OUR PLATFORM

LOWER THE RENT

  • Each month, one in three Bronx households faces the same impossible math: more than half their income gone to rent, leaving little for groceries, transportation, or a moment of rest.

    When rent takes everything, even a small setback can put us in a financial emergency. The urgency of the crisis calls for a bold new vision: housing built for people’s needs, not corporate profit.

    Our homes are controlled by corporate landlords who care solely about lining their pockets. The only solution is to take the profit motive out of housing. Step one: repeal the “Faircloth Amendment,” the federal ban that’s blocked new public housing construction for decades. 

    New public housing builds will not only be good quality and fully modernized, they will be truly affordable, with rents that cost us no more than 20% of our income.

    And for those already living in public housing, Andre will fight to accomplish what neither party has been able to do: fully fund the backlog of needed repairs – including thorough safety inspections – so no family lives in danger.

  • In addition to fighting for new public housing, Andre will push for tenants to receive immediate relief for sky-high rents.

    It’s past time for the federal government to intervene and treat high rent prices as a nationwide crisis. In Congress, Andre will fight to make this a reality, by funding rental assistance to ensure no household in America pays more than 20% of their monthly income on rent. 

    The national government would cover the difference through a fund covered by increasing taxes on billionaires and Wall Street and by slashing our bloated military budget by billions of dollars.

  • Andre is committed not just to easing today’s crushing rents, but to ending the stranglehold of corporate landlords over our lives, and building a future where tenants gain real power.

    Eight out of ten Bronx residents are renters, yet much like the rest of the country, our rents keep rising while our wages have stayed the same. It’s time for our paychecks to stop funding big real estate. Upon taking office, Andre will back a nationwide Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act, in which tenants get first right to purchase a property when a landlord sells it. A federal fund would provide tenants with a loan covering 97% of the purchase price, at zero interest, as well as providing funds for building maintenance to make sure rents stay affordable.

    This bill would also seize housing from criminally negligent landlords who hike rent illegally, neglect mandatory repairs, force tenants to live in hazardous conditions, or discriminate against tenants with housing vouchers – returning this housing stock back to the tenants.

RAISE THE WAGES

  • No one should work full-time and still live in poverty. Yet here in NY-15, more than 30% of our neighbors live under the poverty line. That’s why on day one Andre will fight to raise the federal minimum wage to $30 an hour.

    We’ve earned it. Since the 1970s, worker productivity has more than doubled, but our wages have barely moved. The federal minimum wage is still stuck at just $7.25 an hour, unchanged since 2009. Meanwhile, the cost of everything we need to survive has exploded.

    In the Bronx, the living wage for a single adult is already $25.48. Add just one child, and that number jumps to $45.66 an hour. Families are expected to keep up with inflation and corporate price gouging on paychecks that haven’t budged in over a decade.

    It’s no wonder that 86% of Americans say grocery prices are a major source of stress. Wages need to catch up to reality, and Andre will make sure they do.

  • It’s been five years since the pandemic, but the Bronx still has the highest unemployment rate of any county in New York state.

    Unemployment is a policy choice, not a fact of life. Bronx residents have skills to apply to rebuilding our neighborhoods, but instead of funding public works projects, the government time and again neglects our communities.

    Upon taking office, Andre will fight for a nationwide jobs guarantee. Just in our neighborhoods, we have no shortage of work to do: Through undertaking massive public works projects including updating and repairing all public housing units, fixing our outdated public transit, building new housing, cleaning up our streets, parks, and other public spaces, we have more than enough work to do in the Bronx to create well-paying jobs for everyone now, regardless of skill level.

    If we can fix what decades of neglect broke in the Bronx, we can fix it everywhere. Every city in America has crumbling infrastructure – we can rebuild by creating millions of low-barrier, union-wage jobs.

  • In the Bronx, we work hard. Yet too many of us are still stuck in poverty wages. That’s no accident: bosses use union-busting lawyers, intimidation, and even threats based on immigration status to stop us from organizing.

