Meet the new, bigger City Council Progressive Caucus

The New York City Council Progressive Caucus is growing. Six new members were voted in at an internal meeting last week, growing the group’s ranks to 24 people. 

That includes Gale Brewer, one of the council’s most experienced and well-known members, who is returning to a caucus that she left several years ago. And five freshman electeds: Elsie Encarnacion, Shirley Aldebol, Justin Sanchez, Shanel Thomas-Hentry and Kayla Santosuosso. (Harvey Epstein, another new council member, is also part of the caucus, though he joined back in November after taking office early.) Together with returning members, that puts the caucus just shy of a majority in the 51-member council – a fact the group is eager to start seizing upon.

Council Member Shahana Hanif, one of the caucus’s leaders last session, said she expects the next few years to be rife with opportunities to deliver policy wins, especially with a new mayor in office who aligns politically with the group. Pursuing initiatives aimed at tackling the city’s affordability crisis will be a major focus, and Hanif said she expects far smoother waters under Mayor Zohran Mamdani. The Progressive Caucus was frequently at odds with the Adams administration, clashing over budget cuts, fighting for funding initiatives like affordable housing program Homes Now, Homes for Generations and sponsoring legislation vetoed by the mayor. At the last stated meeting of 2025 alone, former Mayor Eric Adams rejected several bills that were caucus priorities.

“We were able to accomplish as much as we did because of the size of our caucus and the incredible discipline that we had between leadership, among our colleagues, among our members – that is going to need to stay important,” Hanif said. “It’s going to be critical as we work with a mayor who is aligned with our goals and agenda and working with the speaker who similarly is prioritizing an agenda that is for the working class.”

City Council Speaker Julie Menin is certainly more moderate than Mamdani, a democratic socialist, and many of the Progressive Caucus members. Three of the group’s members – Amanda Farías, Crystal Hudson and Chris Marte – ran against her in the speaker’s race. But that doesn’t necessarily mean there will be tension. Menin’s predecessor, former Speaker Adrienne Adams, was also a moderate, and she and members of the Progressive Caucus were frequently aligned. For her part, Menin has pushed back against the idea that ideological differences will pose a problem in the council. She appointed three Progressive Caucus members to her leadership team: Nantasha Williams as deputy speaker, Encarnacion as deputy whip and Shekar Krishnan as chair of the Oversight and Investigations Committee. 

Asked what sort of dynamic she expects the group to have with Menin, Hanif was positive. “As we did with Speaker Adams, we are going to work collaboratively. We know that an agenda that is to tackle the affordability crisis in New York City requires collaboration and partnership,” she said, adding that the caucus will “be a strong partner” in helping the mayor and speaker work together. The two city leaders have so far played nice, appearing together multiple times since the inauguration. Perhaps most significantly, Menin has vowed to work with Mamdani to expand free child care. Should their relationship deteriorate though, the Progressive Caucus could play an influential role going to bat for the mayor’s priorities in the council. With 24 people now in their ranks, the group would only need to pull two of their colleagues to have a majority. More will be clear with time. The caucus plans to elect new leadership toward the end of this month or early February. Legislative priorities will be rolled out some time after that.

The Common Sense Caucus – a group of conservative Democrats and Republicans who fall to the opposite of the Progressive Caucus on many issues – meanwhile are expected to meet for the first time later this month, according to a spokesperson. The group had eight members last year, but it’s unclear whether membership will fall or remain. While Republican Kristy Marmorato lost her reelection bid, Phil Wong, a conservative Democrat who took office this year, is expected to join. 

The Progressive Caucus membership has ebbed and flowed over the years, hitting a peak following the 2021 council elections with 34 members. Fifteen of them, Brewer included, opted to leave in 2023 after the group’s leaders asked them to sign a new statement of principles which included a clause to “do everything we can to reduce the size and scope of the NYPD and the Department of Correction.” Going into the new session though, Hanif said the caucus approached Brewer and their other colleagues knew that they were welcome to join. 

Brewer took them up on it. While she said she still disagrees with that statement, she agrees with just about everything else – not to mention the challenges posed by the federal government are greater now than they were when she left. “That’s my thing. It’s a group of people to discuss important issues at a time when the issues are even more challenging, if that’s even possible, than four years ago,” Brewer said. “And I think some of these new members add a lot to the City Council.”

Here’s a full list of the Progressive Caucus’ membership:

1. Alexa Avilés
2. Althea Stevens
3. Amanda Farías
4. Carmen De La Rosa
5. Chi Ossé
6. Christopher Marte
7. Crystal Hudson
8. Elsie Encarnacion
9. Gale Brewer
10. Harvey Epstein
11. Jennifer Gutiérrez
12. Julie Won
13. Justin Sanchez
14. Kayla Santosuosso
15. Lincoln Restler
16. Nantasha Williams
17. Pierina Ana Sanchez
18. Rita Joseph
19. Sandy Nurse
20. Shahana Hanif
21. Shanel Thomas-Henry
22. Shekar Krishnan
23. Shirley Aldebol
24. Tiffany Cabán