A message from the Board of Directors of Up2Us
Up2Us recognizes that Democrats must be unified in order to win in November. Up2Us will not be endorsing anyone for President during the primary season. We welcome our members to energetically support their candidate of choice through the primaries and join us united as we dive wholeheartedly into the resulting November campaign.
Alessandra Biaggi is running for New York State Senate in District 34, where she was born and raised. A Democrat running as a true Democrat, Alessandra exemplifies Up2Us values.
Biaggi spent her last decade in advocacy, national leadership, and service to the people of New York, interning for Congressman Joseph Crowley (D-NY), the Kings County D.A.’s Office, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, and working as Assistant General Counsel for Governor Cuomo’s Office of Storm Recovery.
Alessandra was a 2015 New Leaders Council (NLC) fellow and sits on NLC’s Advisory Board. She’s a member of The New Agenda's Young Women Leadership Council, and has served on the host committee for The Arena. She has presented on topics including women in politics, leadership, political strategy, and community organizing for New York University's Women's Initiative, Columbia University, Ladies Get Paid, Rally + Rise, Impact Hub, Solidarity Sundays, Changemaker Chats, the All In Together Campaign, with Diane Von Furstenberg, and NYU with the Lieutenant Governor of New York, Kathleen C. Hochul.
Born in Mount Vernon, New York, Biaggi is a graduate of Pelham Memorial High School, New York University, and Fordham Law School, where she was a member of the Fordham Law Review. In 2014, she attended the Women’s Campaign School at Yale University.
As State Senator, Alessandra is committed towards moving New York forward in the same direction as Up2Us and will fight to expand voting rights, fully fund public education, access to childcare, healthcare, and eldercare, fight domestic violence and gun violence, reform campaign finance, reproductive justice, and make sure that every person in the district has a good, well-paying job. She'll also fight for functioning transit, affordable housing, criminal justice reform, workers’ rights, immigrants’ rights, environmental sustainability, and protections against sexual abuse, assault, and harassment so that every human being has a safe working environment, regardless of what they do for a living.
And so, on behalf of our membership, the Board of Directors of Up2Us heartily endorses Alessandra Biaggi for New York State Senate in District 34.
For more information visit biaggi4ny.com
On behalf of its membership, the Board of Directors of Up2Us enthusiastically voted last night to endorse the candidacy of Robert Kesten for the New York State Senate in Senate District #40. A progressive Democratic candidate whose values closely align with Up2Us values, Kesten will be strongly supported during his campaign by Up2Us members knocking on doors, picking up phones and registering voters. “He will make a strong and committed State Senator” says Iris Lachaud, a member of the Up2Us Board of Directors.
Kesten has deep local roots, interests, and experience here in Westchester County and has spent his career building coalitions and facilitating partnerships on the local, national and international levels. Raised in Bedford, Kesten is a graduate of Fox Lane High School (1973) and Syracuse University (1977.) Kesten currently lives in South Salem where he is a Lewisboro Democratic district leader and an active member of the Lewisboro Democratic Committee.
“In the last three election seasons that I’ve known Robert Kesten, he has shown up, knocking on doors for numerous candidates including Ivy Pool now on the New Castle Town Board, County Executive George Latimer, and now Assembly Woman and State Senate candidate Shelley Meyer – he’s definitely committed to the Democratic process and progressive ideals” says Beth Sauerhaft, member of the Up2Us Board of Directors.
Kesten has spent years as a Democratic party activist, having worked on the campaigns of the highly-respected Democratic U.S. Senators Tom Daschle and Paul Simon.
He believes public education is fundamental to a functioning democracy and must be supported; economics and jobs today need forward thinkers taking into account the promises of technology and needs of human beings; unions, working people, government and business must work together to ensure a bright future for all; government must be transparent and open; and that there can be no compromise on clean water and air and we must put to bed the notion that economic growth is limited when we protect the environment. Kesten is also a strong supporter of common sense gun legislation.
Since 2009, Kesten has been a consultant for PDHRE, an international non-profit organization promoting learning about human rights that leads to action. Prior to PDHRE he worked with a variety of nonprofits in education, agriculture, and the arts.
Kesten will be facing a two-term incumbent Trump Republican, Terrence Murphy, who has proposed repealing New York State law designed at preventing the mentally ill from gaining access to weapons and eliminating universal background checks, opposes women’s reproductive rights and who has blocked important civil rights legislation.
Senate District 40 includes the towns of Beekman, Pawling and the village of Pawling in Dutchess County, the towns of Carmel, Patterson and Southeast, and the village of Brewster in Putnam County, and the city of Peekskill, the towns of Cortlandt, Lewisboro, Mount Pleasant, New Castle, North Salem, Pound Ridge, Somers and Yorktown, the town/village of Mount Kisco, and the villages of Briarcliff Manor, Buchanan, Croton-on-Hudson, Pleasantville and Sleepy Hollow in Westchester County.
For more information visit electkesten.com
Terry Clements, Democratic candidate for Westchester County Legislator, District 11, exemplifies Up2Us values. As a longtime District Leader, educator, district resident, and activist, she has consistently and fiercely served her community.
She currently serves as Vice Chair of the Westchester County Democratic Committee, Chairman of the Black Democrats of Westchester, Westchester Black Women’s Political Caucus (Mt. Vernon Chapter) and is a former State Committee Woman representing the 88th AD.
She is also an active member of the New Rochelle Lions Club, Jack and Jill of America Westchester Associate Chapter (Lifetime Member), Westchester Alliance of Black School Educators (WABSE), Parent Teacher Association, New Rochelle FUSE, New York State United Teachers (NYSUT) and the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) (AFL-CIO). As a member of the New Rochelle Lions Club Terry organized a benefit for Haitian earthquake victims.
For her many years of political and community service and shared values, the Board of Directors of Up2Us, on behalf of our membership heartily endorses Terry Clements for Westchester County Legislator, District 11.
Vote No!
A New York Constitutional Convention (ConCon) will cost taxpayers millions of dollars and history shows that the people will not actually control the ConCon and outcomes, politicians and lobbyists will. Past conventions have been riddled with rigged agendas and political patronage. Despite the assertions to the contrary, a ConCon is NOT the only way to amend the constitution. The public referendum process has successfully amended the constitution more than 200 times. In fact, the constitution has been amended seven times in the last few years using this process, which included the voters approving casino gambling. Given that more than 70% of New Yorkers aren’t even aware of the vote, there does not appear to be a pressing public concern justifying it. It is a waste of time and money to conduct a Constitutional Convention and there is only risk of politicians eviscerating rights and protections that working families in New York count on.
A list of resources for additional information on a New York Constitutional Convention is listed here:
https://nonewyorkconvention.org
