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December 9, 2019
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CHARLIE KING & RACHEL NOERDLINGER
JAMES SANDERS JR.
KEVIN PARKER
LEROY COMRIE
THROWING HIS
support behind U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris’ now-suspended presidential campaign and New York City first lady Chirlane McCray’s ThriveNYC campaign, assisting in the passage of a ban on 3D-printed guns and grilling Con Edison for power outages this summer, state Sen. Kevin Parker has used his platform for purpose – and for a little trash talk. Go to Twitter if you want to see him at his most unvarnished.
LEROY COMRIE has been in elected office for nearly two decades, serving in the New York City Council for three terms and, after his failed Queens borough president bid, representing constituents in the state Senate since 2015. He speaks softly and keeps a low profile – after state Sen. Michael Gianaris’ pending appointment to an obscure board that would have weighed in on Amazon’s HQ2 fell through, it was Comrie who got the post.
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CHARLIE KING
41 DEBORAH ROSE
NEW YORK CITY COUNCILWOMAN NEW YORK CITY Councilwoman Deborah Rose, who is Staten Island’s first black elected official, has benefited from the support of the Working Families Party. Recently embroiled in a tussle over rezoning the Bay Street corridor and a possible homeless shelter on Victory Boulevard, Rose has also called for a microtransit pilot program to increase transit options in the borough. Meanwhile, there are rumors that she’s eyeing a possible public administration post.
joined Mercury Public Affairs as co-chair in 2015 before eventually becoming partner. His relationship to Gov. Andrew Cuomo (he was a senior campaign adviser for his 2014 reelection bid) only furthers his reach. Rachel Noerdlinger has served as a communications adviser to the National Action Network and as an aide to first lady Chirlane McCray. She’s also helped Gwen Carr, the mother of Eric Garner.
STATE SEN. James
Sanders Jr. is a champion of small business and entrepreneurship. Among his recent successes, the chairman of the state Senate Banks Committee has pushed to direct more capital to businesses previously overlooked by banking institutions, and supported renewing and expanding the law giving minorityand women-owned businesses better access to state contracts. Sanders was among the lawmakers who supported Tiffany Cabán in this year’s Democratic primary for Queens district attorney.
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NIKOLE HANNAH- KIARA ST. JAMES JONES CO-FOUNDER
LOVELY WARREN
ROCHESTER MAYOR
DOMESTIC CORRESPONDENT THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE
NAMED TO Essence
magazine’s 2018 Woke 100 Women list, Lovely Warren is gaining recognition on a national scale. Her efforts to form a police accountability board (which would investigate misconduct and make recommendations to the Rochester police chief) have been met with some resistance. She’s also doubled down on calling for a state takeover of the Rochester City School District. The city’s first female mayor, Warren previously served on the Rochester City Council.
STATE SENATOR
FOCUSING ON
47 JENNIFER JONES AUSTIN
CEO AND EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR FEDERATION OF PROTESTANT WELFARE AGENCIES IN AN era when the gap between the haves and the have-nots is wider than it has been in decades, Jennifer Jones Austin has been pushing City Hall and Albany to do right by New Yorkers in need. Austin and several other civil rights figures recently met with incoming NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea. In October, she was named the first female co-host of the “Open Line” radio show on WBLS.
racial injustice, Nikole Hannah-Jones made waves this year shepherding The New York Times Magazine’s 1619 project, which drew the praise of many and the ire of conservatives. She’s publicly expressed her concerns with the Specialized High School Admissions Test, joining the growing chorus of voices pushing to change the admission process. Hannah-Jones is the co-founder of the Ida B. Wells Society for Investigative Reporting.
AND EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR NEW YORK TRANSGENDER ADVOCACY GROUP PUSHING ALBANY
to do what Washington won’t, Kiara St. James maintains her perch as a staunch advocate for LGBTQ rights across New York state. She helped enshrine the protection of gender-nonconforming and transgender individuals with the passage of the Gender Expression Non-Discrimination Act in the state Legislature. St. James recently attended the National Trans Visibility March in Washington, D.C.
STATE SENATOR
SHEENA WRIGHT PRESIDENT AND CEO UNITED WAY OF NEW YORK CITY
WHEN SHEENA WRIGHT joined the
United Way of New York City in 2012, her goal was, as she puts it, to “play more of an activist role.” One notable initiative is ReadNYC, which is aimed at doubling the number of third graders in poor neighborhoods who can read on grade level. Other key goals include eradicating poverty in the city, making life more affordable and increasing the response rate for the 2020 census.
OFFICE OF NEW YORK CITY COUNCILMAN DEBORAH ROSE; ROB WHITE
PARTNER; MANAGING DIRECTOR MERCURY
STATE SENATOR