Ana Maria Archila

Please share what, in your view, best qualifies you to be the governor or lieutenant governor of the State of New York?

I am running for Lieutenant Governor to be an independent voice that ensures that state government focuses on the needs of working families, not the wants of billionaires. I’ll focus on ensuring that all New Yorkers have an affordable home, excellent healthcare, high-quality education, safe communities, and a livable planet. If elected, I would be the first Latina and LGBTQ+ New Yorker elected statewide.

As the co-founder and former co-Executive Director of Make the Road New York and former co-Executive Director of the Center for Popular Democracy, I have 20 years of experience as a non-profit executive who can build and lead organizations and wage successful campaigns to win social, economic, and racial justice victories. In Albany, the executive branch continues to be an obstacle to progress on key issues for workers, tenants, immigrants, and communities of

color. We need a lieutenant governor who will be a partner to the people, not just do the bidding of the governor and her campaign donors–and be willing to stand up when s/he is wrong on an issue. I have both the executive experience and the track record of speaking truth to power to play this important role.

We’ve seen the stakes for our communities in sharp relief over the past two years. As

COVID-19 swept across the nation, New York State saw frontline workers showing up every day to ensure that jobs got done. While we have seen our essential workers, many of them people of color, suffer and face exclusion from vital resources, the wealthiest individuals in our state have continued to amass unchecked wealth. As someone who has dedicated the last 20 years to building power rooted in working class communities, my work has been animated by the

certainty that a new, more just nation is struggling to be born. And that her arrival becomes more possible every time immigrant youth tell their stories and articulate their dreams; every time Black women lead us to victory in a hard fought election; every time low-wage workers win dignity at work; every time someone joins a march for the first time; and every time poor and working class families win better schools, housing and healthcare. The arrival of a more just nation, a more just New York, becomes more possible when the very people who have been silenced and relegated to the margins of our democracy build power together, and use that power to dismantle the structures of exclusion and exploitation from below. I want to make this a reality.

While NYC is mostly blue, New York State is purple. How does your platform will ensure that, if chosen by Democrats in the primary, you will ensure a Democratic victory in November?

I have traveled across the state throughout this campaign to hear from and listen to voters and my policy platform–by far the most robust platform of any candidate in this race–reflects that. You can read all my policy platforms here. My campaign has not just touched on New York City issues, but also the needs of rural communities. While I have focused heavily on the needs of tenants, I have also talked about the challenges facing homeowners. My campaign is rooted in listening to and addressing people’s problems–regardless of where they live or their party affiliation.

I should also note that I believe having my name on the ticket for the general election will help Democrats win statewide. Regardless of who wins the Governor’s race, Democrats need energy and enthusiasm in a difficult year. Thus far, I have generated by far the most grassroots engagement from the base in the Lt. Governor’s race and I would play a leadership role in engaging Latinx and queer communities given my identity and organizing experience in those communities.

LID is proudly a progressive club – how does your platform speak to progressive values while also appealing to a statewide victory in November?

I am a proud progressive and the clear progressive choice in this race. My campaign and platform has lifted up progressive priorities from Day 1–from good cause eviction legislation to building public renewables to funding excluded workers to passing the NY Health Act. Our ideas and policy proposals are actually quite popular statewide. We do, however, need to ensure that we’re putting in the work statewide to listen to and talk to voters and lead a strong statewide communications effort to connect with voters, explain our ideas, and combat disinformation. I have traveled the state to connect with voters even in red areas during the primary, and I will absolutely continue to do that during the general election. In those conversations, I have found an enormous amount of common ground on key issues–especially when it comes to tackling the affordability crisis facing New Yorkers.

Will you commit to ensuring that persons with prior homophobic/anti-queer statements and/or positions (to include espoused beliefs that transgender people are not the gender that they present themselves as) are not given jobs in your administration (unless this person has otherwise ameliorated their prior positions through consistent acts demonstrating a commitment toward the equality of all LGBTQ people while recognizing the harm they have previously caused)?

ABSOLUTELY.

Separate and apart from dedicated LGBTQ community liaisons (which organizations like ours expect to be appointed), how will you ensure that queer leaders are represented in various Executive Chamber and statewide/gubernatorially-appointed agency executive positions and boards?

