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Speaker 1: The election unfolded against the backdrop of COVID nineteen and

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Speaker 1: the mass demonstrations following the murder of George Floyd, and

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Speaker 1: in the end, the voters of the South Bronx overwhelmingly

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Speaker 1: cast their ballot for a new generation of leadership.

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Speaker 2: From Futuro Media, It's Latin Usa. I'm Maria Ino Jossa

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Speaker 2: Richie Dorrees recently made history in a hotly contested race.

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Speaker 2: He took the lead in the Democratic primary to represent

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Speaker 2: New York's fifteenth Congressional district, which is in the Bronx.

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Speaker 3: And the opportunity to represent the essential workers of the Sporough,

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Speaker 3: to represent the powerful mothers of the Sporough.

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Speaker 4: It's the culmination of a dream.

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Speaker 2: Torres is a member of the New York City Council

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Speaker 2: and now he's poised to become the first openly LGBTQ

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Speaker 2: Latino member of Congress after going up against a front runner.

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Speaker 5: Matrimonian triomre Co.

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Speaker 2: Who opposed gay marriage. It was a wild race with

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Speaker 2: twelve candidates who fought it out to replace Congressman Josse Serrano,

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Speaker 2: one of the most progressive members of the House.

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Speaker 6: I rise a strong support of this emergency supplemento, which

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Speaker 6: will help Puerto Rico.

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Speaker 2: Serrano has represented the district for thirty years. He announced

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Speaker 2: last year that he would step down after being diagnosed

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Speaker 2: with Parkinson's disease. The race took place in the district

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Speaker 2: right next door to the one where Alexandria Ocasio Cortez

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Speaker 2: unseated longtime congress member Joe Crowley in twenty eighteen.

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Speaker 7: How are you feeling, can you put it into words?

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Speaker 2: Nope, which was a major victory for the left wing

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Speaker 2: of the Democratic Party. With so many candidates, this race

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Speaker 2: in the Bronx sparked intense conversations about what it means

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Speaker 2: to be a progressive Democrat in a district where two

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Speaker 2: two thirds of the residents are LATINIX and we're almost

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Speaker 2: all are people of color. It's also known as the

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Speaker 2: poorest congressional district in the country and a place where

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Speaker 2: voters overwhelmingly vote for Democrats. Latino USA producer Alisa Skatase

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Speaker 2: has been talking to the candidates in the Bronx and

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Speaker 2: she joins me, Now, so, Alisa, you've been covering and

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Speaker 2: following this race in the Bronx. I mean, what was

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Speaker 2: it about this race that initially interested.

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Speaker 8: You, So, Maria, this race is super interesting. The primary

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Speaker 8: happened at the end of June, and it was a

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Speaker 8: Democratic primary, but it was basically a general election because

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Speaker 8: almost everybody in this part of the Bronx is a Democrat.

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Speaker 8: So basically, whoever wins this primary would almost definitely get

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Speaker 8: this seat in November. And it was a super crowded race.

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Speaker 8: There were twelve candidates, and with one notable exception that

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Speaker 8: I'll talk about in a second, all of these candidates

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Speaker 8: consider themselves to be progressive. But within this aggressive umbrella,

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Speaker 8: there are these divisions that we've seen, you know, on

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Speaker 8: the national level in democratic politics. So you know, at

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Speaker 8: this moment, the House is the one piece of the

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Speaker 8: federal government that the Democrats control, but there's this power

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Speaker 8: struggle going on between the more left wing and the

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Speaker 8: more moderate members of Congress. So I thought that this

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Speaker 8: was a really interesting race to see how some of

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Speaker 8: these debates that we're seeing in the Democratic Party nationally

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Speaker 8: would play out in a very Latino district.

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Speaker 2: So the district is very Latino, but I mean, who

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Speaker 2: are the people who are voting in this race?

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Speaker 8: This district is special in a lot of ways. It

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Speaker 8: is the only district in New York that's entirely in

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Speaker 8: the Bronx. So to get more of a sense of

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Speaker 8: the district, I went up there the weekend before the

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Speaker 8: election and just you know, walked around recorded some of

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Speaker 8: the sounds of the neighborhood in a socially distanced way.

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Speaker 8: So there were a bunch of families in the park.

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Speaker 8: They were barbecuing, they were playing satsan munch at them music.