    That’s why Andre will fight for card check unionization: if the majority of workers sign union cards, their union should be recognized. No drawn-out elections, no fear, no retaliation, and no weaponizing immigration enforcement to silence us.

    Unions put the power back into the hands of workers, ensuring fair wages and good working conditions. National data from 2024 shows union members had median weekly earnings of $1,337 versus $1,138 for non-union workers, a roughly 17% boost.

    In a district where nearly one in three residents lives below the poverty line, empowering workers to organize is the fastest path to ending working poverty.

  • Employers steal over $15 billion annually from workers in minimum wage violations alone, which is just one form of wage theft. That’s more than the value of all robberies, burglaries, larcenies, and auto thefts in the country combined.

    Andre will use every tool at his disposal to fight the largest form of robbery in America. Andre will use his oversight authority as a representative to crack down on wage theft. Andre will fight for legislation in Congress to ensure that bosses pay us back – returning triple our stolen wages back so it’s never profitable for any boss to steal, no matter how wealthy or powerful. 

    This also means vastly expanding labor protections to undocumented workers and ending ICE's reign of terror in our workplaces. Andre will fight to ensure bosses can’t use immigration enforcement as a weapon to silence workers or stop them from reporting wage theft.

  • In the Bronx, immigrant and US-born workers live and work side by side, shaping one of the most vibrant, diverse communities in the nation. Yet Trump’s anti-immigrant agenda and violent ICE raids terrorize our families, deepen divisions, and worsen our living conditions.

    The billionaire class wants to divide us. Andre will fight to unite workers, immigrant and American-born alike, to build a country for everyone.

    Upon entering office, Andre would sponsor a bill to grant full legal status to all undocumented immigrants, the only thing that would put an immediate end to ICE’s reign of terror in our neighborhoods.

    Employers exploit deportation threats to force immigrant workers into accepting lower wages than US-born workers, creating a race to the bottom that drives down all of our paychecks. Andre will fight for a $30 minimum wage for all workers, reform exploitative guest worker programs, and win immediate legal status for whistleblowers who expose wage theft, unsafe conditions, or employer collusion with ICE.

GUARANTEE OUR SAFETY

  • No place in America knows overpolicing like the Bronx. For decades, our communities have been subject to stop-and-frisk, building patrols, quotas, mass raids on residential buildings, and protest crackdowns. Our neighborhoods have been made a testing ground for high-volume, low-yield policing: huge numbers of stops and summonses, very low recovery of contraband or weapons, and recurring court findings of illegality or bias.

    Bloated police budgets don’t make us safer, and neither does sending in the military to illegally occupy our cities. Despite the resources poured into overpolicing our neighborhoods, violent crime rates continue to rise, including gun violence and felony assaults. 

    Once in office, Andre will fund the solutions to violence that actually work: violence interruption programs rooted in our communities, mental health and drug treatment for all who need it, and real economic security – because poverty is the biggest threat to public safety.

  • No one should be denied care because they can’t afford it. Cost should never be a barrier to getting mental health support or drug addiction treatment.

    When everyone has access to quality, fully funded care, our whole community is safer. That’s why Andre will fight to make mental health and drug treatment a guaranteed right, built into a broader plan to keep our streets safe for everyone.

  • The Bronx is at the center of a drug addiction crisis that has devastated our neighborhoods. While overdose deaths are finally going down across much of the country, here in the Bronx they’re still climbing, proof that our communities are being left behind.

    Politicians have either turned a blind eye, or incorrectly addressed the crisis through overpolicing. What we need are immediate solutions.

    Decades ago, young Bronx residents took over Lincoln Hospital and established “Lincoln Detox,” a program that offered rehabilitation while placing blame for the addiction crisis on the system, not the individual.

