NYC Primary Election 2020: Cohen Seeks Assembly Seat

BROOKLYN, NEW YORK — Brooklyn Democrats in a week will cast their ballots in a spate of local, state and federal primary races — including the state Assembly's 56th District where Justin Cohen and Stefani Zinerman are vying for the seat.

Tremaine Wright currently holds the seat and is seeking election to the state Senate's District 25 spot.

The 56th District covers Bed-Stuy and Crown Heights.

Zinerman, who didn't return a Patch candidate questionnaire, is a community advocate and staffer for state Sen. Velmanette Montgomery.

Cohen is a local activist who has touted his roles in anti-gun violence and anti-systemic racism groups.

The primary election, slated for June 23, is open to registered Democratic voters. All New York voters may request a mail-in ballot due to the coronavirus pandemic. Ballots must be postmarked by the date of the election for the vote to get counted.

For those who want to head to the polls, click here to find your poll site. Early voting is available from June 13 to June 21.

Patch reached out to all candidates in the primary election to create these profiles. Responses have been lightly edited for clarity.

Age as of Election Day (Nov. 3)

39

NYC neighborhood of residence

Crown Heights

Position Sought

State Assembly

Party Affiliation

Democratic Party

Family

Partner/fiance is Sheila Sarem, CEO of Project Basta, a nonprofit helping first-generation college students get great jobs.

Does anyone in your family work in politics or government?

No

Education

BA in cognitive neuroscience from Yale University.

Occupation

Activist, organizer, writer, and non-profit executive. Formerly Chief Strategy Officer at Cambiar Education. Co-founder and Chief Operating Officer at the Wayfinder Foundation, which makes micro-grants to community activists working on racial justice issues. Before that, President of Mass Insight Education, a non-profit organization that helps under-resourced schools make dramatic improvements.

Previous or Current Elected or Appointed Office

None.

Campaign website

https://www.justincohen2020.com/

Why are you seeking elective office?

I am seeking elected office, first and foremost, to ensure our communities’ needs are met during what are certain to be very difficult years of recovery for New York State and City after the COVID-19 crisis. In addition, I want to bring a radical lens to state politics to undo generations of systemic injustices and oppression, particularly with respect to violent policing and our criminal legal system. I believe that dramatic change requires a mix of both outside activism, and inside work on the levers of politics. As an activist and organizer in the community, and someone with deep policymaking experience across issues of education and criminal justice, I am ready to leverage both the inside and outside structures to hasten significant change.

The single most pressing issue facing our nation/state/community is _______, and this is what I intend to do about it.

Two issues are at the forefront of our campaign: recovery from the COVID-19 crisis, and dealing with the longstanding humanitarian crisis presented by the violence in our policing and criminal legal systems. When it comes to COVID-19 recovery, my campaign has released a comprehensive plan that has five major sections, each of which touches on issues that will be critical for short- and long-term recovery: 1) Healthcare & Caring for our Seniors, 2) Housing, 3) Public Safety, 4) Youth & Education and 5) Small Businesses (brick & mortar and non-traditional), Non-profits and Cultural Institutions. You can read the entire plan here: https://www.justincohen2020.com/the-plan

On correcting the injustices of the criminal legal system, we want to repeal Section 50-A - the state’s police secrecy law - to introduce more accountability into our system. We want to significantly divest from systems of violent, militarized policing so that we can invest our resources in community-based solutions that provide better housing, healthcare, education, and transit options to our neighbors.

What are the critical differences between you and the other candidates seeking this post?

I am seeking election from outside a broken political system that continues to ignore and perpetuate the challenges facing our community. I come to this election as an activist and community organizer who has worked for many years at the intersections of racial justice and public policy; and as a nonprofit leader, I have worked with city, state, and federal agencies to implement significant policy agendas. For example: I was on the education policy team for the 2008 presidential campaign of Barack Obama and helped to implement the school improvement program that sent billions of dollars to chronically underfunded schools. I will bring a radical lens to our state government, but I also have the proven policy experience and execution expertise to get things done in Albany and Brooklyn.

