Campaigns & Elections

Endorsing Keron Alleyne for Assembly, DSA is teaming up with the Barrons

The Brooklynite is a late addition to the DSA slate, but he might need more than that sought after endorsement to beat incumbent Nikki Lucas.

Assembly candidate Keron Alleyne won the endorsement of the Democratic Socialists of America.

Assembly candidate Keron Alleyne won the endorsement of the Democratic Socialists of America. Friends of Keron Alleyne

The Democratic Socialists of America’s New York City chapter is throwing its support behind Assembly candidate Keron Alleyne, entering into a political alliance with longtime Brooklyn powerbrokers Charles and Inez Barron and their Black socialist organization Operation POWER.  

NYC-DSA voted to finalize the endorsement of Alleyne this past weekend. He’s running in the June Democratic primary for the 60th Assembly District in East New York, Brooklyn. That’ll be a rematch against Assembly Member Nikki Lucas, who was just elected in a February special election where she handily defeated Alleyne 80% to 18%.

Alleyne, 31, has worked at the children’s services nonprofit Global Kids, but is also a political protege of the Barrons, and co-chair of Operation POWER, which the husband and wife political team founded in 1997. He is a relatively late addition to the DSA slate of six new state legislative candidates and six incumbents. Alleyne will be added to “For the Many” slate and get donations from the multi-candidate committee, as well as canvassing support from DSA volunteers. It’s a sought after endorsement, since all five state legislative candidates backed by DSA won in 2020. The organization saw less success in the 2021 New York City Council primaries, where just two of six endorsed candidates won. 

At the same time, DSA has been a magnet for criticism on everything from police funding debates to foreign policy statements, and the organization has been publicly chastised as of late by City Council Member Kristin Richardson Jordan, an ally of Charles Barron’s, for not supporting her successful run or the campaigns of her Black radical allies in Harlem. So DSA is framing this latest endorsement of Alleyne as coalition building within a multi-racial, working class movement. “We’re really excited to be aligning with a Black socialist organization, Operation POWER,” NYC-DSA Co-chair Sumathy Kumar, told City & State. “It’s an opportunity to build something like the Rainbow Coalition back again,” she said, referring to the alignment of various race-based socialist organizations in Chicago in 1969. Kumar denied that DSA was responding to any criticisms of a lack of coalition building with the endorsement, but was deferential to Operation POWER and the Barron’s movement. “We’re really excited to learn from them and working with them – people who have been in the fight much longer than the DSA,” she said. “To me, it’s an opportunity to work with an organized base of Black socialists and find out the connections between our base of organization and theirs.”

The support is also notable since Alleyne is not a DSA member himself – like most, if not all, of candidates that DSA has endorsed in the past few election cycles. Alleyne said that’s because he’s focused on his own organization in Operation POWER, but “it’s an honor to receive the support,” which he sought. Alleyne has picked up other endorsements on the progressive left as well, including the Working Families Party, New York City Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, who is running for governor, state Sen. Jabari Brisport, and organizations including Tenants PAC and Citizen Action

But Lucas is formidable as an opponent. With the support of the Brooklyn Democratic Party, she won the Assembly seat that Charles Barron vacated in order to run for City Council. Before her, the seat had been held by either Charles or Inez since 2009. Lucas, a former management consultant and frequent political opponent of the Barrons, is expected to once again have the backing of much of the Democratic establishment, including Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, New York City Mayor Eric Adams, Attorney General Letitia James and even the state Democratic party. Lucas also had outside support from Common Sense New Yorkers Inc., a super PAC funded by various big business and real estate interests that spent some $128,000 in the days leading up to the special election. The independent expenditure committee alone easily outspent Alleyne’s approximately $16,000 in expenditures as well as Lucas’ $65,000. 

So Alleyne and the DSA may be excited about the coalition building, but supporters know they have a tough primary ahead.  “Our candidates are far better,” Charles Barron told City & State. “But the Democratic party machine, they can put up Donald Duck against you and beat you if they get their stuff together.”

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.