2025 NYWFP Local Questionnaire

2025 New York Working Families Party Local Questionnaire
This questionnaire contains issue sections that outline the WFP’s priorities for 2025. Your answers to our questions don’t have to be perfect — just honest. You are strongly encouraged to provide additional thoughts on any of your answers; there is a space for optional comments provided next to each response. You will also have an opportunity to expand on your responses during candidate interviews.

If you are unable to complete the questionnaire in one sitting, you can pause and continue by clicking on the "Save" button on the bottom of the screen and clicking the "save without logging in" link underneath the "login" prompt.

You will then be able to enter an email address where you will be sent a link to access your saved questionnaire at any time.

You and Your Campaign
Anyone who aspires to have a governing role in New York will have the challenging task of taking office under a presidential administration that is – at best – hostile to the state and its residents. The levers of local government can be used to protect New Yorkers from the dangerous attacks of an emboldened Trump regime – while also giving them the opportunity to live dignified lives in safe, affordable neighborhoods with thriving schools.

The vast majority of New Yorkers are living paycheck to paycheck, and living with the real life consequences of an affordability crisis that gets worse by the day. New Yorkers are deeply frustrated with a political system that asks everyday people to keep waiting for relief that never comes. And they are tired of politicians who make empty promises to deliver safety and support for working-class New Yorkers, and instead use the levers of power to help their friends and donors. Their discontent was evident in the most recent elections, where more than 600,000 fewer New York residents voted in 2024 than did so in 2020.

The Working Families Party is committed to helping elect leaders who will be focused on improving the lives of workers and their families, instead of leveraging the power of government for the benefit of the rich and well connected.

WFP believes that our democracy is better when people are organized in their workplace and their community. Labor unions and community organizations function as essential organisms of solidarity and make our democracy stronger. We value candidates that prioritize building deep and collaborative relationships with organizations rooted in, and representing, working-class communities, and we seek to elect leaders committed to partnering with labor unions and community organizations to deliver material improvements in people’s lives.

We are looking for bold leaders who will champion working families across the state; who come to the table with big ideas, grit, and ambition; who will bring to fruition ideas previously thought unachievable, while staying grounded and deeply connected to the communities that elect them. If that's you, please fill out the following questionnaire so our multiracial coalition of community and union leaders, neighborhood activists, and working-class New Yorkers can better assess your candidacy.

The best WFP candidates run on our issues, build our larger governing bloc, deploy winning teams and strategy, demonstrate their commitment to co-governance and accountability, and work with us to build the WFP.
1. Tell us about who you are, why you are running, your core values and vision of what you want to accomplish.*
2. The WFP is a coalition Party of the multi-racial working-class that works on issues such as increasing wages and worker protections; taxing the rich and investing in education; expansion and protections of civil rights; affordable housing and tenant protections; and creating systems that allow immigrants to build successful and fulfilling lives as important members of the New York community; why are you seeking our endorsement?*
3. What is your field, communications, political, and fundraising strategy to win the race? What is your estimated number of votes to win? Who is on your team (including allied entities like town or county political committees) and how will they execute this strategy?*
4. The Working Families Party is committed to building a progressive multiracial, multigenerational, working-class coalition. How does your campaign, in its hiring, staffing (whether hired or volunteer), and outreach, reflect this vision? How will you ensure your campaign and legislative office is free of sexual harassment, exploitation, and other forms of abuse and misconduct? Do you commit to abiding by good labor practices with campaign and contract staff, including paying appropriate and timely wages and reimbursements, and offering health care and time off?*
5. How will you help bring your volunteers and base into the NYWFP during and after the campaign? How will your campaign brand and narrative identify with the NYWFP?*
6. "Collaborative Governance" is breaking down barriers between government and community, centering individuals who historically have been excluded or marginalized. It requires elected bodies working in authentic partnership with communities and groups to develop a shared strategy and vision, advancing policies and building long-term sustainable change. What is your commitment to this philosophy of government? How will you involve community members and grassroots organizations in the governing process? Who do you consider yourself most accountable to?*
7. Are there any sources of legal contributions you will be refusing (i.e. donations from lobbyists, corporate PACs, police unions, real estate developers, etc.)? How will you limit the influence of corporate PACs, developers, and fossil fuel companies in your campaign?*
8. We expect WFP-endorsed candidates to have done a full vet of their social media and public profiles before campaigning. Do you have a plan to mitigate and respond to material that could reflect negatively on your campaign, and commit to sharing any relevant concerns with WFP? *
9. What are the top three issues, specific to your community and the office you are seeking, that you intend to prioritize if elected? What is your plan to approach these issues? What barriers do you expect, and how will you overcome them?*
10. What is your jurisdiction’s budget and how would you react if federal and/or state funding is cut? What is one thing you’d want to add and one thing you’d choose to cut or eliminate?*
11. Please share what you have done, either as an elected official or in another capacity, to improve the lives of working families and advance progressive policy change. (Share legislation you’ve passed, campaigns you’ve worked on, etc).*
12. Local Progress is a movement of local elected officials advancing a racial and economic justice agenda through all levels of local government. A core pillar of this network is collaborative governing to build, shift, and maintain the balance of power to benefit those historically marginalized by our laws, our institutions, and our culture. Should you win your local race, would you commit to joining Local Progress?*
13. Please respond check these boxes to indicate the following ways you are willing to help build the Working Families Party:

I will personally meet with Working Families Party members, leaders and affiliated organizations when requested.I will participate in meetings and other events organized by my local WFP chapter.I will encourage my supporters to join WFP’s local chapter.I will support WFP’s fundraising efforts, including sharing donor relationships.I will list the WFP endorsement (and logo when appropriate) in campaign communications.I will publicly describe myself as a Working Families Democrat, Working Families Party-endorsed candidate and/or Working Families Party member.I will organize WFP voters in my district to counter misinformation and manipulation of the ballot line by Republican political operatives who are trying to undermine our party.I will consult with my local WFP chapter before making politically sensitive endorsements that affect the WFP or in WFP races.

Local Policy
14. The labor movement plays a crucial role in providing security for working people. Unfortunately, unions have been under attack by right wing activists for decades now. What will you do to help strengthen protections for working people and help increase the strength of unions and the labor movement in your community? Will you commit to supporting local efforts to organize by joining picket lines, sending letters to employers, etc, and have you done so in the past? How would you propose to also strengthen protections for gig workers?*
15. Too many New Yorkers who are making minimum wage can't afford to pay for basic human needs like healthcare, food, child care, and housing. We need to ensure workers are paid enough to live with dignity in our New York towns and cities. Some cities and counties around the state have begun examining raising the minimum wage locally so that workers are guaranteed a living wage based on real costs. Would you support the effort to allow localities to set the minimum wage in your jurisdiction?*
16. Housing costs in New York are out of control. Many parts of the state have become completely unaffordable for working people. Cities across New York have passed local good cause legislation, which grants tenants protections against unjust eviction and unreasonable rent increases.
1. Do you support opting into the strongest possible good cause policies in your municipality, which would close the loopholes that allow LLCs to avoid being covered by the law?
2. How do you plan to create more quality housing in your community, both rental and owner-occupied, and ensure that new housing is truly affordable for working families?
3. Do you support stricter short-term rental regulations to prevent housing stock from being bought up by investors to use exclusively as vacation rentals?
17. The climate crisis has arrived in New York State, and threatens the very existence of life on our planet. While many climate initiatives will need to be conducted at the state, national and international level, local and county governments also have a key role to play in reducing emissions, such as building code updates, all-electric public buildings, promoting green transportation (like electric vehicles and mass transit), joining and obtaining certification through the state’s Climate Smart Communities Program, decarbonizing public buildings owned or operated by your jurisdiction, and opposing fossil fuel projects proposed for your community. How would you use the office you are seeking to help avert climate catastrophe and how can you ensure that those who have suffered most from fossil fuel facilities and other projects with negative environmental and health impacts will be lifted up by climate action and a transition to a renewable energy economy?*
18. Mass deportations, which the incoming presidential administration is promising to undertake would devastate New York’s economy, tear apart whole communities, and inhumanely separate families. Do you commit to supporting policies to prohibit local law enforcement from colluding with Trump's plan for mass deportations? *
19. What policies would you work for to ensure that immigrants (including undocumented immigrants) are made welcome in your jurisdiction and their personal information is not shared with federal agencies who intend on deporting them? Do you support protecting the personal data of local residents from federal agencies?*
20. Public safety is of paramount concern to every family and community in our state. Yet, rather than investing deeply in the resources needed to keep us safe (housing, mental healthcare, education, jobs), our cities and states rely almost exclusively on systems of policing, jails, and prisons that often fail to address the root causes of harm and keep us safe. This has resulted in a criminal justice system that is ineffective, unjust, and racially biased.

