Queens Organizer Jesse Cerrotti Running For Astoria Council Seat

ASTORIA, QUEENS — Youth organizer, activist and self-described Democratic socialist Jesse Cerrotti launched a campaign Friday for a City Council seat representing Astoria and parts of East Elmhurst, Jackson Heights and Woodside.

Cerrotti works as a youth organizer for The Workers Circle, a progressive Jewish social justice organization, where he focuses on getting city teens engaged in economic and immigration justice campaigns.

Both are issues that hit close to home for Cerrotti: His grandmother moved to Queens at the end of the Holocaust, when she lost her entire family.

“I want New Yorkers to have that sense of safety again, whether in Jewish communities such as the one I come from, as well as Arab, Hispanic and all working-class communities that are burdened by failing economic policies,” he said in a statement.

Cerrotti previously served as a lead organizer for the campaign to enact ranked-choice voting in New York City and as a volunteer for presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Queens district attorney candidate Tiffany Cabán, according to a press release announcing his campaign.

If elected to the City Council, Cerrotti said he will form youth, elderly and socialist caucuses to bring greater representation to the governmental body.

He's also pledged to fight to stop construction of four new jails citywide, part of the city's proposal to close the notoriously inhumane detention facilities on Rikers Island — though it's unclear how much sway he would have over the new jails given that lawmakers already approved them.

The position is officially up for grabs in 2021, when City Council Member Costa Constantinides will be term-limited out of office, but it could become available even earlier if Constantinides wins his campaign to become Queens borough president in a special election on March 24.

Cerrotti is up against Nick Roloson, who is Constantinides' chief of staff.