In new vote, Grand Street Dems endorses Kathryn Garcia for Mayor

In a new vote on Monday evening, Grand Street Dems members endorsed Kathryn Garcia for Mayor.

GSD members’ close second choice for Mayor is Dianne Morales.

Members spoke in favor of Garcia’s highly-regarded managerial experience within city government. Especially given the scale of economic recovery New York faces in the next several years, and the opportunities for challenging reforms within city agencies, her no-nonsense, goal-oriented approach to problem-solving would be a huge asset for all New Yorkers.

At the same time, many GSD members who are looking for transformational change in the way we talk about race, housing, equity, and policing were drawn to Dianne Morales, who is running as perhaps the most purely progressive candidate in the race. As our own ranked choice voting process peeled off the outliers, Morales came in a close second to Garcia.

This new endorsement meeting was called by the GSD Executive Committee ten days ago so that members could reconsider our previous endorsement of Scott Stringer given the sexual misconduct allegations recently made against him. The new vote was a full do-over among all 13 candidates who will be on the Democratic primary ballot on June 22, including Stringer.

To help our neighbors navigate the ranked choice ballot we will all use for the primary this year for the first time, the Executive Committee also voted prior to last night’s endorsement vote to release the club’s first and second choices for Mayor, as opposed to the single endorsements GSD has made public previously.