    The blame for today’s crisis is also on the system. In the 1990s and 2000s, Purdue Pharma, Johnson & Johnson, and McKesson spent billions pushing opioids they knew were addictive. Executives reaped record profits while overdose deaths soared – and places like the Bronx, still bearing the burden, saw none of that profit.

    Andre will fight for a tax on the profits of these pharmaceutical corporations, with every dollar funding addiction treatment and healthcare in places like the Bronx.

  • Once in office, Andre will fight to end the militarization of our police force. Tanks and military weapons in our neighborhoods make us less safe, not more. Andre will fight to end the 1033 Program, which hands over military gear from the Pentagon to local police for free.

    But ending militarization isn’t enough, we need accountability. Right now, police officers are rarely held responsible for violence – one of the gravest civil rights violations of our time. Congress already has the right to enforce the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment. Andre will fight to ensure Congress does its duty – holding police officers accountable for violations of constitutional rights. This includes criminal penalties for officers and departments engaged in patterns of constitutional violations, and mandatory data transparency on police killings, use of force, and misconduct records, enforced through federal law.

    Andre will also fight to secure protections for whistleblowers in uniform, so officers who speak out against violence or misconduct are not punished.

BUILD A FUTURE FOR OUR YOUTH

  • Families in the Bronx spend over 47% of their income on childcare – the highest share of any county in the United States. Making childcare and pre-school free is a no-brainer – a solution that will immediately lift an enormous burden on families not just in our neighborhoods, but across the country.

    While in Congress, Andre will fight for universal childcare – from birth through pre-K – fully funded at the federal level. That means safe, high-quality, community-run childcare centers on every block, staffed by educators paid a fair, union wage.

  • America’s schools are funded mostly through state and local taxes, with the federal government chipping in just a sliver – which only worsens inequalities between school districts.

    In NY-15, only 7% of our school funding comes from the federal government. But Bronx School District 9, firmly within New York’s 15th Congressional District, has the highest rate of student homelessness across New York City public schools. And the graduation rate in our neighborhoods is dangerously low. In Mott Haven and Melrose, just 73% of high school students graduate on time, significantly below NYC’s average of 82%.

    As a teacher in the South Bronx for 12 years, Andre knows that Bronx schools are crying out for more funding. Andre will ensure the national government guarantees equal resources for every student: modern classrooms, counselors, art and cultural education, and after-school programs.

    With a student body in NY-15 suffering from high rates of student homelessness, Andre will push to guarantee every family an affordable home, and turn our schools into hubs of support, not just survival.

  • Bronx families are already crushed by rent hikes, medical bills, and rising grocery costs. Student loans pile on even more. Here in the Bronx, student debt eats up 43% of median income, compared to just 32% citywide.

    Higher education should be a ladder out of poverty, not a trap that keeps people stuck. The promise of college was never meant to come with a lifetime of bills.

    Your dreams shouldn’t bankrupt you. Andre will cancel all student debt, and make all higher education tuition free.

  • One in three children in the Bronx live in poverty. Too many of our young people are left with nothing but debt, dead-end jobs, or pushed to the margins without a path forward. As part of the federal jobs guarantee Andre will fight for, Andre will also ensure guaranteed, fulfilling jobs for our youth. This means every person 16 to 24 gets a fulfilling, well-paid job, regardless of their immigration status. These aren’t busywork jobs. They’re real, union-pathway roles, fixing schools and subways, greening our blocks, caring for our elders, and supporting after-school and summer programs. Alongside good wages, the federal government will provide money for transportation, healthcare, and childcare so no one is left behind.

    But our youth deserve more than work – they deserve joy, fulfillment, and education. Andre will fight to fully fund no-cost after-school and summer programs available to everyone, so that young people can learn new skills, make memories, and pursue their dreams. 

END THE HEALTH CRISIS

  • Nearly 40% of Bronx residents live with at least one chronic illness – such as diabetes, high blood pressure, or asthma, but the medical bills needed to treat those conditions are pushing working families further into debt. 