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Speaker 8: There were Puerto Rican flags all over the place. And

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Speaker 8: the district more broadly, it's been mostly Latino and black

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Speaker 8: since the nineteen seventies for a long time. Most of

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Speaker 8: those Latinos who were Puerto Rican. Now there's also a

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Speaker 8: lot of Dominicans and Mexicans. There are also immigrants from

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Speaker 8: Bangladesh and parts of West Africa.

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Speaker 2: All right, well, let's talk a little bit more about

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Speaker 2: the candidates. So who are they?

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Speaker 8: So I didn't talk to all of them, but I

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Speaker 8: did talk to the guy who ultimately won.

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Speaker 9: Richie Torres, born, bred and battle tested in the Bronx.

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Speaker 8: He's just thirty two years old. He represents a section

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Speaker 8: of the Bronx that partly overlaps with this congressional district,

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Speaker 8: and that clip is from when I talked to him

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Speaker 8: before the election, So he's kind of a shiny young politician.

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Speaker 8: Even outside the Bronx, he's seen as a rising star.

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Speaker 8: You know, he had this slick campaign video.

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Speaker 4: I grew up in public housing.

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Speaker 1: I'm a son of the Bronx.

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Speaker 4: I was raised by single mother who had to raise

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Speaker 4: three children on minimum wage, and I lived in conditions

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Speaker 4: of mold and vermin, lead and leaks.

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Speaker 8: And on the city council, He's really focused on improving

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Speaker 8: these conditions in public housing that he knows about firsthand.

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Speaker 8: He's also Afro Puerto Rican and is known for being

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Speaker 8: the first out LGBTQ person ever elected to any political

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Speaker 8: office in the Bronx. And his campaign also stood out

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Speaker 8: because he was able to raise by far the most

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Speaker 8: money of all of the candidates, about one point three

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Speaker 8: million dollars. There were a bunch of other, you know,

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Speaker 8: veteran New York politicians. I'm not going to get into

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Speaker 8: all of them. There was also a political newcomer in

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Speaker 8: this race, a woman named Samelis Lopez.

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Speaker 10: And I think that the community is ready for revolutionary,

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Speaker 10: visionary working class leadership that is going to put their

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Speaker 10: needs unapologetically first.

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Speaker 8: So, as you may have guessed these statements. Sampez comes

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Speaker 8: from the left wing of the Democratic Party, and even

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Speaker 8: though she's never been elected to public office, her campaign

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Speaker 8: started getting traction after AOC and then Bernie Sanders endorsed her.

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Speaker 8: She was also part of a slate of candidates in

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Speaker 8: New York City that were supported by the local chapter

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Speaker 8: of the Democratic Socialists of America. And then finally, the

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Speaker 8: guy who was considered to be the front runner for

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Speaker 8: most of the race was, unfortunately the one candidate who

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Speaker 8: did not answer my emails or my voice mails, the

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Speaker 8: Reverend Rubin Diaz Senior Ola. This is a clip of

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Speaker 8: a video I found on his Facebook page plash Knew,

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Speaker 8: where he's explaining how to get an absentee ballot, you know,

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Speaker 8: because of COVID. So Rubendia Senior is also on the

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Speaker 8: New York City Council. He also represents an area that

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Speaker 8: overlaps with this congressional district. Before that, he was in

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Speaker 8: the State Senate. And he's super controversial because even though

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Speaker 8: he's a longtime politician in this borough where everybody's a Democrat,

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Speaker 8: he says pretty nice things about President Trump.

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Speaker 5: He's called Mexican's rapist.

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Speaker 7: You know that's not true.

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Speaker 8: This is a clip from an interview Diaz did with

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Speaker 8: a local TV reporter in the run up to the

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Speaker 8: twenty sixteen election, and here was his response.

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Speaker 5: In that interview, he's called called those those those dot come. No, no,

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Speaker 5: he made a generalization. He said, don't tell me you're

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Speaker 5: going to defend them. I want to defend that. I

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Speaker 5: want to give him the opportunity to explain himself.

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Speaker 8: Rereverend Diaz has said that he likes Donald Trump and

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Speaker 8: identifies with him.

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Speaker 5: And also, I'm going to allow him to use the

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Speaker 5: right of freedom suppression that gave the First Amendment of

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Speaker 5: the Constitution of the United States to us, because I'm

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Speaker 5: also have been blasted.

