The cancellation of Jessica Ramos

To say it’s been a hard year for state Sen. Jessica Ramos is an understatement. This spring, state Sen. John Liu sidestepped her to advance the casino project of her billionaire enemy Steve Cohen in her district, breaking with Senate tradition. Meanwhile, Ramos’ feeble campaign for New York City mayor failed to raise enough money to unlock public matching funds. She was snubbed by many progressive endorsers and got little support from labor unions, whom she’d hoped would be her base. The day her campaign made the most noise was the day it essentially ended: when she baffled New York’s political world by endorsing former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, whom she had railed against from her earliest days in the public eye. Many on the left who had included her on their slates quickly condemned the move and pulled their endorsements. Within weeks, Assembly Member Jessica González-Rojas had filed to run against her with the backing of the city comptroller and the Queens borough president. To top it all off, Ramos’ campaign is more than $125,000 in debt as of the latest filing deadline.

If you’re wondering if Ramos is OK, you wouldn’t be the only one. When, in early September, I asked her how she was as we walked down 94th Street in East Elmhurst, she paused. “I’ve been OK, I’ve been fine,” she answered, almost reflectively. “I do get the feeling everyone thinks I should be in this really dark place, but I’m not.” Why does she think that? “Because everybody keeps asking me!” When I laughed, she cut in, “No, but it’s the cadence, right? It’s a, ‘How are you?’” gently putting her hand on my shoulder.

Things did not always seem so grim for Ramos. After being elected to the state Senate in the 2018 “blue wave,” the Queens-born daughter of Colombian immigrants, former 32BJ SEIU operative and Mayor Bill de Blasio staffer quickly gained star power within New York City, the state Democratic Party and the Working Families Party. She was immediately appointed chair of the powerful Labor Committee. She got the landmark Farm Laborers Fair Labor Practices Act passed her first year in office. She got the Excluded Workers Fund added to the fiscal year 2022 budget. And last year’s budget deal included a version of her legislation to raise the state’s minimum wage. Just five years ago, the lefty Zoomers were half-seriously calling on her to run for governor.

Some say her downward spiral can be explained solely by her surprising endorsement of Cuomo. “This is about values, and this is about whether or not she is willing to stand up against corruption and bullying and sexual assault and sexual harassment,” said former Assembly Member Yuh-Line Niou, who previously shared an Albany apartment with Ramos. (Cuomo, who resigned as governor after multiple women accused him of misconduct in 2021, denies wrongdoing.) “She made a choice to basically walk back every single time that she stood up against Cuomo in that one endorsement.”

But the response to Ramos’ endorsement was not simply one of anger. There was also a palpable sense that politicos were dancing on her grave – particularly after Cuomo didn’t endorse her back. That included Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, with whom Ramos has publicly feuded over the years, who simply tweeted, “lol. lmao.” It quickly became clear the backlash to Ramos’ endorsement was, to some, a form of poetic justice for years of transgressions, and they could finally air their resentment publicly.

The story of Ramos’ fall from grace is as much about the banishment of an accomplished, headstrong politician with a disdain for bullshit as it is a cautionary tale about what happens to those in New York politics who don’t maintain strong relationships with their colleagues. Behind her cancellation, Ramos sees a hypocritical, cruel and cliquey political structure on the left that has been corrupted by billionaire interests. The left, meanwhile, sees in Ramos a selfish, opportunistic loner who never seemed interested in building a coalition in the first place. Each side seems to be racing to be the first to say “good riddance.”

“I knew that they had all been, like, kind of trying to figure out a moment,” Ramos said. “I guess they got their perfect excuse.”

Bowling alone

“I’m here to make waves. I’m here to make the status quo uncomfortable. I am here to push buttons,” Ramos told City & State in a 2020 cover profile. She hasn’t changed.

Coming out against Cohen’s Citi Field casino proposal was one of many such moments for Ramos. After more than a year of deliberation, Ramos opted not to introduce the land use legislation necessary for Cohen’s plan to advance. She said her district opposed the casino, though several of her Queens colleagues – including her primary challenger González-Rojas – have supported it. Since the project – complete with 25 acres of green space, a concert hall and food hall – is in Ramos’ district, precedent deemed the bill hers to introduce. Without her blessing, the proposal was thought dead. This spring, Liu, whose district includes a small portion of the project, introduced the bill instead. In a testament to Ramos’ lack of allies, perhaps, it passed the Senate overwhelmingly: 54-5. (The community advisory committee vote on the Metropolitan Park project, the last hurdle before the state Gaming Commission decides which proposals will get the three coveted downstate casino licenses, is slated for Tuesday.)

Perhaps the most obvious example of Ramos’ independence was her first state Senate run, when she challenged state Sen. Jose Peralta as she and five other candidates ousted members of the Independent Democratic Conference, a group of Senate Democrats who made a deal to caucus with Republicans to help them maintain their majority. Ramos had the Working Families Party’s support when she first ran, but she’s been somewhat allergic to progressive affiliations of late. “I’m somebody who came out of the WFP of yesteryear, which was a different WFP,” she said. Yet there exists an idea that Ramos – at least at one point – was a darling of the left. “I don’t think that I have ever felt that way about the proverbial left,” she said. “I come from the labor movement – which many times overlaps with the progressive movement, but doesn’t always end up on the same side.”