    In the Bronx, we are already rent-burdened and wage-squeezed. Medical debt turns this everyday struggle into a crisis.

    Meanwhile, our money is flowing into the pockets of insurance company executives and Wall Street bankers who collect dividends, not into neighborhood clinics and hospitals.

    Universal healthcare would redirect resources into frontline services in communities like the Bronx, instead of corporate pockets.

    We live in a wealthy country, although residents of the Bronx rarely see that wealth. Like other wealthy countries, it is time for our government to put some of that wealth back into our pockets: by providing healthcare for everyone through a single-payer system, not tied to employment. 

    Once elected to office, Andre will fight for Healthcare for All, so no one faces financial barriers to accessing medical care.

  • Hunts Point Cooperative Market, operated by many of the workers from NY-15, is the largest wholesale produce market in the world, feeding millions across the Northeast. How then is it possible that many of our neighborhoods are considered “food deserts”, where we have difficulty accessing healthy food? 39% of adults in the Bronx report feeling “always, usually, or sometimes worried or stressed” about affording nutritious food. Food costs make up the third largest expense for New Yorkers. And yet as food prices rise, major grocery chains report record profits.

    Food is not a luxury, it’s a human right – a right that’s been put in the hands of ever shrinking number of corporate giants. Placing these top grocery chains under public ownership would create a food distribution system that prioritizes health and nutrition, not profit. 

    Publicly-run grocery stores would guarantee fair prices, fair wages, and fresh, healthy food for every family. 

    The Bronx feeds the nation. It’s time our people have access to healthy and affordable food.

  • The South Bronx neighborhood of Mott Haven is known as “Asthma Alley,” where residents inhale pollution from hundreds of trucks moving in and out of the Fresh Direct warehouse each day, along with exhaust from four nearby highways, plus emissions from printing presses, a parcel depot, and a nearby sewage plant. Beyond air pollution, the unsafe housing conditions we live in, including pest infestations, mold, and poor ventilation, are causing us to develop asthma at higher rates.

    Air pollution and poor housing conditions prove that asthma rates aren’t inevitable – they are a policy choice. Once in office, Andre will fight for asthma-safe homes by enforcing a national standard against mold, leaks, and pests in all existing housing stock, with real funding to fix apartments fast. We can end diesel pollution in our neighborhoods by replacing dirty freight trucks with zero-emission fleets, greening the Cross-Bronx, and holding warehouses accountable for their pollution. We can protect the health of our youth by electrifying every school bus and upgrading school ventilation.

  • The Bronx is facing a mental health crisis. Our neighbors experience higher rates of depression, psychiatric hospitalizations, and serious psychological distress than any other borough in New York City. According to a Montefiore report, 20% of Bronx youth between 5 and 17 are struggling with mental health.

    But in the United States, mental health care is often only available to the wealthy. Cost should not be a barrier to accessing necessary care and treatment for mental illness.

    Healthcare is a right, not a privilege, and that includes mental health. Andre will fight for a federal guarantee of free, universal mental healthcare, fully funded and available in our neighborhoods: that means no co-pays, no premiums, and no bills for therapy, psychiatric care, or medication.

  • In 2020, more Bronx mothers lost their lives to pregnancy complications than in any other borough. Black women face the highest maternal mortality rates in the nation as a whole, and in our city: From 2001 to 2019, the New York City Health Department found that black women were more than nine times more likely to die from pregnancy-related causes than white women.

    Every mother should survive childbirth. All aspects of our healthcare, including maternal health, should be free of cost – the first and urgent step to eliminating these inequalities. Maternal health as a right, not a privilege. Andre will fight to guarantee free, comprehensive care, build publicly owned birthing infrastructure in the Bronx and across the nation, eliminate racial disparities in healthcare, expand the number of Black (especially Black women) physicians serving pregnancy and birth, and tackle the deeper injustices – poverty, housing insecurity, pollution – that put our mothers at risk.