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Speaker 8: And it's true that he does get blasted kind of

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Speaker 8: often because on top of defending Donald Trump, he's known

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Speaker 8: for saying things like that.

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Speaker 6: Ruben Dia Senior says he faced rejection from his colleagues

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Speaker 6: the moment he got to the city council last year

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Speaker 6: because quote, over there, everybody is controlled by the homosexual community.

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Speaker 5: Joe and Cornelio.

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Speaker 8: That story was in the news about a year ago,

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Speaker 8: and Reverend Diaz has this much longer history of opposing

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Speaker 8: gay marriage and saying homophobic things.

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Speaker 2: Okay, well, Ruben Diaz Senior sounds like a kind of

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Speaker 2: unusual democrat. So why did people think that he'd be

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Speaker 2: the front runner in a race where so many voters

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Speaker 2: are Democrats.

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Speaker 8: So there are a couple of things. First, he's been

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Speaker 8: in Bronx politics for a couple of decades at this point.

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Speaker 8: He's part of this old guard of Puerto Rican politicians

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Speaker 8: who really dominated Latino politics in the Bronx for many years.

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Speaker 8: And he's known for throwing these big parties called gabrasos,

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Speaker 8: you know, like hugs, where there's music and food and

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Speaker 8: powerful local politicians usually make an appearance. So you know,

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Speaker 8: he's done a lot of people favors over the years.

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Speaker 8: He has a lot of name recognition in the borough.

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Speaker 8: And on top of that, he's a Pentecostal minister, which

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Speaker 8: helps explain his position on gay marriage. And you know,

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Speaker 8: people say that the Bronx is like the Bible Belt

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Speaker 8: of New York City. There are a lot of evangelical

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Speaker 8: and Pentecostal churches. There are a bunch of older Latinos

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Speaker 8: who are economically liberal but more socially conservative than maybe

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Speaker 8: the average Democrat, and as more of a practical matter,

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Speaker 8: you know, the Reverend could use his church to promote

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Speaker 8: his campaign. His physical church building was closed for a

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Speaker 8: while because of COVID nineteen, but he's still been airing

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Speaker 8: services over Facebook and a local radio station, and the

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Speaker 8: weekend before the primary, in one of those sermons, he

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Speaker 8: was reminding people to go vote a persona, So you know,

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Speaker 8: he had this easy platform to reach his base.

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Speaker 2: I'm thinking about my years of reporting in the Bronx,

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Speaker 2: where there was like entrenched political power structures that you know,

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Speaker 2: were big, and so I'm wondering, given that reality, how

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Speaker 2: was Richie Dorris able to pull ahead.

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Speaker 8: So for Richie Torres, the fact that he was running

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Speaker 8: against Reverend Diez was kind of personal.

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Speaker 9: When I first ran, Lubinda Senior, even at the time,

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Speaker 9: was a formidable political figure and so it's because of

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Speaker 9: people like him that I felt a sense of fear

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Speaker 9: when I first ran for public office. And you know

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Speaker 9: that has left scars on me.

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Speaker 2: So that fear that Richie Torris is talking about, does

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Speaker 2: that come into the picture Because Richie Torres is gay.

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Speaker 8: Exactly, So there's kind of a poetic dynamic here, you know,

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Speaker 8: there's this young gay candidate who's running against this older

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Speaker 8: candidate who's held rallies against marriage equality. And pretty early

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Speaker 8: on in his campaign, Torres started getting support from big

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Speaker 8: LGBTQ organizations and other national groups, and as the race

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Speaker 8: went on, he really tried to frame the race as

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Speaker 8: being between just two people. Richie supporters started airing attack

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Speaker 8: ads that compared Diaz to Trump.

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Speaker 7: Theas senior supports, the dangerous Trump agenda that hurts South

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Speaker 7: Bronx families. DEAs Ephn invited Trump to his church and

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Speaker 7: thanked him for caring for us. But there's a better choice. Democrat.

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Speaker 7: Richie Torres, a son of the Bronx.

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Speaker 8: And some of his supporters actually started pushing the other

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Speaker 8: candidates to drop out because there were concerns that having

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Speaker 8: eleven progressive candidates in this race was going to split

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Speaker 8: the progressive vote in a way that would ultimately help

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Speaker 8: the Reverend come out on top.