While the Lieutenant Governor’s staff is quite small currently (only a handful of people), if elected, I would be vocal about the need to ensure substantial queer leadership across the executive branch. Given that I would be the first LGBTQ New Yorker elected to statewide office, I would have a powerful bully pulpit to make that argument publicly if the Governor and/or particular agencies were failing to meet that standard.

LID, like many progressive organizations, works best in coalition with our partners. Please share your path to victory and how we can help if we endorse you (and please list your endorsements at the end of this questionnaire or in an attachment):

I have established myself as the clear progressive in the race for lieutenant governor, and the only candidate with a vision and policy agenda to stand up for the needs of working families, not the wants of billionaires. I have a robust, multi-issue platform focused on tackling the affordability crisis, creating a Working People’s Economy, and taking action on climate change.

I am running against a careerist corporate Democrat (newly-installed Antonio Delgado) and conservative Democrat (Diana Reyna). Both are firmly bought by billionaire and corporate interests–especially Delgado, whose campaign is fueled by real estate, entities tied with the predatory student loan industry, and hedge fund money. He is also the beneficiary of $1 million in super PAC spending from a secretive crypto billionaire trying to stop regulation of the crypto industry in New York.

I have built the broadest political coalition in the race, with broad support from elected officials and groups across the state. I received more than 85 endorsements from elected officials and organizations (see below), with dozens more cross-endorsements with down-ballot candidates. In addition to a robust earned media strategy, we have launched TV and digital ads and are deploying our endorsers and surrogates around the state to ensure a strong GOTV groundgame across the state.

If LID endorses me, I would be very grateful if you could help spread the word to your members and allies about your endorsement and plug into our GOTV efforts for early voting and election day.

Voting access is under attack across the county. While New York is ahead of many states, we have work to do. Please identify what you see as New York’s top voting access issues and share how you will address them.

We must ensure all New Yorkers’ voices are heard and their votes counted. Our rigid voting laws disenfranchise New Yorkers, particularly the most marginalized groups. We must expand voting rights by allowing all voters to vote by mail and expand early voting. Amid a national tide of anti-voter measures that threaten our elections and disenfranchise individuals and populations, New York has an opportunity to stand as a model, but only if we make this a priority.

We must also make serious commitments to end the influence of big money on our politics. This includes fully resourcing and embracing New York’s public financing system, and for candidates to reject money from corporations, lobbyists, and powerful special interest groups like the real estate industry.

Albany also needs major ethics overhaul, accountability, and culture change to to end the scourge of sexual harassment and abuse in state government. We must ensure the Governor’s appointments are free of conflicts of interest and other forms of dangerous corporate influence.

●      Expand NY’s voting rights (including absentee voting, same day registration) and fund and reform Boards of Elections

●      Fully fund and implement public financing of our elections to limit the influence of big money in our politics

●      Bring an ethical approach to governance, including making sure appointments are free of conflicts of interest and corporate influence, and ensure strong transparency and accountability from Albany

Related to this question, my running mate and I released a comprehensive plan to end corruption and ensure government puts people first, which you can read here: https://www.anamariaforny.com/ending-corruption

New York State incarcerates too many people. Period. With a disproportionate impact on people of color. Provide us some some broad outlines as to how you plan to address this.

Despite our country’s core principle of “innocent until proven guilty”, more than three-quarters of New York City’s jail population has not been convicted of a crime. Our current system makes it

so that lower-income people awaiting trial are disproportionately held in detention due to inability to pay cash bail, while wealthier people charged with the same offenses can avoid detention due to their financial means. All of this also has widespread racial disparities, particularly

against the Black community.

In 2019, the State took key steps to rectify this fundamental injustice by passing comprehensive bail reform legislation that eliminated bail for most misdemeanors and non-violent offenses.

However, fear-mongering and sensationalism led to these reforms being rolled back almost immediately after they took effect, making dozens more of offenses bail-eligible. And we are again in the same situation today with the right wing misinformation machine and many state leaders capitulating to fear, instead of facts.

We must defend our bail reform laws, ensure the right to a speedy trial, and stop incarcerating New Yorkers for simply being poor. Instead of increasing the numbers of poor people being thrown in jail for shoplifting or repeat “quality of life” offenses as some have called for, we should be investing in greater pretrial services both in NYC and especially upstate.

