Anyone who aspires to represent New Yorkers at any level of government will have the challenging responsibility of advancing solutions that make life more affordable, while simultaneously using the levers of government to protect New Yorkers from the dangerous attacks of an emboldened Trump regime.
The vast majority of New Yorkers are living paycheck to paycheck, and confronting a worsening affordability crisis. New Yorkers are deeply frustrated with a political system that keeps asking everyday people to keep waiting for relief that never comes. And they are tired of politicians who promise to deliver safety and material gains for working class New Yorkers, and instead use the levers of power to help their friends and donors.
For decades, the state has balanced its budget on the backs of poor and working class people, defunding public goods such as schools, healthcare, housing, and infrastructure, while investing in corporate giveaways, luxury development, and prisons and jails.
What must be on the table for 2026-2029 — and beyond — is a transformative vision for who the government serves and what the government can do for everyday people. Now is the moment to commit to a new set of guarantees that enable working families to have economic stability: universal childcare and care for older adults, single-payer healthcare, statewide rent stabilization and a new social housing authority to build permanently affordable housing, protections for immigrant New Yorkers, safer neighborhoods through deep investment in community resources, economic development programs that actually create good union jobs, and a just budget that raises revenue from the wealthiest through comprehensive income, wealth and corporate taxes, and much more.
This moment requires grounded, honest, courageous leaders determined to make New York City a bulwark against an aggressive and dangerous Trump administration, and equally committed to making sure that New York City is a place where working families can live and thrive.
We want our candidates to help build our alliance of voters, constituencies, organizations and social forces to win governing power so that we can deliver real material victories for our people, build trust in public institutions, and transform power structures in 2026 and beyond.
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. If we hope to overcome the influence of real estate and corporate money in Albany, we must elect more Working Families champions who will represent the interest of everyday New Yorkers, not simply those of the wealthy and well-connected.
If that’s you, please tell us about yourself by filling out this questionnaire.
Note: Our endorsement process is intentionally open and transparent. Please know that our chapter members and affiliates will have access to this document and will use it to evaluate your candidacy. Please fill it out accordingly.
This questionnaire contains 14 issue sections that outline the WFP’s priorities for 2026. Your answers to our questions don’t have to be perfect — just honest. Candidates are encouraged to provide additional thoughts on any of your answers; there is a space for optional comments provided next to each response. Candidates 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.
The sections of this questionnaire are:
- Contact & Candidate Info
- Candidate Demographics
- The Working Families NY Guarantee: The Promise of a Better New York
- Your Campaign
- Workers' Rights
- Climate
- Supporting Public Schools & Higher Education
- The Caring Economy
- Dignified Housing for All
- Economic Development
- Public Safety & Decarceration
- Infrastructure
- Ending the Failed War on Drugs
- Ethics & Good Government
- Strengthening the Working Families Party
To download a blank PDF version of this questionnaire, click here.