My ideas for legislation and action are different, creative, and possible. Every idea will help multiple communities with a diversity of experiences thrive in the 56th District and statewide. That makes me different.

If you are a challenger, in what way has the current board or officeholder failed the community (or district or constituency)

N/A

Describe the other issues that define your campaign platform

EDUCATION: Prioritize school-based mental healthcare and restorative justice practices, not policing; Protect and ensure quality schooling options for parents and children; Ensure consistent and quality instruction across virtual classrooms through enacting higher standards; Partner with community organizations to provide out-of-school learning experiences

HOUSING: Cancel rent, abate mortgages, and extend the eviction moratorium until our economy recovers; Repurpose unused hotels and motels to house homeless New Yorkers; Fight for a Homes Guarantee; Outlaw deed theft and reform the “third party transfer” process

HEALTHCARE: Pass the NY State Health Act to insure all New Yorkers Demand mandatory paid sick leave for essential workers, including immigrants

CARING FOR OUR SENIORS: Increase financial support for community-based hospitals that serve Medicaid and Medicare recipients; Assume state control of non-compliant nursing homes and long-term care facilities that are non-compliant

DEFUND THE POLICE: Repeal the police secrecy law (Section 50-a), End qualified immunity for police; End the construction of new jails and reinvest in youth, housing, and health programs

IMMIGRATION: Work collectively with the community to hold law enforcement accountable for working with ICE and other federal agencies; Make New York a true sanctuary state for immigrants and halt all law enforcement cooperation with ICE, including any and all information sharing with ICE; End the targeted policing of immigrant and Muslim communities

TRANSIT: Ensure that trains, bike lanes, and express buses reach and help people who aren’t rich; Fight against cuts to bus and subway service that disproportionately impact Bed-Stuy and Crown Heights; Implement legislation that ends New York’s criminalization of poverty within our public transit system

REPARATIONS: Co-create programs that redress our nation’s original sin, through building practical frameworks for both reparations and reconciliation; Hold accountable the toxic industries and failed government policies that perpetuate the wealth gap for Black Americans; Legalize cannabis and use the tax revenue to invest in reparations

What accomplishments in your past would you cite as evidence you can handle this job?

As a member of the education policy team for President Obama’s first election, I was a part of structuring the national education policy response to the financial crisis of 2008, which involved helping states to implement the fiscal stimulus program. After that, I led a national nonprofit organization that helped cities and states execute on those plans. I believe that this particular experience gives me unique insight on how to help the state structure statewide and municipal responses to the inevitable long-term budgetary consequences of our economic collapse.

Also, I have been a community activist working on issues of criminal legal reform for the better part of the last decade. I helped design the police accountability framework used by Campaign Zero, the nation’s leading organization focused on policy responses to police violence, and I believe that my deep knowledge of these issues will be essential to instituting significant statewide reforms to our criminal legal and policing systems.

Finally, I have worked in the creative economy as a freelance author and nonfiction writer. My experience in the gig economy gives me unique insight on how to ensure that we broaden our perspectives on what constitutes small business in this community, and how to ensure that creative workers can thrive.

The best advice ever shared with me was:

The CEO of a nonprofit I worked for early in my career once told me this story, which he attributed to a former speaker of the Massachusetts house: “When you’re interested in public policy for the sake of improving people’s lives, you want to change everything. But nobody lets you do that, and when you’re new to policy making, nobody will listen to you anyway. If you really want to change the world using public policy, learn one thing really well. And people will start listening to you about that one thing. After that, they’ll start to trust that you can master other things.”

What else would you like voters to know about yourself and your positions?

I’ve been an organizer with the No New Jails coalition, Equality 4 Flatbush, the #Save227Duffield Campaign, Racial Justice BK, and Get Organized BK. I have supported the Raise the Age Campaign, the campaign to institute bail reform, and the campaign to HALT solitary confinement. I was a founder of the anti-gun violence campaign #PoliticizeMyDeath.