13 Jun 2026, 5:55 a.m.
2026 NYC Primary Election Recommendations: Congress, State Assembly & Senate & Comptroller
I call that last one "winning argument at the CAC."
OK I'm done talking about the TV show now
But my fellow activists are absolutely not done talking about Metropolitan Park. They're pursuing litigation to get the state to revoke the gaming license. They're calling on the governor to rescind the license. And some of them are set on re-electing Jessica Ramos, to signal that the district absolutely does not want the casino, and to reject one of her challengers, an Assemblymember who voted for that bill:
Campaign website. Assembly page, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter. Bio on English Wikipedia. Questionnaires from 2020 and 2022 re-election campaigns.
González-Rojas (widely known as "JGR") is the incumbent Assemblymember for 34th District, since 2021. She is a queer Latina woman and previously headed National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health. Key issues in legislation she's sponsored legislation include reproductive freedom, queer rights, healthcare costs, and SNAP. She calls for climate justice & for universal childcare for every child from birth to the age of four. She successfully sponsored legislation that eliminates the cost of asthma inhalers and that made free school breakfast & lunch available to all schoolkids. Analysis of her legislative record. Fundamentally I think she and Ramos vote for pretty much the same bills, but they focus on different topics in what they sponsor and really push to get passed.
Ramos has lost a ton of past endorsements, and generally they've gone to González-Rojas, who is endorsed by DRUM Beats, Working Families Party, Make the Road Action, local Councilmember Krishnan, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, nearby Assemblymember Catalina Cruz, and many other local groups and electeds. Mamdani hasn't endorsed her formally, but he marched next to her rather than Ramos in the Queens Pride Parade a week ago, which many read as a signal. She's a member of Democratic Socialists of America, but isn't seeking their endorsement for this race.
Ramos argues that JGR's support for Metropolitan Park goes beyond just voting for that one bill. Ramos has said that "Jessica González-Rojas is Steve Cohen’s state Senate candidate" and that her "launch was sponsored precisely by consultants of the casino”. And Ramos alleges (such as in this September 2025 interview on the Max Politics podcast) that the real reason JGR launched this primary challenge isn't the Cuomo endorsement, but as part of powerful forces' revenge on Ramos for opposing the casino.
González-Rojas consistently says that she deeply researched the casino proposal, consulted her constituents, and heard them say, five-to-one, that they wanted this project. (I believe her; I think Cohen's well-funded persuasion campaign succeeded on a ton of her constituents. Interestingly, I haven't heard her point out that the bill passed 138 to 7, and her own "no" vote would not have stopped the tide.) JGR argues that Ramos has taken campaign donations from lobbyists for other casinos -- perhaps Ramos is not so much opposed to casinos as she says? -- and that Dixon's yes vote on the CAC belies Ramos's stance as well.
González-Rojas also asserts that, unlike Ramos, González-Rojas can work with others -- "builds bridges rather than burning them."
And of course Ramos's Cuomo endorsement is one of JGR's key talking points, too. I recall González-Rojas answering someone asking how she differs from the other candidates by pointing out that she didn't endorse a sexual harasser, and she hasn't been convicted of assaulting a woman.
Because remember: there's a third candidate in this race too.
Campaign website: hiram26.com. I don't want to find and link to all his social media profiles. Bio on English Wikipedia detailing his conviction for assaulting his girlfriend, his indictment for corruption, his conviction for mail fraud, and so on, as I discussed in the judicial candidates roundup. The state Senate expelled him, but several years ago he managed to beat George Dixon to grab a District Leader position. And since he got out of prison, he's kept running to get back on the City Council or into the state legislature, and so far he's always lost.
But he might win, if Jessica González-Rojas and incumbent Jessica Ramos split the progressive vote. In a 2024 Democratic primary for a nearby Assembly seat, Monserrate got 40% of the vote.
Monserrate has been declining interviews with newspapers, but he spoke at those forums this week, and alongside the crowds that came to support Ramos and JGR, crowds came to cheer for him. He promotes himself as a law-and-order dude pushing back against leftist excesses; he's an ex-cop who said at Tuesday's forum that "in the 90s we got it right!" (I'm guessing Abner Louima doesn't feel the same way.)
And he says he's learned his lesson from his past mistakes, and changed his ways. I know he hasn't. For one thing, in April of this year, and in 2022, he received campaign donations from "FRIENDS OF CSRL" at 139 Bassett Avenue, Brooklyn, 11234. That's a misspelling of "Carl", and the address is Carl Kruger's. Kruger went to prison for corruption, too. And then there's how he reacted to a woman in December (last year) who refused to shake his hand after a press conference, instantly turning stormy and trying to rip his press release out of her hand. It didn't make the news, but I know it happened.
Oh, and this is more of a side note, but on March 10th, 2026, Monserrate's campaign received a $5,000 contribution from Lukas Simianer of Pflugerville, Texas. It's very unusual for a state legislative candidate in our area to get out-of-state contributions, but Monserrate's gotten thousands of dollars from Simianer (an AI tech CEO/founder), as well as a few folks in Florida who've gotten sued for fraud in the past.
I think of both Jessicas as intelligent legislators, who nearly always support policies that I favor, and who have each made choices I think are wrong (the Cuomo endorsement and the casino support).
My research leads me to doubt the credibility of Ramos's explanations for endorsing Cuomo, and for appointing George Dixon to that CAC. This undermines my trust in her integrity and in the hard decisions she makes behind closed doors. And: while it's great that Ramos works well with organized labor, I do want my representatives to have meaningful working relationships with other local elected officials and advocacy organizations too, and not take a "my way or the highway" approach. Organizers I know have found that it's far more possible to get meetings with JGR, and to make them productive, than to get useful conversations with Ramos. DRUM Beats wrote in their endorsement: "Our members had disagreements with JGR regarding casinos, but noted and appreciated that we could struggle through disagreement with genuine openness and mutual respect."
I grieve that losing Ramos's seniority and skill in the Senate may be a setback for labor. I'm unhappy that some would perceive a JGR victory as an approval of Metropolitan Park. But my assessment is that Jessica González-Rojas would be a better steward of this seat than the incumbent is.
And even if you're deeply unhappy with both JGR and Ramos, if you're a registered Democrat in District 13, please vote for one of them, to keep Monserrate out, because he'd be worse.