Democratic Party United States Politicians

"Some of those people, they're just dismissing their cases. They're trampling on due process. They're not even getting access to a lawyer."

"I've gotten a piece of the American dream, but now I'm running to make sure others have that same opportunity and that in a nutshell is why I'm running for Congress."

"Every one of you here can make that difference in this race. This is how we get our message out. We tell people who I am, we tell people who were fighting for, and I can't do it without you because money and politics is buying our elected officials."

"There is a way to do enforcement. It's targeted enforcement. It's been done over and over again and hasn't resulted in this. This is really a distraction."

"This is a sign of a dictator who takes over a National Guard against the governor's will, [and] against all elected officials' will. The presence of the National Guard in itself is sending that message, "we're here to take you over." This is to empower the president to flex his muscles."

"We saw that happening starting when [he said he's] going to defund California and stop giving the federal money. Now he's taking it to the immigration front. So this is his game plan and we can't let people fall into it. We have to make sure not to take the bait, not to do the violence."

"It was the sheriffs who got things under control, not the National Guard. In downtown L.A. that night, it was the LAPD who got things under control, it was not the National Guard."

"There's no targeted effort here to find criminals. Like they said we're going to do. They're sweeping up friends and neighbors of people who are just trying to find jobs at these worksites outside of Home Depot."

"You bring up the National Guard, you rise tensions. People come out and this is what you're starting to see happen."

"They're just treating everybody as a criminal. They're not distinguishing between who are the real criminals versus -- which are the folks that they're saying they're going after, versus everybody else."

"This is an abuse of power and what dictators do. It's unnecessary and not needed."

"If you are going after serious criminal offenders, we support that. There is no disagreement about that. But they're not doing targeted enforcement. What they're doing is, they're doing mass deportation, round up of just everybody, let's see who we can get."

"When people ask me what I want to be remembered for, it comes down to this: a relentless commitment to a fair shot for every single DC resident. Period."

"We have a mandate from the people to be bold, to think big, to push the envelope, and above all else, to win for Washington, DC. Now is the time to be bold and to set a course to win the tough fights ahead."

"History perhaps can never become an exact science; the human element will inevitably assert itself to some extent. Race and religious sympathies will warp human judgments; but if we have more faith fulness to scientific methods of investigation— a more careful application of the rules of evidence in reviewing old authorities and new testimony, with truer and broader perspectives, — there are grounds for expecting excellent results in the future!"

"Have you forgotten the story of "Lorna Doone"—how the Doones, men of high family, who had fallen under the displeasure of the Government, had betaken themselves to the Doone Valley, surrounded on all sides by precipitous mountains, and from this strongly fortified position levied their blackmail upon the surrounding country, killing and robbing and outraging the people of the land until the citizens were aroused and determined to extirpate them? Do you recall how the men of the eastern county gathered together on the eastern mountain, and the men from the western county gathered on the western mountain, with their arms and cannon ready to fall upon the Doones and destroy them, when by some untoward accident a cannon from the western ranks was trained across the valley and shot into the ranks of the men of the east, and how, inflamed by this accident, the men on the east trained their guns across the valley into the ranks of the men of the west, and while these foolish people were slaughtering one another, the Doones sallied forth and put both counties to flight and continued to rob and kill and outrage for years to come. Let us heed the lesson, my countrymen! Let me say to Governor Kitchin and Senator Simmons and Chief Justice Clark: The Doones are in the valley. I pray you, gentlemen, train your guns a little lower."

"A special legislative act is required tailored to the territories…Puerto Rico today, because of its status as a territory…has a completely different relationship with the federal government than any city or any state, and this affects its funding, this affects the rule of law that is in place, and we say that Puerto Rico deserves the tools it needs to restructure its debt...It's emergency legislation to deal with an emergency situation."

"For the commonwealth, with its self-governing status, it is our strong belief that any oversight must…leave the self-governance in place."

"It's finally happened, the Democrats have crossed the line. Zohran Mamdani, a 100% Communist Lunatic, has just won the Dem Primary, and is on his way to becoming Mayor. We've had Radical Lefties before, but this is getting a little ridiculous."

"Beyond repaying the debt, there's a whole set of initiatives that is critical. The economy needs greater investment…the gross inequities of Puerto Ricans in the healthcare system need to be remedied."

"We are talking about a..financial crisis in unprecedented terms both in scale and complexity."