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Speaker 2: I feel like I'm having a little bit of flashbacks

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Speaker 2: to the Democratic presidential primary because there were so many

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Speaker 2: more candidates, and the more moderate candidates dropped out and

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Speaker 2: endorsed Joe Biden, which was this turning point that the

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Speaker 2: help Biden to take the lead that Bernie Sanders had.

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Speaker 2: So did these progressive candidates end up uniting around Richard Torres.

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Speaker 8: They did not. None of the candidates I talked to

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Speaker 8: seem to be even considering it. And for Sami Spez,

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Speaker 8: the Democratic Socialist candidate, it was because she didn't consider

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Speaker 8: Richie Torres to be progressive enough. Specifically, she was really

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Speaker 8: critical of how he'd raised his campaign money. Some of

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Speaker 8: that money came from real estate developers who are interested

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Speaker 8: in building in the Bronx at a time when people

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Speaker 8: are worried that gentrification could push the black and Latino

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Speaker 8: families who've lived in this borough for decades out of

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Speaker 8: their homes.

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Speaker 10: And I think that the committee has a deep understanding

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Speaker 10: that if you're a Democrat taking like dirty funding.

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Speaker 8: This is samitistropees again.

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Speaker 10: I mean, that's just as bad as somebody who's anti LGBTQIA,

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Speaker 10: because you're selling us out.

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Speaker 9: I think if your sense of integrity is so fragile

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Speaker 9: that it would crumble under the influence of political contribution,

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Speaker 9: then you have no business serving an elected office or

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Speaker 9: assuming any position of consequence.

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Speaker 8: Tours of that, his track record on the City Council

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Speaker 8: shows that he's super committed to going after shady landlords

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Speaker 8: and funding affordable housing. And you know, I think these

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Speaker 8: criticisms frustrated him a little bit. He talked about how

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Speaker 8: they echo these national divides in the Democratic Party.

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Speaker 9: If you see no difference between Rubin ds Senior and myself,

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Speaker 9: if you see no difference between Joe Biden and Donald Trump,

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Speaker 9: if you see no difference between Democrats and Republicans, then

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Speaker 9: you have no business representing the South Bronx because you

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Speaker 9: have a dangerously warped view of the world.

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Speaker 2: Coming up on Latino USA, we recap a historic election night.

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Speaker 1: It would be the honor of my life to represent

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Speaker 1: this paro.

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Speaker 2: It's my home, and we talk with Richie Torris about

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Speaker 2: what being a progressive means to him. Stay with us,

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Speaker 2: not the Videns. Hey, we're back, and before the break,

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Speaker 2: we were talking with Latino USA producer Alissa Scarce about

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Speaker 2: the race for the fifteenth congressional district in the Bronx,

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Speaker 2: and we're going to jump back to that conversation now.

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Speaker 2: All right, Alisa, Well, primary day in New York was

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Speaker 2: a little crazy. Hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers had

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Speaker 2: requested absentee ballots to be mailed in. So what about

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Speaker 2: the primary in this Bronx district? How did it go?

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Speaker 8: So between people who voted in person on primary day

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Speaker 8: and people who'd voted early, there were around forty thousand

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Speaker 8: votes in this congressional race. A bunch of absentee ballots

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Speaker 8: also got sent out in this district. We still don't

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Speaker 8: know exactly when those are going to be counted, so

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Speaker 8: we might not be able to call the election officially

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Speaker 8: for a little while. But you know, by late on

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Speaker 8: the night of the primary, Richie Torres had a significant

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Speaker 8: lead in the polls. Here he is talking to a

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Speaker 8: local TV reporter.

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Speaker 3: So I'm not prepared to declare victory until every vote

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Speaker 3: is counted. But even if I win the election, it's

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Speaker 3: governing that matters. It's delivering results for the everyday people

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Speaker 3: of the South Bronx. It would be the honor of

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Speaker 3: my life to represent this borough.

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Speaker 2: It's my home. So that's him choking up.

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Speaker 8: Yeah, it was really emotional, you know. So he told

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Speaker 8: me later that it was this really overwhelming moment. And

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Speaker 8: the next morning I looked at the results and he

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Speaker 8: was in the lead with about thirty percent of the vote.

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Speaker 8: Rubin Diaz Senior was in third place, he had less

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Speaker 8: than fifteen percent of the vote, and Samelis Lopez was

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Speaker 8: in fourth. And at this point, Richie Trez's campaign still

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Speaker 8: hasn't declared him the winner, but they told me they're

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Speaker 8: pretty confident that he has an insurmountable lead.