What is your vision for achieving public safety in your community? What steps have you and will you take in office to address the deep racial inequities and white supremacy in systems of policing and incarceration, and to transition to a model that prioritizes community investment and public health?
21. In 2024, New Yorkers overwhelmingly passed Proposition 1, protecting the civil rights of women, the LGBTQ community, and all New Yorkers. But the right wing has redoubled its coordinated efforts to target transgender adults and children through hateful media crusades and legislative campaigns to erode their social and medical rights. How will you support or advocate for LGBTQ+ people – especially the trans community, which continues to be under attack? *
22. How do you intend to use your role to help your local public schools, including supporting local school districts that overlap with your jurisdiction? The charter school industry exists by siphoning resources from traditional public schools. What are ways you can use your role to limit the expansion of publicly funded, privately managed charter schools in your community?*
23. Many working people across the state are left stranded by public transportation systems that are wholly inadequate for anyone who cannot afford to own a car. The lack of transportation options makes it difficult or impossible to get to or from work, or leave people with unacceptable waiting periods – sometimes without any cover from the elements. How robust and reliable is the public transportation in your area, and how would you support improving it?*
24. The Trump administration has threatened to weaponize law enforcement against protestors. How will you ensure that local residents can continue to freely gather and protest without fear of retribution from law enforcement?*
25. Homelessness, overdose and mental health issues are causing major problems from big cities to small towns across New York State. There are proven solutions to these problems that prioritize housing, services and care. With adequate investment, these interventions could solve these issues for people who are suffering, while also addressing community safety concerns and returning faith in government. Unfortunately, many governments are turning to the tried-and-failed strategy of ticketing and arresting people who are too poor to afford a place to live, as well as those who need substance use or mental health care – rather than investing in what actually works.
1. What are some solutions that you think will address homelessness in your area, and what is your approach to finding and providing housing to homeless residents?
2. How can your locality help prevent people from becoming victims to the overdose epidemic, and how can you connect people to the resources they need?
3. What is the role of local governments in ensuring people get the mental health care that they need, and what would you do in your position?
26. Economic development projects can provide opportunities for local governments to deliver material gains for its residents, but they can also be giveaways to wealthy interests like real estate or nonunion developers. What are your priorities for local development, and what are some principles that would lead you to determine whether a proposal is a net benefit for your area?*

Statewide Campaigns
The Working Families Party is committed to winning policies that build power for and improve the lives of working and low-income New Yorkers. This is often done through long-term statewide campaigns that educate and organize thousands of residents, elected officials, media, and others, against well-funded opposition from big business and corporate interests. We need everyone involved in these fights, and your support for them could be the difference that leads to success this year.
27. Rent stabilization is a proven tool that municipalities across the state have used to prevent egregious rent hikes, prevent displacement, and strengthen neighborhoods. However, strict statewide restrictions make it difficult for local lawmakers who want to participate in the system to opt-in. Both tenants and local lawmakers are left with little-to-no recourse as corporate landlords take over our cities and rents skyrocket. A statewide bill being introduced in Albany would make it easier for local governments to enact rent stabilization protections for its residents. Would you support a bill to give more latitude to local government, and would you write letters to your state representatives, local op-eds, and/or pass resolutions indicating that support?*
28. New York is facing the worst home care shortage in the nation because of low wages. Yet instead of investing in home care, the State has wasted $5.5 billion dollars in the past four years paying private insurance companies, which have mismanaged Medicaid-funded home care. Would you publicly support the Home Care Savings & Reinvestment Act (S7800/A8470) that would stop giving insurance companies billions of dollars and return home care management directly to the state. The Act will generate up to $3 billion in savings annually, which could be used to pay for growing home care needs and ensure continuity of care by funding higher wages for home care workers to help resolve New York’s home-care worker shortage.
29. The statewide Invest in Our New York (IONY) campaign works to advance a vision for a progressive New York State budget, where the ultra-wealthy and wealthy corporations pay their fair share and New Yorkers have the resources they need to fund the systems we rely on -- like healthcare, housing, universal free childcare, education, transportation and more. In 2021, the Invest in Our New York led the campaign to win a historic tax increase on New York’s wealthiest & big corporations that resulted in over $10 billion in new public dollars. Will you support IONY’s 2025 platform to make the rich pay their fair share, including by attending local actions, signing letters, supporting a resolution in your municipal government, etc?*
30. The state Elder Parole (S15A/A8855) and Fair & Timely Parole bills (2022-S7514/A4231A) would expand eligibility for parole and make the process more fair, effectively ending death-by-incarceration sentences. These parole justice bills will help to end mass incarceration, reunite families, and save the state an estimated $522 million that can be spent on improving community health and safety. Would you vote for a local resolution calling on the state legislature and Governor to enact both of these bills, or if a resolution does not exist, would you introduce the resolution and ask your colleagues to support it?*

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2025 New York Working Families Party Local Questionnaire