"New York state assemblyman Zohran Mamdani, speaking with ABC News the day after achieving an upset in the New York City Democratic mayoral primary, said that he believes his strategy that focused on affordability and economics could be a blueprint for Democrats across the country. "I think there's a question of how we return back to what made so many of us proud to be Democrats," Mamdani told ABC News Senior Political Correspondent Rachel Scott in an interview on Wednesday."

"Since the '70s we've had the Financial Emergency Act, which calls for a balanced budget. And so the budget should also be thought of as a set of choices that the mayor and the City Council make about the allocation of resources. Mamdani has been clear about the priorities he would set in a way that this current administration has not done. And look, we're going to be in a pitched battle next year with a federal administration that's withholding funds. New York State passed its budget as if none of this were happening. New York City passed its budget as if none of this were happening. And what Mamdani has shown us is he's reaching out across the board. And yes, that's a coalition to get elected. It's also a coalition to govern."

"We are talking about stemming the near-term crisis, but what we really need to do is put Puerto Rico back on the path towards growth."

"There is a palpable sense of fear and a justifiable expectation on the part of our fellow citizens in Puerto Rico that we, collectively…will act as we have have always acted when there is a crisis that affects Americans, which is to do what's necessary to stem the crisis, to protect the people, and to allow the economy to continue on the path toward growth."

"The markets are telling us what we already know - that the debts are unsustainable."

"There assembled in St. Louis, Missouri, a "Constitutional Convention" composed of individuals, most of whom were unknown outside of the localities in which they claimed to reside. They had been chosen by a fraction of the voters, as people of voting age were generally in either the Confederate or Federal Army, or in the guerilla companies then abounding, or were fugitives from their homes, in order to save their lives. The "Constitution" made by this convention was put in force on July, 1865, no one being allowed to vote on it unless he first took the test oath it provided. A reign of terror, accompanied by arson, robbery, and murder, in many parts of the state followed."

"No longer will we treat victory as an invitation to turn off the news. From today onward, we will understand victory very simply: something with the power to transform lives, and something that demands effort from each of us, every single day. What we achieve together will reach across the five boroughs and it will resonate far beyond. There are many who will be watching. They want to know if the left can govern. They want to know if the struggles that afflict them can be solved. They want to know if it is right to hope again. So, standing together with the wind of purpose at our backs, we will do something that New Yorkers do better than anyone else: We will set an example for the world. If what Sinatra said is true, let us prove that anyone can make it in New York — and anywhere else too. Let us prove that when a city belongs to the people, there is no need too small to be met, no person too sick to be made healthy, no one too alone to feel like New York is their home. The work continues, the work endures, the work, my friends, has only just begun."

"To live in New York, to love New York, is to know that we are the stewards of something without equal in our world. … Where else could a Muslim kid like me grow up eating bagels and lox every Sunday? That love will be our guide as we pursue our agenda. Here, where the language of the New Deal was born, we will return the vast resources of this city to the workers who call it home. Not only will we make it possible for every New Yorker to afford a life they love once again — we will overcome the isolation that too many feel, and connect the people of this city to one another."

"Eight and a half million New Yorkers will speak this new era into existence. It will be loud. It will be different. It will feel like the New York we love. No matter how long you have called this city home, that love has shaped your life. I know that it has shaped mine."

"For too long in our city, freedom has belonged only to those who can afford to buy it. Our City Hall will change that. These promises carried our movement to City Hall, and they will carry us from the rallying cries of a campaign to the realities of a new era in politics."

"This will not be a tale of one city, governed only by the one percent. Nor will it be a tale of two cities, the rich versus the poor. It will be a tale of eight and a half million cities, each of them a New Yorker with hopes and fears, each a universe, each of them woven together. The authors of this story will speak Pashto and Mandarin, Yiddish and Creole. They will pray in mosques, at shul, at church, at Gurdwaras and Mandirs and temples. And many will not pray at all. They will be Russian Jewish immigrants in Brighton Beach, Italians in Rossville, and Irish families in Woodhaven — many of whom came here with nothing but a dream of a better life, a dream which has withered away. They will be young people in cramped Marble Hill apartments where the walls shake when the subway passes. They will be Black homeowners in St. Albans whose homes represent a physical testament to triumph over decades of lesser-paid labor and redlining. They will be Palestinian New Yorkers in Bay Ridge, who will no longer have to contend with a politics that speaks of universalism and then makes them the exception."

