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Back to this episode of Power and Politics as we continue our vote 2025 coverage and our conversations with mayoral candidates. We turn to a longtime state senator with deep roots in Queens who's now vying to lead the largest city in the country. News Shakti Dennis sat down with Jessica Ramos to find out more about what's motivating her run for mayor. My name is Jessica Ramos. I've been the state senator representing District 13 in Queens for the past 7 years. Uh, that's the neighborhoods of Jackson Heights, Corona, East Elmhurst. Elmhurst, the neighborhoods just south of LaGuardia Airport, and I actually started my career in public service 20 years ago. I was a staff member in the city council during the Bloomberg administration. I left to work in the labor movement, so I've worked for a few of the city's unions, and I was a member of the de Blasio administration prior to being a senator. Um, I helped round out the team that delivered on universal pre-K and we worked on a lot of great initiatives that, uh, really help parents and the working class in New York City. Um, I'm a mom of two boys. They're 11 and 13. I'm the proud daughter of Colombian immigrants and I'm. Running to make our city much more affordable, safer and cleaner, uh, for New Yorkers let me touch on that. uh, I, I know affordability is a big part of of this campaign. How does that relate to some of your um policy um and priorities? Well, affordability is the buzzword this year, but frankly, the city has felt unaffordable even prior to the pandemic, so I've been fighting. Poverty and inflation and all of these challenges throughout my career. I'm the state senator that most recently raised the minimum wage and tied it to inflation since I chair the Labor Committee in the state senate. I've also been able to pass many different reforms in order to protect our workers and now I really want to be mayor so that I can bring New York City back to a time when you only really. Needed one good job to be able to keep a roof over your heads no matter where I go, I meet New Yorkers who are juggling 23 jobs, sometimes even a side hustle, and that means that they are in a precarious position to pay their rent every month and they're spending less time with their families, which to me is part of public safety. We want our young people to enjoy their parents during dinner. We want parents to be home to check homework. So I want to use all of the tools available to me as mayor to make sure that we're bringing uh working people's voices to City Hall and how does that look like? How can New York City become more affordable? Well, I believe first and foremost it's about increasing the number of housing opportunities that are available in the city. I mean, we have not been able to build on pace with our rates. Of displacement because of gentrification. There's, of course, the biggest homelessness crisis that we've lived in our lifetime is right now in New York City, and there is a growing number of evictions. So we need to build more housing, but it needs to be truly affordable to New Yorkers, and I want us to also think about modest equity homeownership opportunities, because for many of us who are born and raised New Yorkers, we're still having trouble being able to own a piece of our own. City. So through property tax reform and through leveraging our pension dollars with taxpayer dollars to build new developments and be able to answer this crisis is, I think, a great recipe to make sure that we are building the number of units we need. um, there has been some criticism a little bit. How do you respond to the criticism of people saying that you might not be equipped to deal with such a huge budget. Well, I am the only candidate that's already had a desk in the mayor's office. Um, I have seen firsthand how the interagency magic happens in order to carry out complex implementation of laws and programs in order to serve New Yorkers, um, and I'm proud to say that as a legislator I actually have one of the lowest turnover rates in the state Senate. I'm known for being a good. Boss I'm known for having a good eye for hires, and I plan on making sure that we are focusing on the urgency of the moment which has been my criticism certainly of the current mayor and many others who just don't seem to understand that people need housing now people need food access now people need access to good jobs and to universal child care now and we've been. Laying um because so many want to play politics with money that really should be sacred to our children's futures and the future of the city and how do you think your background as the child of a of immigrants uh prepare you for this office and to lead the city? Well, I think right now unfortunately many New Yorkers are living in fear because of the attacks we're facing from the Trump administration. We are a city that depends on immigrant labor, and I happen to represent one of the largest immigrant constituencies in all of the city. I mean, we're the most diverse district in the entire country, if not the planet. We speak more than 200 languages, and I've been living there my whole life. I can tell you that, you know. No one really is a threat to us, and if we lean on the diversity and the competitive advantage that that offers us, well, we should be able to stop the cooperation we have right now between the NYPD and ICE. Unfortunately, Eric Adams sold us out. In order to save himself and we should be working to uh we should be working against family separation so keeping ice out of our hospitals out of our schools out of our houses of worship and any other public institution is critical um and I think we should, you know, really be meeting Donald Trump where he is he's not. going to be nice, so we have to be strategic, and this is why you know I've actually even in my current capacity as senator introduced the recourse Act so that we as a donor city and state would be able to withhold our federal taxes when Donald Trump unlawfully cuts funding to the critical services that we need.

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Come back as we get back to our interview with mayoral candidate Jessica Ramos talking with News Twelve's Shakti Dennis. If you win, you'll be the first, uh, Latina mayor. Um, what do you think that would mean for the city? Well, I think it would be a vindication of so much that we've been through. I, I want not only Latinos but immigrants, women, um, and hardworking people, uh, to really see themselves in the leadership that I bring, um, to understand. That I will make sure that I am leading with the voices of workers, because for a long time I've seen that, you know, New Yorkers are all about our hustle, and the mayor's hustle should match how hard people work. But right now, no matter how hard you work, people are still falling behind. So understanding that and Legislating and and and governing from that perspective I think is critical and I hope that voters and even non voters can see themselves in me and can trust that I will be determined and focused on delivering an economy in a city that works for everybody. Why do you think um your campaign hasn't gained as much traction as perhaps you hope? Well, I think. I think right now politics has is swinging, you know, to the extremes, and I feel like we're at a highly polarized moment. I mean, so many people thought that they were supporting Trump because they were only going to deport criminals and yet what we're seeing is that uh so many immigrants and even sometimes citizens are being criminalized as an excuse to deport them right. And in the same way the far left has promised a lot of things that are very difficult to achieve when we have so many crises as a priority to address right now so I I am actually campaigning and bringing a message that is much more unifying um to working people um understanding that we shouldn't trust a gentrifier to be our. Mayor, we shouldn't trust those who have already defrauded us uh to be uh to remain as mayor and that there is a willingness to really see different style of politics and of governing that really is drama free um and that will focus on delivering on a better quality of life for people. A reminder that News 12 did reach out to the top funded candidates in the mayoral race and will be sitting down with them in the weeks to come here on Power and Politics. To find all of our coverage of this race and your local city council candidates, you can visit NewsTwelve.com and look for the Power and Politics section.

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The June primaries are officially less than a month away. As we gear up for Vote 2025, News 12 is introducing you to the mayoral candidates who will appear on the ballot. 

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