Why I’m No Longer Doing Online Forums

It’s time to deepen my commitment to the People who helped get us here.

From the beginning of this campaign, I have always centered what matters most: We, the People. Since inception, despite naysayers, deniers and haters, our campaign has broken barriers, shattered glass and defied conventional norms. Our existence in this space has reflected our resistance. But most importantly, our campaign has worked diligently to reflect our teachers, our nurses, our taxi drivers, our artists, our immigrants, our children, our NYCHA residents. Our City. And in every space I enter, I strive to carry their voices, their experiences and their priorities.

New Yorkers have begun to see themselves in this campaign, and are believing that now is the moment for our lives to be at the center of our policies. This month, my team hit two milestones: We unlocked matching funds, and we submitted more than 13,000 petition signatures from people throughout the City eager to have their voices represented on the ballot.

Now it is time to deepen my commitment to the People who helped get us here.

Forums — particularly during a pandemic — play an important role in ensuring that candidates remain consistent with their policies, platforms and plans. I have participated in more than 50 forums, and am deeply appreciative of having had the opportunity to introduce myself and my vision for dignity, care and solidarity for NYC to many New Yorkers this way.

I also have a responsibility to engage communities often excluded from access to decision-making tables. And it is time for my campaign to take the tables to the streets, reimagine community engagement and adjust how I continue to amplify my vision for the city. That is why, effectively immediately, my campaign will halt participation in online forums, making exceptions for forums and debates that reach large, diverse audiences via television and radio, and account for accessibility. Moving forward, we will meet New Yorkers “where they are at,” prioritizing community-centered, on-the-ground organizing strategies to connect with those who have been underserved by this City.

The reality is: This race will not be won on Zoom. And we don’t have a lot of time. Our base is currently hard at work, keeping this City running. My team has a responsibility to co-create a new vision for the City with them that prioritizes their lives, and the lives of their loved ones, interrupting traditions of social and economic negligence.

So what does this mean? It means our team will be bringing the campaign to the people. We will designate a significant portion of the matching funds being provided by the people to deepen our connection with the public. In the coming months, we will move from behind the screen directly into communities, talking to the People, creating a new blueprint for citywide organizing (especially within a pandemic), and working to balance access and equity — especially for our neighbors who don’t have the privilege to sit behind a computer or dedicate hours of their day to listening to candidates.

We appreciate that many forums are planned by groups that do vital work on the ground. We invite organizers to connect with us in different ways outside of forums. We believe there are more intentional, effective ways to share, discuss and co-create policy — and would welcome the opportunity to partner with you in doing so.

It is not enough that we participate in politics as usual. A Politics for All People requires that we redefine how we engage, how we see our issues, the leaders we choose and how we govern. In these final months before the primary, which my team has affectionately coined “the Moralethon,” we aren’t going to let systems that weren’t designed for us dictate how we move forward. We’re going to choose the future. With the People. Our way.

Pa’lante.