This opinion piece is part of a series written by community members from New York’s 22nd state senate district, explaining why they are voting to reelect Senator Andrew Gounardes in the 2020 election. Early Voting begins Saturday, October 24 and runs daily through Sunday, November 1. Election Day is Tuesday, November 3. Find your polling site at: https://findmypollsite.vote.nyc/
I am voting for Andrew Gounardes again not just because he’s the better person, but because he makes me and everyone else around him a better person. When you think about who should hold an office like state senator, it should not only be someone who can make a difference in their community, but this person should also inspire those within their community to make a difference. Andrew not only does that, but he excels at it.
Though I made sure to register to vote as soon as I turned 18 and exercised my right at the ballot box each Election Day, I never got involved in a campaign. Though I followed politics and had clear preferences as to who I wanted to represent me, I never volunteered for a candidate. None of my friends did. It just wasn’t on my radar. And then in 2008, Barack Obama was elected President and I was inspired. I immediately changed my party affiliation from Independent to Democrat and set out to get involved.
For as long as Marty Golden had been an elected official, he had been my elected official. For twenty years. In late 2008, I was determined to get involved in flipping my State Senate seat. I was aware Marty had run unopposed but surprised to learn he hadn’t been challenged in three consecutive elections.
As I dug into poll results, I was shocked to find out that nearly as many people had left their ballots blank in each of those years as had cast a vote for Golden and that the district’s party affiliation was two-to-one in favor of Democrats. Surely some Democratic challenger could best Marty when he’s been nearly losing to ‘Blank,’ I thought.
And when someone – I’ll simply refer to as Mike — did declare that they would run against Marty in 2010, I was excited. I connected to Mike on Facebook and reached out to him with a message. I explained that I’d been focused on working to end Golden’s reign and said I was eager to help in whatever way might be needed. Mike responded that his team had everything under control and that they didn’t need any help. Having never sought to volunteer for a campaign, I just figured that’s the way things are done.
Two years later, in 2012, I learned that Andrew Gounardes would be running against Senator Golden. I connected to him on Facebook, but this time I didn’t follow up with a message offering to help. It wasn’t until three days after Superstorm Sandy hit that I messaged Andrew asking for him to help me. I had decided to turn my running in the NYC Marathon a few days later into a fundraiser for recovery efforts, but I was having no luck finding a local charity. I took a shot and sent a direct message to that young guy who was running for State Senate that I had connected with on Facebook a few months before.
Thanks to the magic of the Messenger app, I can look back and see that Andrew literally replied to me two minutes later, telling me he was looking into it and asked if it would be okay if he got back to me the following day, apologizing that it was “a bit hectic” and he was “battling a cold.” He didn’t mention all the work he was doing to help his community recover from the storm just five days before an Election Day when he was running for office. He got back to me the following day, about 14 hours from when I had first contacted him, with info about the Borough President’s Relief Fund, apologizing to me for the delay — now, just four days before Election Day.
Later that day, the Marathon was officially canceled. Members of ‘The Owl’s Head Wine Bar Running Club’ scrambled and merged the bar’s supplies drive and my fundraiser into our own marathon event, with 7 of us running from Bay Ridge to Broad Channel, carrying supplies on our backs while a caravan of cars delivered the rest. In less than 2 days, we raised $2,000, and thanks to Andrew, it went to neighbors in Brooklyn who were affected.
Like so many, when Donald Trump was elected President, once the initial shock wore off, I quickly moved on to thinking about how to get involved in making a difference. Similar to 2008, I focused on flipping my state senate Seat. I helped organize a meeting of like-minded community members so we could brainstorm what to do in the two years leading up to the 2018 election. One member of our group confided that he had reached out to Andrew Gounardes about what it would take to mount a challenge to Marty Golden. The feedback from Andrew was that it would be an uphill battle on several fronts.
A year later, when he declared his candidacy, it should have been surprising based on his own assessment in 2016, but Andrew doesn’t shy away from uphill battles. This time I didn’t hesitate. I shot him a message, offering to help in whatever way I could. Once again, he responded, literally in two minutes. A few weeks later, a dozen of us, all local community members, were meeting in an unheated basement in the middle of the winter to help Andrew begin a campaign operation that, within nine months, would grow to an army of volunteers and supporters, including the likes of U.S. Senators, Members of Congress, the Governor, Alyssa Milano, and Ben Stiller.
I can directly link how civically engaged I am, particularly with respect to my involvement in local electoral politics, to Andrew. He gave me the opportunity to be part of a great team in 2018 that helped make his state senate campaign successful and he has been helping all of us since, from 9/11 first responders to local businesses to families who are contending with unprecedented challenges.
I’m proud to have been just one of many who have been a part of Andrew’s campaigns. I’m proud of everyone who devoted their time to help get him elected in 2018 and have contributed to the effort to send him back to Albany this year. I’m proud of Andrew. I’m proud to call him my friend. I’m proud to call him my state senator. I’m proud to have cast my 2020 vote to elect him to another two-year term so he can continue to inspire us all to take pride in our community.