"In a city where the mere names of our streets are associated with the innovation of the industries that call them home, we will make the words "City Hall" synonymous with both resolve and results. As we embark upon this work, let us advance a new answer to the question asked of every generation: Who does New York belong to? For much of our history, the response from City Hall has been simple: It belongs only to the wealthy and well-connected, those who never strain to capture the attention of those in power. Working people have reckoned with the consequences. Crowded classrooms and public housing developments where the elevators sit out of order. Roads littered with potholes and buses that arrive half an hour late, if at all. Wages that do not rise and corporations that rip off consumers and employees alike."

"If our campaign demonstrated that the people of New York yearn for solidarity, then let this government foster it. Because no matter what you eat, what language you speak, how you pray, or where you come from, the words that most define us are the two we all share: New Yorkers. And it will be New Yorkers who reform a long-broken property tax system. New Yorkers who will create a new Department of Community Safety that will tackle the mental health crisis and let the police focus on the job they signed up to do. New Yorkers who will take on the bad landlords who mistreat their tenants and free small business owners from the shackles of bloated bureaucracy. And I am proud to be one of those New Yorkers. When we won the primary last June, there were many who said that these aspirations and those who held them had come out of nowhere. Yet one man's nowhere is another man's somewhere. This movement came out of eight and a half million somewheres — taxi cab depots and Amazon warehouses, D.S.A. meetings and curbside domino games. The powers that be had looked away from these places for quite some time — if they'd known about them at all — so they dismissed them as nowhere. But in our city, where every corner of these five boroughs holds power, there is no nowhere and there is no no one. There is only New York, and there are only New Yorkers."

"Two Sundays ago, as snow softly fell, I spent 12 hours at the Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria, listening to New Yorkers from every borough as they told me about the city that is theirs. We discussed construction hours on the Van Wyck Expressway and E.B.T. eligibility, affordable housing for artists and ICE raids. I spoke to a man named TJ who said that one day a few years ago, his heart broke as he realized he would never get ahead here, no matter how hard he worked. I spoke to a Pakistani Auntie named Samina, who told me that this movement had fostered something too rare: softness in people's hearts. As she said in Urdu: logon ke dil badalgyehe. [people's hearts have changed] 142 New Yorkers out of eight and a half million. And yet, if anything united each person sitting across from me, it was the shared recognition that this moment demands a new politics, and a new approach to power. We will deliver nothing less as we work each day to make this city belong to more of its people than it did the day before."

"A moment like this comes rarely. Seldom do we hold such an opportunity to transform and reinvent. Rarer still is it the people themselves whose hands are the ones upon the levers of change. And yet we know that too often in our past, moments of great possibility have been promptly surrendered to small imagination and smaller ambition. What was promised was never pursued, what could have changed remained the same. For the New Yorkers most eager to see our city remade, the weight has only grown heavier, the wait has only grown longer. In writing this address, I have been told that this is the occasion to reset expectations, that I should use this opportunity to encourage the people of New York to ask for little and expect even less. I will do no such thing. The only expectation I seek to reset is that of small expectations. Beginning today, we will govern expansively and audaciously. We may not always succeed. But never will we be accused of lacking the courage to try."

"My fellow New Yorkers: Today begins a new era."

"For too long, we have turned to the private sector for greatness, while accepting mediocrity from those who serve the public. I cannot blame anyone who has come to question the role of government, whose faith in democracy has been eroded by decades of apathy. We will restore that trust by walking a different path: one where government is no longer solely the final recourse for those struggling, one where excellence is no longer the exception."

"A great New Yorker once said that while you campaign in poetry, you govern in prose. If that must be true, let the prose we write still rhyme, and let us build a shining city for all. And we must chart a new path, as bold as the one we have already traveled. After all, the conventional wisdom would tell you that I am far from the perfect candidate. I am young, despite my best efforts to grow older. I am Muslim. I am a democratic socialist. And most damning of all, I refuse to apologize for any of this."

"And we will build a City Hall that stands steadfast alongside Jewish New Yorkers and does not waver in the fight against the scourge of antisemitism. Where the more than one million Muslims know that they belong — not just in the five boroughs of this city, but in the halls of power. No more will New York be a city where you can traffic in Islamophobia and win an election. This new age will be defined by a competence and a compassion that have too long been placed at odds with one another. We will prove that there is no problem too large for government to solve, and no concern too small for it to care about. For years, those in City Hall have only helped those who can help them. But on January 1st, we will usher in a city government that helps everyone."

