UFT backs Alex Bores in NY-12

New York City’s teachers union is backing Assembly Member Alex Bores in the competitive contest to succeed Rep. Jerry Nadler in Congress. 

It’s a big get for Bores in a front-and-center race rife with celebrity candidates and outside spending. Bores, a computer scientist by trade who has leaned into regulating artificial intelligence, has already scored endorsements from New York State United Teachers and PSC-CUNY, the union representing faculty and staff at the City University of New York. Now, with the United Federation of Teacher’s support, the 35-year-old lawmaker has a monopoly of support from educators across the state. He’s also been endorsed by District Council 37 and a handful of other unions. 

“Alex Bores has a track record of fighting for working families and public education. As part of that work, he demanded tighter regulations on AI,” UFT President Michael Mulgrew said in a statement. “Now, Big Tech billionaires and their super PAC are trying to silence him. But he won't back down. We need that kind of backbone in Washington.”

As the June 23 primary draws closer, many of the institutional endorsers have been split between Bores and Assembly Member Micah Lasher – an insider battle between Manhattan’s East and West sides. Kennedy scion Jack Schlossberg and anti-Trump talking head George Conway remain big factors in the race too, but each has a more normie following.

Lasher, like Bores, has only been in the state Assembly for a few years, but there’s a lot going for him. He’s Nadler’s hand-picked successor and much of the Democratic establishment has rallied behind him. Given UFT’s close ties with the West Side Democrats – the powerful political club backing Lasher – historic precedent would indicate that the powerful union would have backed him instead, save for one thing. Lasher used to be a pro-charter school operative, both on behalf of then-Mayor Mike Bloomberg’s pro-charter agenda and for StudentsFirstNY, a charter school advocacy group. While he has not been an advocate for charters for more than a decade, and his current education platform is decidedly pro-public schools, any past association is likely a big no no for a union like UFT – at least when there’s a viable alternative. The UFT did not back Lasher when he ran unsuccessfully for state Senate in 2016, but eventually endorsed him for reelection to the Assembly in 2024. Lasher didn’t respond to a request for comment.

“There is no group of workers more essential to New York’s future than our educators,” Bores said in a statement. “I’ll fight for them the same way they’ve fought for every single New York City kid who came through their classrooms. Earning the UFT's endorsement is one of the proudest moments of this campaign.”