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Speaker 2: And after all of these concerns about Rubin Diaz Senior

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Speaker 2: and splitting the progressive vote, how exactly did Richard Dorrees

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Speaker 2: end up so far ahead?

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Speaker 8: So about a week after the primary, I called him

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Speaker 8: to check in about the race. It looks like you're

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Speaker 8: going to DC.

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Speaker 1: How does it feel? Well?

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Speaker 8: First, I feel exhausted, and he told me he thought

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Speaker 8: it was his background and his track record that really

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Speaker 8: pulled him into the lead.

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Speaker 1: Voters are hungering for a new generation of leadership, and

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Speaker 1: I represent an infusion of new blood. And second, you know,

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Speaker 1: voters could care less about my sexuality. What matters to

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Speaker 1: them is my background as a housing organize is my

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Speaker 1: background and my record as an advocate for tenants in

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Speaker 1: the New York City Council.

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Speaker 8: There were also some tactical things that helped him get ahead,

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Speaker 8: like the fact that he had raised so much money

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Speaker 8: it meant that he could air lots and lots of

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Speaker 8: tv ads at a time when a lot of people

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Speaker 8: are just sitting at home because of COVID. And then

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Speaker 8: after the primary, I got to take a look at

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Speaker 8: these maps that political scientists from the City University of

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Speaker 8: New York put together that showed this really interesting pattern.

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Speaker 8: So Richie one overwhelmingly in the area that's in his

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Speaker 8: current city council district, which is really common in New

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Speaker 8: York elections that candidates who run in an area, you know,

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Speaker 8: where people already know them have a big advantage. But

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Speaker 8: the really interesting thing is that Reuben Diaz's district went

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Speaker 8: overwhelmingly for Richie Torres. And you know, that probably means

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Speaker 8: that Diaz Senior either didn't have as much support as

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Speaker 8: people thought before the election, or that his supporters didn't

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Speaker 8: come out to vote this time as much as other

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Speaker 8: people did. But it also does seem like the narrative

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Speaker 8: that Diaz was similar to Trump, after Trump has spent

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Speaker 8: years attacking immigrants, and also at a time when Trump's

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Speaker 8: approval ratings are just really low in general, that all

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Speaker 8: of that also worked against Diaz.

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Speaker 2: All right, So if you think that you know Bronx politics,

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Speaker 2: you know, is democratic politics I'm wondering about, you know,

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Speaker 2: like thinking about this particular district, so Latino, and you've

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Speaker 2: got a guy like Richie Dorres who considers himself so progressive,

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Speaker 2: but he was running against a Bernie Sanders Endortz candidate

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Speaker 2: who criticized him pretty starkly for taking real estate money.

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Speaker 2: So when you step back, what kind of a Democrat

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Speaker 2: do you think that Richie Dorris from the Bronx is

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Speaker 2: going to be?

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Speaker 8: You know, it's a great question. Honestly, right after the election,

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Speaker 8: I still wasn't sure, and it was the thing that

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Speaker 8: I was most curious about because you know, there were

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Speaker 8: all these articles that came out right after the primary

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Speaker 8: that talked about this wave of left between candidates who

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Speaker 8: have huge leads over other candidates who are really closely

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Speaker 8: associated with the Democratic establishment. So there was Jamal Bowman

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Speaker 8: also in the Bronx.

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Speaker 1: We celebrate this movement, a movement design to push back

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Speaker 1: against a system that's literally killing us.

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Speaker 11: There was Manda Jones, and so I think you're going

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Speaker 11: to see increasingly members of the House Democratic Caucus who

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Speaker 11: had been holding out on any number of issues moved

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Speaker 11: to the left. I think you'll see and have already

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Speaker 11: seen Vice President Biden moved to the left.

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Speaker 8: Both of those candidates were endorsed by Bernie Sanders and AOC,

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Speaker 8: and then Richie Torres was also included on those lists

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Speaker 8: of insurgent progressive candidates, even though Bernie and AOC endorsed

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Speaker 8: his opponent. So, you know, I looked back a little

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Speaker 8: bit further into his history and it's still hard to

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Speaker 8: tell what camp he's in. He actually endorsed Bernie during

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Speaker 8: the twenty sixteen primaries. On the city Council, he was

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Speaker 8: on the Progressive caucus for a while, then he left,

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Speaker 8: then he came back, so I was really curious to

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Speaker 8: find out what he would say about this. So I'm

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Speaker 8: curious at this point how you see yourself fitting in

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Speaker 8: with the Democratic Party.