"Safety and justice will go hand in hand as we work with police officers to reduce crime and create a Department of Community Safety that tackles the mental health crisis and homelessness crises head on. Excellence will become the expectation across government, not the exception. In this new age we make for ourselves, we will refuse to allow those who traffic in division and hate to pit us against one another. In this moment of political darkness, New York will be the light. Here, we believe in standing up for those we love, whether you are an immigrant, a member of the trans community, one of the many Black women that Donald Trump has fired from a federal job, a single mom still waiting for the cost of groceries to go down, or anyone else with their back against the wall. Your struggle is ours, too."

"Together, we will usher in a generation of change. And if we embrace this brave new course, rather than fleeing from it, we can respond to oligarchy and authoritarianism with the strength it fears, not the appeasement it craves. After all, if anyone can show a nation betrayed by Donald Trump how to defeat him, it is the city that gave rise to him. And if there is any way to terrify a despot, it is by dismantling the very conditions that allowed him to accumulate power. This is not only how we stop Trump; it’s how we stop the next one. So, Donald Trump, since I know you’re watching, I have four words for you: Turn the volume up."

"Let the words we’ve spoken together, the dreams we’ve dreamt together, become the agenda we deliver together. New York, this power, it’s yours. This city belongs to you. Thank you."

"And if for too long these communities have existed as distinct from one another, we will draw this city closer together. We will replace the frigidity of rugged individualism with the warmth of collectivism. If our campaign demonstrated that the people of New York yearn for solidarity, then let this government foster it. Because no matter what you eat, what language you speak, how you pray, or where you come from—the words that most define us are the two we all share: New Yorkers."

"We will hold bad landlords to account because the Donald Trumps of our city have grown far too comfortable taking advantage of their tenants. We will put an end to the culture of corruption that has allowed billionaires like Trump to evade taxation and exploit tax breaks. We will stand alongside unions and expand labor protections because we know, just as Donald Trump does, that when working people have ironclad rights, the bosses who seek to extort them become very small indeed."

"New York will remain a city of immigrants: a city built by immigrants, powered by immigrants and, as of tonight, led by an immigrant. So hear me, President Trump, when I say this: To get to any of us, you will have to get through all of us. When we enter City Hall in 58 days, expectations will be high. We will meet them."

"I appreciated the meeting with the President and as he said, it was a productive meeting focused on a place of shared admiration and love, which is New York City — and the need to deliver affordability to New Yorkers, the eight and a half million who call our city their home who are struggling to afford life in the most expensive city in the United States of America. We spoke about rent, we spoke about groceries, we spoke about utilities. We spoke about the different ways in which people are being pushed out, and I appreciated the time with the president. I appreciated the conversation. I look forward to working together to deliver that affordability for New Yorkers."

"I think both President Trump and I, we are very clear about our positions and our views, and what I really appreciate about the President is the meeting that we had focused not on places of disagreement, which there are many, and also focused on the shared purpose that we have in serving New Yorkers, and frankly that is something that could transform the lives of the eight and a half million people who are currently struggling under a cost of living crisis with 1 in 4 living in poverty. And the meeting came back again and again to what it could look like to lift those New Yorkers out of struggle and start to deliver them a city that they could do more than just struggle to afford it but actually start to live in it."

"I do not stand alone. I stand alongside you, the tens of thousands gathered here in Lower Manhattan, warmed against the January chill by the resurgent flame of hope. … I stand alongside over one million New Yorkers who voted for this day nearly two months ago — and I stand just as resolutely alongside those who did not. I know there are some who view this administration with distrust or disdain, or who see politics as permanently broken. I stand alongside neighbors who carry a plate of food to the elderly couple down the hall, those in a rush who still lift strangers' strollers up subway stairs, and every person who makes the choice day after day, even when it feels impossible, to call our city home. And while only action can change minds, I promise you this: If you are a New Yorker, I am your mayor. Regardless of whether we agree, I will protect you, celebrate with you, mourn alongside you, and never, not for a second, hide from you."

"Here is what I want you to expect from the administration that this morning moved into the building behind me. We will transform the culture of City Hall from one of "no" to one of "how?" We will answer to all New Yorkers, not to any billionaire or oligarch who thinks they can buy our democracy. We will govern without shame and insecurity, making no apology for what we believe. I was elected as a democratic socialist and I will govern as a democratic socialist. I will not abandon my principles for fear of being deemed radical. As the great Senator from Vermont once said, "What's radical is a system which gives so much to so few and denies so many people the basic necessities of life.""