Astoria's 'Socialist Slate': Kristen Gonzalez Breaks Down Her Win

ASTORIA, QUEENS — Look at any map of the results from this week's State Senate election in Western Queens, and you'll see a sea of red.

Kristen Gonzalez, a democratic socialist, won big over moderate Elizabeth Crowley in the 59th District Democratic primary, sweeping dozens of precincts from Ditmars in Astoria down through Williamsburg, Brooklyn — nearly even winning the chunk of the district covering more moderate Manhattan.

In an interview Thursday morning, two days after the election, Gonzalez, 27, said her victory came down to "just doing the work of talking to as many voters as possible."

More than 700 volunteers for Gonzalez knocked on "tens of thousands of doors" across the district, she said — helping to counteract the influx of donations that flowed to Crowley's campaign. (More than $600,000 through Aug. 8.)

Gonzalez, despite raising about one-third of Crowley's total, had nearly four times as many individual donations, including far more from within the district.

"Running a grassroots campaign really did separate us," Gonzalez said.

Her ground game included a focus on the subcommunities that make up Western Queens, like its public housing developments and the large Bengali community in Astoria, whom Gonzalez courted by paying visits to local mosques.

Still, the emphasis on public housing did not produce perfect results for Gonzalez — the few Queens precincts that she lost include most or all of the NYCHA Queensbridge, Ravenswood and Astoria Houses, according to preliminary results.

Gonzalez said she was unsurprised by that outcome, noting that the same developments had gone for Eric Adams in last year's mayoral race when most of Astoria opted for progressive Maya Wiley.

"It does make sense, but we’re still really proud of the headway we made in those areas and it was a result of our grassroots operation," Gonzalez said.

With a vast majority of votes counted by Thursday, Gonzalez held about 58 percent of the vote compared to Crowley's 33 percent, with fellow candidate Michael Corbett a distant third.

Gonzalez won nearly 81 percent of votes in Brooklyn and 65 percent in Queens. In Manhattan — which held the biggest number of votes overall — Crowley led Gonzalez, 44 to 40 percent.

"This is our base"

As for policy, Gonzalez's three core campaign issues — housing, climate change and healthcare — could be easily tailored to each neighborhood in the 59th District, she explained.

Tenant protections like rent control and good cause eviction resonated in rapidly-developing Astoria and Long Island City, for example. And Greenpoint voters appreciated Gonzalez's environmental focus, given the neighborhood's history of pollution.

As for campaign infrastructure, Gonzalez had no need to start from scratch when it came to establishing a presence and recruiting volunteers. Much of the district is already represented by socialist lawmakers, from Assemblymember Emily Gallagher in Greenpoint to U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in Queens — giving rise to what some have dubbed the "People's Republic of Astoria."

"This is our base, this is where our movement has grown," Gonzalez said. "We were building off what they had already started."

Assuming Gonzalez prevails in November, Astoria will have the remarkable distinction next year of being represented by socialists in the City Council, both state legislative chambers, and Congress — the first place in the U.S. to achieve that status since Milwaukee in 1913, according to POLITICO reporter Bill Mahoney.

Gonzalez said she was not surprised that a "melting pot" area like Western Queens would vote for candidates with more staunchly left-wing views on issues like immigration, healthcare and labor.

"I am so honored to be from a borough where we have our first socialist slate in a century," Gonzalez said. "It’s amazing to see that this district, overwhelmingly, with a 26-point lead, voted for a 27-year-old democratic socialist Latina to represent them."

Related coverage:

• Astoria, LIC Election Results: Kristen Gonzalez Beats Crowley
• Misinformation Roils Queens Senate Race With Voting Underway
  
• Queens Senate Race: Nomiki Konst Drops Out, Endorses Kristen Gonzalez

Have a Queens news tip? Contact reporter Nick Garber at nick.garber@patch.com.