.”

Richardson Jordan didn’t respond to a request for comment, and didn’t reveal much in her Instagram post announcing the decision. “Thank you for seeing the true possibility for radical love in the loveless land of politics – it is not easy to do!” she wrote, in part. “Unfortunately I am writing this to inform you that I have decided not to seek re-election and not to commit to another two years. I want to thank all those who have stood in solidarity and all volunteers for your time and hard work. I look forward to finishing out this term.” She committed to continue fighting “for community care, economic justice, abolition, liberation and radical societal change.”

Remembering Bill

Richardson Jordan’s sudden announcement came at a strange time for Harlem politics. Just minutes after she posted, a spokesperson for Perkins announced that the former City Council member had died. Richardson Jordan had defeated Perkins in a crowded Democratic primary just two years ago. Perkins, then the incumbent, was running for reelection despite struggling with apparent memory loss and cognitive decline and barely campaigning at all. 

Barron had served with Perkins for many years in the City Council and remembered backing him for speaker in 2002 – an especially high compliment from Barron, who has voted against consensus speaker candidates multiple times. “Bill was extremely intelligent, and formative on the issues. Progressive,” Barron said. “Rest in peace, my brother, for a job well done.” 

Barron, who was raised in Harlem before moving to his current Brooklyn district, also had kind words of send off for Richardson Jordan.

“She’s just a wonderful person, just a beautiful person,” he said. “Her heart was in the right place, her head was in the right place. But it’s the emotions that could wipe you out.”

X
This website uses cookies to enhance user experience and to analyze performance and traffic on our website. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners. Learn More / Do Not Sell My Personal Information
Accept Cookies
X
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Do Not Sell My Personal Information

When you visit our website, we store cookies on your browser to collect information. The information collected might relate to you, your preferences or your device, and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to and to provide a more personalized web experience. However, you can choose not to allow certain types of cookies, which may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings according to your preference. You cannot opt-out of our First Party Strictly Necessary Cookies as they are deployed in order to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting the cookie banner and remembering your settings, to log into your account, to redirect you when you log out, etc.). For more information about the First and Third Party Cookies used please follow this link.

Allow All Cookies

Manage Consent Preferences

Strictly Necessary Cookies - Always Active

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data, Targeting & Social Media Cookies

Under the California Consumer Privacy Act, you have the right to opt-out of the sale of your personal information to third parties. These cookies collect information for analytics and to personalize your experience with targeted ads. You may exercise your right to opt out of the sale of personal information by using this toggle switch. If you opt out we will not be able to offer you personalised ads and will not hand over your personal information to any third parties. Additionally, you may contact our legal department for further clarification about your rights as a California consumer by using this Exercise My Rights link

If you have enabled privacy controls on your browser (such as a plugin), we have to take that as a valid request to opt-out. Therefore we would not be able to track your activity through the web. This may affect our ability to personalize ads according to your preferences.

Targeting cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.

Social media cookies are set by a range of social media services that we have added to the site to enable you to share our content with your friends and networks. They are capable of tracking your browser across other sites and building up a profile of your interests. This may impact the content and messages you see on other websites you visit. If you do not allow these cookies you may not be able to use or see these sharing tools.

If you want to opt out of all of our lead reports and lists, please submit a privacy request at our Do Not Sell page.

Save Settings
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Cookie List

A cookie is a small piece of data (text file) that a website – when visited by a user – asks your browser to store on your device in order to remember information about you, such as your language preference or login information. Those cookies are set by us and called first-party cookies. We also use third-party cookies – which are cookies from a domain different than the domain of the website you are visiting – for our advertising and marketing efforts. More specifically, we use cookies and other tracking technologies for the following purposes:

Strictly Necessary Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Functional Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Performance Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Social Media Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Targeting Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.