FREE PALESTINE

  • The people of the Bronx, like everyone in the country, did not consent to giving out our tax dollars to fund a genocide. According to the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights, the $11.7 billion dollars in military financing the US government sent to Israel in 2024 alone could fund one months’ rent for over 11 million households, and one month’s free groceries for over 37 million families.

    The ongoing genocide in Gaza, which has cost over 65,000 Palestinian lives, would be over in the blink of an eye if the US stopped sending the weapons and financial aid that make it possible. If the US government cut off funds to Israel, the Israeli government would have no choice but to engage in peace negotiations. 

    Once in office, Andre will support all efforts to impose an arms embargo on Israel and to implement a ceasefire, and introduce legislation to end all US aid to Israel – the only way to end this war.

  • Our opponent, Ritchie Torres, has accepted over $1.4 million from the pro-Israel lobby. It is no coincidence that he strongly supports all existing US aid to Israel, and refuses to call Israel’s war on Palestinians what it is: a genocide that has killed over 65,000 people, including over 20,000 children. 

    But Torres himself is but a representative of the larger status quo in the political establishment, where pro-Israel lobbying organizations like AIPAC are able to pour millions of dollars into directly influencing elections and policies, unseating progressives and making sure that our government keeps the funds flowing for genocide and occupation. During the 2023-2024 election cycle, 65% of all members of Congress received funding from AIPAC.

    An organization like AIPAC has no place in our government. Andre will fight to take corporate lobbyists like AIPAC out of politics by banning private money in electoral races.

MAKE THE RICH PAY

  • We’re often told by mainstream media and politicians that our dreams of returning the wealth back to our communities are impossible. After all – they say – who will pay for these new programs to guarantee that everyone’s needs are met?

    Andre’s answer: it’s time for the rich to pay for what they’ve stolen from us. According to a 2021 study, the richest 400 billionaire families paid just 8% in taxes that year – less than the average American, who paid 13%. 

    Taking back what we’re owed means heavy fines for 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 an addiction crisis.

    No one needs to sit on billions of dollars while the majority of us live under the burden of everyday costs. We could get those billions back through a hefty tax on the ultra-wealthy.

  • Each year, the establishment politicians in Congress vote to allocate hundreds of billions of dollars for our “defense” budget. In December of 2024, then-President Biden signed legislation authorizing $895.2 billion in funding for the Department of Defense and Department of Energy – a $9 billion increase from 2024.

    The US spends more on its military than the next 10 countries combined, but we can hardly look at the state of the world or our country and say it is any more secure. In 2024, Biden signed a $95 billion aid package to Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan, parts of the world that have been made no safer by these billions. But $95 billion could guarantee a year of health care for 33 million children, or have built 10 million new public housing units.

    That’s Andre’s vision: redirect money earmarked for war and violence abroad towards the resources our people desperately need.

  • Bribery in America has been rebranded and legalized, and it’s called corporate lobbying. Lobbying politicians in order to influence legislation and elections is a multi-billion dollar industry, with around 20 registered lobbyists for every member of Congress. 

    This problem is especially pronounced in the House of Representatives, where fundraising for elections every two years leaves little time for actually doing the work of governing. Lobbyists have shown a tremendous power to directly change the outcomes of elections – with pro-Israel lobbying groups spending over $23 million to unseat progressive congressmember Jamaal Bowman, who represented parts of the Bronx.

    Our democracy should not come with a price tag. The only way to ensure that lobbyists can’t buy our elections is to ban private money in electoral races, and provide full public financing so that every qualified candidate gets the same budget. We must fight to ensure equal media access for all candidates, with guaranteed airtime on TV and free, equal exposure on social media platforms.

  • In 2022, a fire at the Twin Parks apartment complex in the Bronx killed 17 people after a space heater ignited – a dangerous last resort for tenants denied adequate heat. Records show Twin Parks landlord Rick Gropper ignored heating complaints, yet instead of facing accountability, he was let off the hook while serving as a housing adviser to Mayor Eric Adams.

