New York, NY — A report by the New York City Comptroller has found that income inequality is even worse than it was during the pandemic. Andre Easton, Bronx teacher, father, and socialist candidate running for New York's 15th Congressional District, issued the following statement in response:

“Since 2019, the richest 0.1% of NYC took more than half of all the city's income growth. For the bottom 90%, our real incomes fell by 3.2%. Prices rose faster than our paychecks.

“How is the wealth at the very top growing so fast? Capital gains, dividends, rents and business profits went from 64% of the top 1%'s income in 2019 to 69% in 2024. The rich aren't getting richer because they work hard. They're getting rich because we work hard.

“I'm running for Congress in New York's 15 Congressional District, where over a third of residents live below the poverty line. Nowhere is it clearer that our wealth is being stolen than in the Bronx.

“Bronx workers keep this economy alive. We're the healthcare workers who carried this nation through the pandemic. Healthcare is the largest employer in the Bronx. We feed the city. The Hunts Point Food Distribution Center in the Bronx supplies 25% of NYC's produce, 35% of its meat and 45% of its fish.

“And yet Bronx workers are kept in poverty while the top 1% pockets the wealth we create. That's why I'm fighting for a $30 federal minimum wage. It's been stuck at $7.25 since 2009, while the cost of everything we need to survive has exploded. No one who works full time should struggle to make ends meet.

“We need to make the rich pay for what they've stolen from us. I'm fighting to tax the rich and hold them accountable. Taking back what we're owed means heavy fines for the fossil fuel corporations and polluters who make us breathe dirty air, the developers and landlords who keep housing unaffordable, and the Big Pharma giants that keep our communities suffering through a drug addiction crisis.

“But those sitting in Congress are more loyal to the ultra-rich than to working families. My opponent, Ritchie Torres, is backed by big real estate, AIPAC, and more than $2.8 million in outside spending from the crypto and AI industries, including a crypto super PAC that openly praises Donald Trump. When you follow the money, it becomes clear that Torres answers to the billionaires—not to you.

“But Torres isn't the disease. He's a symptom. Both the Democratic and Republican parties answer to their billionaire donors before working people. The billionaires have two parties. It's time working people had one of our own. Learn more about my proudly independent, socialist campaign for the Bronx: http://andreforthebronx.nyc/platform