Campaigns & Elections

Rep. Max Rose’s unusual election night speech

The Congress member from Staten Island defends his support for Black Lives Matter.

Rep. Max Rose, projected to lose to Assembly Member Nicole Malliotakis.

Rep. Max Rose, projected to lose to Assembly Member Nicole Malliotakis. Kathy Willens/AP/Shutterstock

Election night concession speeches tend to follow a fairly straightforward formula: The losing candidate congratulates his or her opponent, thanks the assembled supporters and staffers, reiterates a commitment to pursuing the agenda he or she ran on and, if applicable, pledges to work with the winner for the greater good. When a result remains unknown, the standard statement is a brief declaration that one is waiting for all the votes to be counted. Former Vice President Joe Biden gave a typical address in this vein on Tuesday. 

But Democratic Rep. Max Rose, who looks likely to lose to Republican Assembly Member Nicole Malliotakis in New York’s 11th District, took a different approach on this election night. After briefly calling for a full vote count, Rose swiftly pivoted to a detailed defense of his decision to march with Black Lives Matter in his district in June. “I want to speak to something more than just myself or Nicole, but my decision to march to honor George Floyd,” Rose said, before inveighing against political division. He did not concede the race, but the first-term representative acknowledged that he faced an uphill battle. Malliotakis, who leads among in-person votes by 15 percentage points, has declared victory.

“If we are going to unite this country then we must listen when a community is hurting,” Rose continued. “Black parents worry a chance encounter could end with their baby boy or girl never coming home. And yes, the wife or husband of a police officer feels their heart leave their chest every time a tour starts, scared the love of their life may never walk back through the door. … Young Staten Islanders marched to express their pain. And for that – they were called rioters and thugs on national television. They were demonized for their faith in America's capacity for change … their belief that peaceful protest is how you do it, and their hope that their hometown could be a part of that movement. The weeks following the murder of George Floyd, our nation was united in the belief that we must change. … Our politics tore at that common purpose.”

Politicians march in protests and parades all the time and supporting Black Lives Matter is fairly uncontroversial in most of New York City. So why did Rose decide to expound his case for marching months ago? 

The answer goes to the heart of why he apparently thinks he lost: the backlash to Black Lives Matter in New York City’s whitest borough. 

A few days before Tuesday’s election, many New Yorkers were surprised to see an NBC4 New York/Marist poll showing Malliotakis leading Rose by 2 points among likely voters. 

Rose, a blunt-spoken, centrist military veteran who flipped New York’s 11th Congressional District in 2018, had run campaign commercials attacking Malliotakis in terms cleverly designed to resonate with swing voters: Malliotakis was untrustworthy, he argued, not because she was too conservative or too pro-Trump, but because she had flip-flopped on Trump. He also hit her for symbolic, non-ideological reasons, such as the fact that the Conservative Party had photoshopped her into a photo distributing personal protective equipment to portray her as “everything you hate about politics.” Meanwhile, in office, Rose produced a steady stream of press releases relentlessly focused on hyper-local issues and he aggressively carved out a maverick identity by caustically criticizing his party’s more liberal figures such as New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio. 

Surely, if any freshman Democrat could hold the Staten Island and southern Brooklyn district, observers reasoned, it would be Rose. 

But it wouldn’t be. As City & State reported last week, the backlash on Staten Island to the eruption of anti-racism and anti-police brutality protests over the summer might have doomed him. Michael Grimm, a Republican who once held the same congressional seat and rose to national notoriety as a tough-talking embodiment of Staten Island’s id, told City & State that Malliotakis became the favorite when Rose joined that march. Grimm argued that it put Rose too few degrees of separation from the progressive activists who argue for cutting the NYPD budget. 

Republicans pounced on the BLM demonstration as a liability for the Congress member. Noting that some marchers called for defunding the NYPD and chanted anti-police slogans, Malliotakis called Rose’s participation “a disgrace,” and said it shows he is “just another liberal who will say or do anything to get elected.” 

A GOP-aligned Super PAC cut a commercial featuring retired NYPD officers attacking Rose, calling it “an absolute slap in the face to law enforcement” to march with Black Lives Matter and saying “he gave every New York City police officer the finger.” In a different ad, Malliotakis used Rose’s participation in the march to claim he “joined de Blasio and the defund the police crowd” in “calling to dismantle the NYPD,” even though Rose had repeatedly called for more police funding, not less. 

Rose and Grimm may not agree on much, but Rose’s decision to revisit the issue in his election night address implies that he shares Grimm’s belief that marching against police brutality is what cost him the election. 

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.