Our reflexive overwhelming focus on incarceration as our response to advancing safety and accountability has simply not worked to reduce violence or address poverty, and has instead caused family separations and destabilized whole generations of New Yorkers and their communities. Indeed, the localities in New York with the highest levels of incarcerated community members are often the most unstable. Reuniting families and keeping communities whole will lead to greater safety in the long term for all of us.

To begin with, New York State needs to implement reforms that end overly punitive parole enforcement that unnecessarily re-incarcerates New Yorkers who have served their time and work to significantly lower the number of aging New Yorkers who are incarcerated. Research has consistently shown that incarcerated people over the age 50 are extremely unlikely to commit harm if released. Despite this, the number of people in this demographic in New York prisons has doubled over the past two decades, to over 10,000. In order to provide these New Yorkers with an opportunity to avoid virtual life sentences, the State should pass the Elder Parole Act and Fair and Timely Parole Act.

Finally, the City and State should look to expand the positive impact of its Alternative to Detention and Alternative to Incarceration programs, which have helped reduce prison and jail populations by diverting offenders to targeted services including mental health and substance use treatment, vocational and educational support and development, and trauma-informed counseling.

New York must finally close Rikers, and in the immediate term address the humanitarian crisis that has been unfolding in that wretched facility. We are appalled by the ever-worsening physical and sexual violence against staff and incarcerated persons. Individuals are forced to go without the most basic health and safety needs, sometimes going days, even weeks, without showers, functional toilets, medication, and medical attention. Even access to food and running water is

sometimes limited. This is a moral abomination and we must do all we can to limit the numbers of people being held in the facility Longer term, we need to, and can, reduce New York state incarceration by at least 50% in ten years through greater pretrial services, sentencing reform, parole reform, and by addressing the root causes of violence and harm as the rest of our safety plan lays out. It’s time to make New York a leader in both safety and justice.

We must also end the failed war on drugs upstate and downstate and invest in compassionate care and support for people and communities

The overdose crisis - and failed drug war policies - impacts communities of all races, and people of all political stripes. In New York State, the overdose crisis impacts urban, suburban and rural communities. Our nation is facing the worst overdose crisis in history, and sadly it’s only accelerating. In just 12 months, over 100,000 people died. We are losing one New Yorker every hour and 48 minutes. The crisis hits some communities harder than others, but every community is facing historically high overdose deaths, criminalization and a lack of adequate services and care. To end the surging overdose crisis, we need to replace criminalization and incarceration with a compassionate and caring approach rooted in science and evidence-based solutions, over deadly and harmful stigma.

The overdose crisis is a racial justice issue. In NYC, the neighborhoods with the highest overdose rates are those that are in very high poverty - specifically the South Bronx and Harlem

- which are also highly policed. Overdose rates continue to surge for Black and brown New Yorkers, while white New Yorkers overdose rates have stabilized or decreased. Access to services and treatment for communities hardest hit remain fraught with barriers. New York State can reverse the harms of the failed drug war, ensure all communities feel safe, stay alive, and receive the care they need - but it will take leaders having the political will and commitment to end the harms of criminalization and invest in caring infrastructure.

New York State played its own critical role in the drug war. Most infamously through the enactment of the draconian Rockefeller drug laws that were adopted across the nation and federally and exploded the prison population and incarcerating Black and brown communities. Although the Rockefeller drug laws have been repealed, criminalization over care is still very alive in New York State.

Most critical to ending the current overdose crisis is ensuring every New Yorker has on-demand access to evidence-based care and treatment, including harm reduction services and Medication-Assisted Treatment. We also need to end the criminalization of low level drug possession, which has led to New York treating drug use as a criminal matter instead of a public health one.

We must invest in the Office of Drug User Health in the AIDS Institute, and continue to grow the agency's budget to scale-up capacity of harm reduction services, overdose prevention, and

low-threshold models of Medication-Assisted Treatment. We should also allows the New York State Department of Health to authorize community-based organizations to operate as safer

consumption spaces (SCS), also known as Overdose Prevention Centers, which offer sterile supplies and controlled settings for people to use pre-obtained drugs under the supervision of trained professionals who can intervene in case of an overdose or other medical event, and link people to counseling, and referrals to health and social services, including drug treatment.

