2023 Endorsements

DRUM Beats members consider endorsing candidates by looking into their past record of political decisions and the relationship they hold with community and movement forces. We aim to determine what candidates’ political practice is and what their commitments to collective leadership are. Elected officials do not lead our movements. Rather, we want to build relationships with elected officials where they can be in sync with our movements and take working class people’s input and leadership seriously. When candidates accept our endorsement, they are also agreeing to experiment in the practice of co-governance and shared decision making. 

In New York City, we have been presented with a cruel, anti-people budget. Organizing to confront this budget, which cuts funding to schools, libraries, public health, and other necessary programs while overfunding the NYPD has been challenging. Oftentimes city processes move swiftly and leave little opportunity for community input before being passed. In last year’s budget negotiations, pressure tactics that were used to essentially bully councilmembers into approving a budget that objectively does more harm than good.

For our 2023 city council endorsements, DRUM Beats members were especially attentive to how councilmembers seeking reelection handled the budget process and took accountability for the impacts of the budget on their working class constituents. In the context of DRUM Beats’ endorsement criteria, this is what we mean when we ask how willing elected officials are to admit mistakes and take political risks for the sake of working people. We also look at how candidates for endorsement are accountable to collective demands, even when they might disagree personally.

Based on the above conditions and after a thorough interview process, DRUM Beats members have decided to re-endorse Councilmember Sandy Nurse for re-election in District 37. Nurse has consistently demonstrated that she is committed to struggling alongside and supporting our working class communities to fight for better lives. She has worked with us to discuss neighborhood concerns around safety without having to rely on the police. In specific issues impacting our South Asian and Indo Caribbean communities, Nurse has maintained direct communication with us and our members and seriously considered our input.

Sandy Nurse’s actions have demonstrated an investment in developing co-governance/shared decision making with working class, undocumented immigrant communities. 

In District 39, DRUM Beats members have decided to re-endorse Councilmember Shahana Hanif for re-election. Hanif has demonstrated that she will take feedback from working class constituents seriously. With regard to her vote to approve last year’s budget which hurt working people in her district, Hanif has expressed remorse and made efforts towards taking accountability for her actions. Since then, she has re-affirmed her commitment to follow the leadership of our working class, immigrant members and the broader community. Our members meet with Shahana with some regularity to discuss the issues they face and how Hanif can support them and their organizing. 

DRUM Beats members have decided to not re-endorse Councilmember Amanda Farias of District 18 in the Bronx. Because we endorsed and worked to elect Amanda Farias when she ran for office in 2021, we want to be direct about why we have collectively determined that the council member has not met our criteria for endorsement. 

Members determined that Councilmember Farias’ practice, commitment to including working class constituents in cogovernance processes and sharing input in decisions that directly impact them needs improvement. Our members found that Councilmember Farias’ responses when asked about her decisions regarding last year’s budget reflected a reluctance to take political risks in service of her working class constituents. DRUM Beats members in the Bronx have been severely impacted by last year’s budget and the overpolicing it prioritizes. Many have shared that their children’s schools are in seriously bad condition with overcrowded classrooms, programs being cut, and some losing the jobs they had in schools. 

As with candidates in all our membership bases, we still intend to work with Farias on campaigns that our members are involved in and we strive towards open communication. However, we will not be putting our efforts into her reelection campaign this year. In the future, if we are more included in practices of accountability and cogovernance in this district and the council member’s practice shifts, we would consider endorsing Farias.