Jessica Ramos was majorly bummed out at the WFP rally

Mayoral candidate Jessica Ramos is embracing the vulnerability. A recent campaign video shows her attending a May 10 Working Families Party rally in Foley Square to support Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, who was arrested May 9 at a protest outside a newly reopened ICE detention center in his city. In the video, Ramos first defended Baraka for trying to conduct oversight at the facility and said that immigration enforcement has been “ravaging our communities.” Then her monologue took a turn. “This rally was organized by the Working Families Party, who decided not to endorse me in their slate of candidates for mayor,” she said. “I feel a little awkward being here, especially because I went up on stage and said hi to a few of the elected officials near me” – a clip of her greeting Council Member Chris Marte, then pivoting around awkwardly – “but it was very clear that I wasn’t welcome there.” 

In March, the Working Families Party announced a mayoral endorsement slate of four candidates: Brad Lander, Zohran Mamdani, Adrienne Adams and Zellnor Myrie. The party faced some criticism for not endorsing five candidates, the number voters can rank on their ballots – especially as progressives try to block front-runner Andrew Cuomo. Ramos, who brands herself as an independent-minded pro-labor progressive, would have been a logical option for that fifth spot, though she has struggled to fundraise or garner major endorsements thus far in the race.

“It made me sad,” New York Working Families Party co-director Ana María Archila said of watching Ramos’ video. “Obviously, she’s an incredibly important voice in the fight for immigrants – has always been and will continue to be. So yes, I was saddened to see that video, but I don’t doubt that she feels spurned by the party.” Archila said she briefly spotted Ramos at the rally and they added her to the program of speakers, but couldn’t find her later on.

Archila said that at the moment WFP was making its endorsement decision, Ramos was “struggling tremendously” with fundraising and they were unsure she would make the ballot. “This is true of every endorsement decision – you make the decision in the moment,” she said. “I think if we had had certainty that she would make it on the ballot, maybe the decision would have been different. But we didn’t at the time.”

In the end, the theme of belonging carried Ramos back to the original point of the video. “(Trump officials) want us to feel unwelcome in our own communities and in our own city, and we can't let that be.”