While we are confident that New York State will never ban the discussion of gender identity from public schools, we are still far away from ensuring that our public schools provide culturally competent educational support for LGBTQ families and queer, transgender and gender non-conforming youth. Will you support, and advocate for the legislature to pass:

Legislation creating an LGBTQ+ History curriculum for public schools (A817/S1729)? YES

Legislation requiring inclusive instruction and instructional materials (A808/S1929)? YES

Legislation to promote comprehensive sex ed in public schools? (A6616/S2584)? YES

Legislation requiring local school districts to establish policies and procedures regarding the treatment of transgender and gender-non conforming students (A840/S369)? YES

Queer people continue to face inequality in the healthcare and housing system. Please tell us if you support:

Passing the New York Health Act (A 6058/S 5474)? YES

Legislation requiring unarmed crisis personnel to respond to mental health crises? YES

Legislation which would mandate insurance coverage for PrEP/PEP (A808/S699)? YES

Legislation which would make gender affirming care an essential health benefit? Passing a bill of rights for LGBTQ persons in long-term care facilities (A7807/S85)? YES

LID and our coalition partners have been working hard to decriminalize sex with in New York State, an archaic policy that disproportionately impacts transgender women of color. Will you support the Stop the Stop the Violence in Sex Trades Act (“SVSTA”) (A849/S3075) and advocate for its passage in the legislature? YES

The most marginalized members of the LGBTQ community are those who face constant discrimination on the basis of their gender. Please share if you support and will advocate for the passage of the following:

The Gender Identity Respect Dignity and Safety Act (ensures that incarcerated individuals are housed consistent with their gender identity) (A7001A/S6677)? YES

Gender Inclusive Ballot Act (Includes individuals who do not identify exclusively as a binary gender in eligibility for party positions) (A07933A/S6901B) (*passed by both houses of the legislature, awaits transmittal to the governor) YES

Legislation to ban the use of conversion therapy on persons over 18 and under legal guardianship? YES

Do you support legislation that will suspend unnecessary travel to states that permit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression (A 07991/S 06897)? YES

Please share your current endorsements:

Some of the most prominent endorsers are listed below:

U.S. Congressional Representative Nydia Velázquez

U.S. Congressional Representative Jamaal Bowman New York City Comptroller Brad Lander

NYC Public Advocate Jumaane Williams

State Senate Deputy Majority Leader Mike Gianaris State Senator Alessandra Biaggi

State Senator Gustavo Rivera State Senator James Sanders Jr. State Senator Andrew Gounardes State Senator Jabari Brisport State Senator Julia Salazar

Assembly Member Jessica González-Rojas Assembly Member Ron Kim

Assembly Member Harvey Epstein Assembly Member Yuh-Line Niou Assembly Member Marcela Mitaynes Assembly Member Mathylde Frontus Assembly Member Phara Souffrant Forrest Assembly Member Zohran Mamdani

New York City Council Member Alexa Aviles New York City Council Member Sandy Nurse New York City Council Member Tiffany Caban New York City Councilmember Crystal Hudson New York City Councilmember Shahana Hanif New York City Councilmember Chi Ossé

New York City Councilmember Shekar Krishnan New York City Councilmember Julie Won

New York City Councilmember Lincoln Restler New York Working Families Party

Make The Road Action CPD Action

Our Revolution CUFFH Action

New York Progressive Action Network (NYPAN) New York Communities for Change

Tenants PAC

Long Island Progressive Coalition Suffolk Progressives

Long Island Activists

Community Voices Heard Power CODA LES

Alliance for Quality Education (AQE) VOCAL-NY Action Fund

Be A Hero

Citizen Action of New York The Jewish Vote

People's Action Met Council Action

Indivisible Nation BK Empire State Indivisible

Jim Owles Liberal Democratic Club Stonewall Democrats of NYC

Four Freedoms Democratic Club VoteMama

National Association of Social Workers NYC - PAC Lesbian & Gay Democratic Club of Queens Equality New York

Brooklyn Young Democrats New Kings Democrats

Independent Neighborhood Democrats Bay Ridge Democrats

Grand Street Democrats

Committee of Interns and Residents SEIU Downtown Women for Change

Central Brooklyn Independent Democrats Downtown Independent Democrats
You can find a complete list here.