    Preventable fires aren’t rare in Bronx buildings. Tenants endure mold, leaks, and rats – all while paying over half our income in rent. Yet housing court moves too slowly, fines are too small, and Wall Street landlords shrug off violations. The Bronx deserves safe, dignified homes. It’s time to take this fight to Congress.

    As the representative for NY-15, Andre will use his oversight authority as a member of Congress to hold negligent landlords accountable. This is how we flip the script: instead of tenants being dragged into housing court, negligent property owners will be dragged into Congress by a representative elected by Bronx tenants.

FULLY FUND ART & CULTURE

  • Hip hop was born in the Bronx. Our culture shaped the world, yet the very community that created it still struggles with underfunded schools, shuttered community centers, and too few opportunities for young artists. Meanwhile, music industry executives and corporate labels rake in over $15 billion from hip hop each year while giving back little to the place that made it all possible.

    It’s time to create a robust public fund for art and culture in the Bronx. Once in office, Andre will propose a Cultural Justice Tax on the corporate executives and record labels that profit the most from hip hop and other popular genres.

    These revenues would go directly into a Culture for the People Fund, which would: Launch a free concert series across Bronx parks and neighborhoods; fully fund local museums, galleries, and cultural institutions; provide grants, residencies, and rehearsal spaces for young musicians in the Bronx, DJs, dancers, and artists; and invest in school and community programs to guarantee every Bronx youth has access to arts education.

UNITE THE BRONX AGAINST INJUSTICE

  • Andre will ensure Black families can reclaim the wealth stolen through centuries of slavery, segregation, and racism. The legacy of exploited Black labor has left a massive racial wealth gap: the typical White household owns 9.2 times as much wealth as the typical Black household. 

    Andre will support a program of direct cash reparations to descendants of enslaved Africans, which will begin to right the historic wrongs endured by Black people in America.

    Andre will fight to end mass incarceration. Black Americans make up 13% of the population yet are roughly 37% of people in prison or jail. One in 22 Black adults cannot vote due to a conviction, a rate more than triple that of the rest of the country.

    Andre will fight to end overpolicing, police violence, and cash bail. Andre will support legislation to ensure that everyone has the right to vote, and to redirect billions from incarceration to housing, healthcare, schools, and jobs – the real foundations of public safety.

  • In addition to the maternal health crisis, women in the Bronx are facing attacks to their right to make their own reproductive health choices. Crisis pregnancy centers are prevalent in the Bronx, which are fake abortion clinics which rely on misinformation and trickery to dissuade women from undergoing abortions, outnumber real clinics which provide abortion services in NYC.

    Once in office, Andre will fight to outlaw crisis pregnancy centers, and fully fund the clinics that actually provide reproductive health services. Andre will also fight to enshrine abortion rights into law – so that our human rights are not subject to the whims of the undemocratic Supreme Court.

  • While the LGBTQ community faces an increasingly hostile reality in our country, including attacks on healthcare access and scapegoating by influential right-wing figures, establishment Democratic Party politicians are doing too little to defend existing LGBTQ rights and practically nothing to secure the right to healthcare, housing, and anti-discrimination policies for all.

    In order to fully defend LGBTQ communities from right-wing attacks, Andre will fight to ensure that all LGBTQ people have the material security to live in dignity. 

    This means no-cost healthcare that includes full coverage reproductive care, HIV/AIDS treatment and prevention, mental health services, and recognizing that access to gender-affirming care is a healthcare decision that should be between a person and their doctor. This also includes an end to LGBTQ youth homelessness, with fully funded shelters and permanent supportive housing. Our jobs guarantee will prioritize good, union jobs in communities with high unemployment, including targeted programs for LGBTQ youth. Andre will also fight against policies that discriminate against LGBTQ people.