The same day as our interview, Ramos closed out City & State’s Labor Power 100 event by saying, “I’m proud to be your labor chair, and no matter what happens, I will continue to be your labor chair … to make sure that we as a movement – the real progressive movement, the only progressive movement in New York – continues to have its wins so that our people can live better every day.” It was a noticeable jab ahead of a tough reelection against González-Rojas, who is member of the DSA, though she has never been formally endorsed by the group.

“It’s so strange to me … when people talk about what (Zohran Mamdani’s) primary campaign did so well, it’s that he spoke without jargon, in very clear direct messaging and tried to connect with people – not based on, like, talking down to them about ideology,” said Astrid Aune, Ramos’ former chief of staff. “If that’s something that the left purports to value, then it seems like a strange choice to pile on someone who not only has a lot of overlap in terms of actual values, but also a record of delivering.”

Ramos is hardly the first formerly bright young star to find themselves on the outskirts of various sects of the Democratic Party. Rep. Ritchie Torres has described the feeling of being left behind, as has New York City Mayor Eric Adams. “When they encounter an organization or a movement that they’re not a part of that is becoming a standard-bearer on the left, they resent that,” said one Democratic state senator, who was granted anonymity to speak candidly. “It’s a projection of insecurity in general, and it’s a projection of insecurity about decisions (Ramos has) made.”

So high school

Ramos’ endorsement of Cuomo may have killed her lackluster mayoral campaign, but his possible entrance was a big reason why it never took off. “At the beginning, it was, ‘Is Cuomo going to do it or not?’ And that kept unions in a certain place,” Ramos said. “That was not my preference.”

Numerous sources agreed with Ramos: Labor unions did not want to cross Cuomo. But the other reason unions and many others – including, at first, the WFP – did not endorse Ramos was this notion that her campaign was “not viable,” as 32BJ SEIU President Manny Pastreich described it. What makes someone’s campaign viable? Traditionally, gaining endorsements and fundraising – both of which are fundamentally about relationships.

“She is just thoroughly unpleasant to work with as a personality,” the Democratic state senator said, adding Ramos had “fallings out with other legislators” and “burned bridges.” Another Democratic lawmaker, who was also granted anonymity to speak candidly, questioned Ramos’ ability to develop relationships.

“Jessica felt she’s always the smartest person in the room. And if you had a disagreement with her about anything … she would drop a hammer on your head,” one labor source said. “That’s not usually constructive to do to your coalition repeatedly.”

Ramos has publicly sparred with other elected officials, famously launching a Twitter fight with AOC over what Ramos saw as her absence in the district. “She started to get a reputation, like, ‘Don’t cross her,’” said Assembly Member Emily Gallagher, who was one of the first to pull her endorsement of Ramos after she backed Cuomo. Before that, Ramos publicly voiced frustration with Assembly Member Catalina Cruz – now her long-standing rival – for asking her to sign on to a letter about a “loot-out” in Corona that turned out to be bogus. A few sources interviewed for this story – as has previously been suggested – alleged Ramos has been known to leak conversations from the Democratic conference, which is closed-door by design. Ramos denied this.

Simultaneously, those who criticized Ramos acknowledged there is a gendered element to her reputation. “(Women politicians) are not measured by our charisma or our ideas – we’re measured by much harder scrutiny,” Gallagher said. Ramos does say that, particularly when in Albany, she tends to keep to herself more than some of her peers. “As extroverted as I am, I’m also someone quite introverted,” she said before adding self-deprecatingly, “I don’t know how well that has served me.”

Another contributing factor: Within her first year in Albany, Ramos began the process of getting a divorce, one she said was “tumultuous” and expensive. “Not only am I sometimes too stressed to hang out, I don’t have money to hang out,” said the senator, who remarried in May.

“Even though some of my colleagues … knew that, instead of giving me grace, they weaponized it,” Ramos said. “It allowed them to say what was convenient about me.” Such as? “Oh, you know, like, saying I’m hard to work with. But if I’m so hard to work with, how come I’m able to pass so many bills? And how come I’m able to do so many things?” (Several sources argued that passing 167 bills through the Legislature was not due to her legislative prowess, but rather a function of her being the Labor Committee chair.)

Soon after, as we approached the Junction Boulevard No. 7subway station, Ramos said, “There were days when I was going through my workday in Albany, certainly participating in my press conferences and things like that, but I was very sad inside, or I was very stressed out about something. And, someone may be like, ‘Oh, she didn’t say hi to me.’ I’m sorry I didn’t say hi to you, I probably didn’t even see you because, mentally, I’m just elsewhere.”

