August 23, 2022

Last night was a great night for public schools. Four out of our five endorsed candidates won their primaries: Jamaal Bowman, Robert Jackson, Cordell Cleare, and Gustavo Rivera.

Jackson’s and Rivera’s wins were especially thrilling as they had hundreds of thousands of dollars in dark money spent against them by the charter school lobby — mostly from three billionaires: Jim Walton, Daniel Loeb, and Paul Tudor Jones. Rivera also beat big spending by the Bronx Democratic machine and Jackson by Adriano Espaillat and his crew in Upper Manhattan, trying to build their own machine.

Our only disappointment was Dan Goldman’s win in the new Congressional District 10. Goldman, who spent millions of his own personal wealth on his campaign and also received funding from the pro-charter Walton family, only came out on top because there were so many progressive candidates who split the vote. Yuh-Line Niou, whom we would have endorsed if it weren’t for Jo Anne Simon’s stellar record in education, came in only a two points behind Goldman, and hopefully will be able to run against him on the Working Families Party line in the fall.

But last night was a night to savor and celebrate the wins of four terrific education champions who we know will continue to fight to strengthen our public schools in Albany and DC!

Have a great rest of the summer, NYC Kids PAC