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Speaker 1: I see myself as a progressive, but independent progressive, and

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Speaker 1: since I won decisively, I'm beholden to no power structure,

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Speaker 1: whether it is the democratic socialist industrial complex or the

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Speaker 1: democratic establishment.

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Speaker 2: Wait did he just say the democratic socialist industrial complex.

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Speaker 8: I had not heard that before. I don't know if

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Speaker 8: that's actually a thing, But you know, when he said that,

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Speaker 8: I asked him again, like why if you're progressive, like,

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Speaker 8: why not align yourself with one of these power structures.

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Speaker 8: Why go it alone in the way that you did.

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Speaker 1: I find that those organizations are unrepresentative of the district

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Speaker 1: that I represent. Right, the DSA is overwhelmingly white. My

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Speaker 1: district is overwhelmingly Latino and African American. It's important for

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Speaker 1: me to represent the interest and values and lived experiences

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Speaker 1: of the people who sell works.

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Speaker 8: You know, there were always questions about whether the DSA

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Speaker 8: strategy would work in this district, partly because when AOC

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Speaker 8: first one in twenty eighteen, she did best in the

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Speaker 8: areas of Queens that are already more gentrified. When it

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Speaker 8: comes to specific policies, Richie disagrees with the DSAY on

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Speaker 8: some issues, like charter schools for example. On the other hand,

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Speaker 8: he says he strongly supports Bernie Sanders and AOC's signature

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Speaker 8: policy issues. He's totally on board with the Green New Deal.

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Speaker 1: And then as far as medicare role, do I think

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Speaker 1: medicare role is the only path to universal healthcare? No,

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Speaker 1: but it's a sensible path, all right.

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Speaker 2: So the takeaway might be that he has progressive goals,

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Speaker 2: but that Richie torries is willing to compromise on things

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Speaker 2: when there are people around him who have different opinions.

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Speaker 8: Right, Yeah, I think that's right.

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Speaker 1: I'm a cragntics. I never allow progressive purity to be

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Speaker 1: the enemy of progress.

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Speaker 2: All right, Well, that was a lot of political drama

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Speaker 2: going on in the Bronx at this point. What's next

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Speaker 2: for Richie Torres and his campaign?

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Speaker 8: So, as he said, he's waiting for all the absentee

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Speaker 8: ballots to come in to officially declare victory. But assuming

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Speaker 8: nothing really unexpected happens, he'll have a couple opponents in

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Speaker 8: the general election in the fall. There's one Republican and

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Speaker 8: a couple of third party candidates. But I think it's

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Speaker 8: fair to assume that he is heading to Washington next year.

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Speaker 8: And he told me that he's planning on joining the

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Speaker 8: Congressional Progressive Caucus and fighting with them for Medicare for

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Speaker 8: all and the Green New Deal. But I don't think

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Speaker 8: he fits neatly into either of these two camps inside

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Speaker 8: the Democratic Party, and I think he's going to be

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Speaker 8: somebody to watch.

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Speaker 2: Thank you, Alisa for all of your reporting on this story.

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Speaker 2: This episode was produced by Alisa s Garce and edited

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Speaker 2: by Luis Trees and Sofia palisa Ka. The Latino USA

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Speaker 2: team includes Miel Masiees, Genes Yamocan, Julieta Martinelli, Gini Montalbo,

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Speaker 2: and Alejandra Salasad with help from Raul Berees. Our engineers

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Speaker 2: are Stephanie Lebou and Julia Caruso. Additional engineering this week

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Speaker 2: by Lia Sha. Our director of programming and Operations is

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Speaker 2: Natalia Fidelhotz. Our digital editor is Amandel Canterra. Our New

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Speaker 2: York Men's Foundation Ignite fellow is Julia Rocha. Our interns

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Speaker 2: are Sofia Sanchez and Marie Mendosa. Our theme music was

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Speaker 2: composed by Zee Ruinos. If you like the music you

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Speaker 2: heard on this episode, stop buying Latino Usa dot org

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Speaker 2: and executive producer Mariano Josa. Join us again on our

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