Ramos may lament the cliquey nature of progressive politics, but, like any former high schooler, she seems to know how to work around that, at least to some extent: If you’re being left out of the group, remove yourself from it. At least then, it was your choice.

Ramos was somewhat humiliatingly left off the WFP’s four-person mayoral endorsement slate in March, despite there being five spots to rank. Co-Director Ana María Archila said in a statement to City & State that was because “at that time her campaign was extremely weak, with only $1,000 in the bank with 3 months to Election Day, and it was not clear she would make it on the ballot.” In May, Ramos attended a WFP-organized rally and recorded a video about how that relationship had soured. “I feel a little awkward being here,” she said in the video. “Especially because I went up on stage and said hi to a few of the elected officials near me, but it was very clear that I wasn’t welcome there.” Ramos said she didn’t know those comments would be made public until after the video had been posted by her own campaign. The WFP later added Ramos to its slate when it ranked candidates at the end of May, putting her in its fifth slot.

It has previously been reported that the WFP had removed Ramos from its slate after Ramos endorsed Cuomo. While that timeline is accurate, it’s incomplete: Ramos actually asked WFP to remove her from the slate, the senator told City & State and Archila confirmed in her statement. That was June 3, a source familiar with the discussions said. “It didn’t sit right with me,” Ramos said of her last-minute inclusion. “Ultimately it was her loss,” Archila said. On June 5, AOC endorsed a ranked slate of five candidates that didn’t include Ramos. On June 6, Ramos endorsed Cuomo, who, at that point, everyone assumed would win.

Tin foil hats

It’s been almost four months since Ramos shocked the city by backing Andrew Cuomo – and still, no one can quite make heads or tails of it. A few people posited that there was some sort of deal between Ramos and Cuomo for her endorsement, either for a job in his administration or for help getting rid of her campaign debt (Ramos will need to hold fundraisers for that soon, despite having been out of the mayoral race for three months). Both she and Cuomo deny there being any deal. As for who approached whom, Ramos said, “Mutual friends brought us together.”

Ramos was not surprised when people did not exactly welcome her endorsement of Cuomo. Of course she wasn’t: “I definitely think I understood that not everyone would understand my decision on the mayoral campaign (and) Cuomo endorsement.”

That’s probably putting it lightly. Walking south on Eighth Avenue at the end of our hour-long journey from East Elmhurst, almost smack in between the two New York behemoths that are Penn Station and Madison Square Garden, Ramos’ state Senate pin fell off her dress onto the sidewalk. I found myself almost in awe of the uncanny metaphor: Even the universe knew the Cuomo endorsement was a faceplant that could very well lead to Ramos’ exit from public office.

Her explanation for the endorsement has remained the same since June. “Today is not about forgiveness or about forgetting anything,” Ramos said then. “This is a very sober take on where we are in this race and the type of leadership that is required when I need workers and I need immigrants protected.”

Yet during our interview, Ramos said she does not “have any intention to endorse” anyone in the general election, though she added, “It’s early, and a lot can happen between now and November.” (Asked by Ben Max in a Sept. 3 podcast whether she’d endorse Mamdani, she went slightly further: “He is now the Democratic nominee. So he is who Democrats should vote for.”) Does she no longer think Cuomo is the best person to stand up to President Donald Trump and protect her immigrant constituents? “I don’t know that everybody has the same definition of standing up for something,” Ramos said. “It’s one thing to stand up to him and throw rocks and throw barbs. The other thing is to figure out how to work within the confines of the president’s delusions. Right now, I’m focused on my reelection.”

Most of the 15-plus people interviewed for this story agreed: The declaration of Ramos’ pariah status after she backed Cuomo cannot be explained solely by the outrage with the endorsement itself. And Ramos subscribes to that, as well. So what is it really about? To that, Ramos said, “That’s why I told you about the host committee.” She’s referring to González-Rojas’ campaign launch party host committee, which includes at least two consultants who have been on Steve Cohen’s extensive lobbying payroll as he pursues a casino license.

Ramos mentioned the Cohen casino bid and progressives’ failure to support her in opposing it throughout our interview. But she said it perhaps most clearly and pointedly to Max days earlier: “Jessica González-Rojas is Steve Cohen’s state Senate candidate.” (Karl Rickett, a spokesperson for the Cohen project, declined to comment. González-Rojas declined to be interviewed for this story.)

Regardless of whether you buy into Ramos’ belief that Cohen is the man behind the curtain, it’s hard not to view this critique in the context of the backlash to her endorsing Cuomo – it reads as an attempt to showcase progressives’ hypocrisy. In other words: I’m the one being burned at the stake, but how are you guys any better progressives than I am?

“It’s very clear that all of the other elected officials for various reasons have decided to support Metropolitan Park despite saying they fight billionaires and oligarchs,” Ramos told Max. Of the daylight between herself and González-Rojas, she added, “The biggest policy difference is that the supposed DSA member and person who is anti-Cuomo because of all of the reasons including … all of the corporate reasons, is somehow now supporting a billionaire building a casino in our backyard. And that to me is incoherent.”