Frank Franklin II/AP Photo
In March 2019, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and other Democratic elites pushed to ban fusion voting, but came up short.
New York state will certainly go blue for Joe Biden in the November election. But this year, how the state’s voters select their choice for president will also determine the future of a progressive powerhouse: the Working Families Party of New York.
Through a process called “fusion voting,” one candidate can be listed on more than one party ballot line. So New Yorkers will have the option to vote for Joe Biden as the presidential nominee of either the Democratic Party or the Working Families Party. When votes are counted, Biden will get all the votes, no matter which party’s line gets tapped.
But it still matters which ballot line gets the vote. Obtaining a certain number of votes cast for president secures a party’s status to get on the ballot in New York. Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo wants to use this rule to vanquish the Working Families Party altogether, shedding a longtime thorn in his side.
The fusion voting system is part of how the Working Families Party gained its now-successful place in New York politics. Since its founding 20 years ago, WFP-backed candidates have won offices at all levels of government and passed legislation that prioritizes, as the party name suggests, working people. This summer, the party won resounding victories in New York’s state legislative primaries, taking down several establishment incumbents and replacing them with democratic socialists.
But for this election, fusion voting requirements have shifted. Independent parties, like the WFP, used to only register 50,000 votes on their ballot line in every gubernatorial election to remain on the ballot. Now, because of a change made by Cuomo, WFP will need 130,000 votes or 2 percent of the total voter turnout, whichever is higher, to save its ballot line, and do it every two years, in both presidential and gubernatorial elections. WFP could then file petition signatures to make the ballot in 2022, when Cuomo is up for re-election. But they would need 45,000 valid signatures.
The increase comes after Cuomo’s past failed attacks on the WFP, which supported his primary opponent, actress and activist Cynthia Nixon, in 2018. She earned 500,000 votes in the primary against his one million, showing the WFP’s strength statewide. In March 2019, Cuomo and other Democratic elites pushed to ban fusion voting, but came up short. The new viability thresholds were determined by the Public Campaign Financing Commission, which is also authorized to vote on statewide election issues, last November.
Despite the growing support and triumphs of the Working Families Party over the years, the new requirement will be difficult to meet. Data from the last four elections shows that the WFP would have only met the newly high bar to maintain its party status once, if these rules had always been in place.
“We feel the strength of the [Working Families] Party and its reach with voters and progressive leadership while also feeling the pressure from the state and the executive trying to limit progressive power and what it means to govern in this moment,” says Sochie Nnaemeka, state director of the Working Families Party.
If this year’s turnout is as high as it’s expected to be, with close to eight million votes, that would make the 2 percent threshold about 160,000 votes, a much higher bar than the 130,000 baseline. It’s more than triple the old requirement.
This election cycle, the Working Families Party of New York backed Jamaal Bowman’s primary win over 16-term incumbent Eliot Engel in the 16th Congressional District, Mondaire Jones’s victory in the open-seat 17th District, and many more candidates within state and local governments. This is in addition to longtime Working Families Party elected officials: New York City Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, New York Attorney General Tish James, and New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer.
Legislatively, the WFP, its candidates, and members have pushed New York to adopt a $15 minimum wage, pass the first millionaires tax, create a paid family leave plan, and allow undocumented people to apply for driver’s licenses, among advances on many other issues.
“For us as a party, we’ve spent the last two decades primarying corporate Democrats, really making the vision in New York state not between Democrats and Republicans but between corporate Democrats and Working Family Democrats to center and value decisions of working people,” Nnaemeka says.
It’s always been a part of the Working Families Party’s objectives to highlight the differences between different kinds of Democrats.
While Cuomo has said the requirement increase just means the WFP needs to “work to meet the threshold,” it was also reported by Politico NY at the time that Cuomo privately longed to destroy the Working Families Party. After seeing the WFP’s success, those associated with the progressive party say that establishment politicians are threatened by how impactful the party has become.
Cuomo publicly denies any connection between his detestation for the WFP and changes to the ballot line requirements. “Remember the actual facts here: This was enacted by the Public Financing Commission and passed by both houses of the legislature as part of a comprehensive campaign finance reform,” Rich Azzopardi, senior adviser to the governor, told the Prospect by email. “These never-ending conspiracies are just plain sad.”
However, when the measure was passed, several New York politicians called out the commission’s role. U.S. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer tweeted that the commission should have been focused on money in politics, not fusion voting. Jumaane Williams called it “Trump-ian” behavior.
“Gov. Cuomo is funded by the corporate elites, that’s who supports his campaigns, that’s who funds his campaigns,” says Jamaal Bowman, who will be on both the Democratic Party line and the WFP’s line. “And the governor also surrounds himself with former Republican operatives that view budgets through an austerity lens and not through a values lens, in terms of being a true Democratic state, and truly being for working-class people.”
The ideological differences between conservative and progressive Democrats may seem like basic political dysfunction or party infighting. But it’s always been a part of the Working Families Party’s objectives to highlight the differences between different kinds of Democrats, Nnaemeka says.
Once elected to New York government, the WFP’s candidates can also see the differences clearly for themselves. State Senator Alessandra Biaggi adds that pushback comes from establishment politicians not only when it comes time to vote on legislation, but also with hearings and other proposals.
Soon after her election, Biaggi held the first public hearing on workplace sexual discrimination and harassment laws in 27 years. “That was a big deal and a lot of people tried to stop it,” Biaggi says. “Looking back, I’m not surprised about that because some of the behavior in Albany was so outrageous. So it’s very much in line with, I think, the culture there. But at the time, I thought this is crazy … A lot of people were scared in Albany because they would have been guilty of it themselves.”
Biaggi, of New York’s 34th District, now represents an area that was previously represented by a Democrat who aligned himself with Republicans in Albany. She attributes her win in 2018 completely to the support and organizing power of the Working Families Party, which endorsed her early on in her campaign.
For Nnaemeka and her team to overcome this challenge means capitalizing on progressive energy on the ground. While the WFP can’t turn to its usual grassroots toolkit of door-knocking and rallies, it is refining its virtual campaigning. Much like Sen. Ed Markey’s re-election campaign efforts fueled by the “kids” in the Sunrise Movement online, the Working Families Party of New York has its own Gen Zers who are committed to promoting progressive politics, as well as other social media natives making their own posts on the party’s behalf.
The WFP also released a digital ad featuring Williams, Bowman, Jones, Biaggi, and others, urging New Yorkers to vote for Biden on the WFP line.
It’s not the first time that New York progressives have had to battle the establishment on fusion voting. In 1998, volunteers and organizers were sent out across the state to explain why it was important to vote for the Democratic candidate for governor, Peter Vallone, on the WFP line—back then, it meant for many voting WFP for the very first time in a statewide election. The original WFP organizers had to demand a recanvass of the votes, but they met their goal with 51,325. The Working Families Party of New York has been growing ever since.
This year’s challenge may even inspire more people to want to vote for president in New York, home to many progressive voters who may not have liked Biden as their first choice for the presidency. The added pressure to reach the ballot line threshold will mean that New Yorkers can vote against Donald Trump, but also vote for a progressive agenda and organization.
No matter the outcome, Nnaemeka says, the Working Families Party isn’t going away. The ballot line is one tool the WFP has, but it’s not the only one, she says. Given the party’s successes, both in New York and across the country, there are few reasons to doubt the continued growth of the outsider party. WFP candidates certainly aren’t worried.
“Growing the Working Families’ base is going to happen in New York state and across the country,” Bowman adds. “We’re going to have millions more joining the Working Families Party, millions more voting on the Working Families’ line, and you’re also going to have formerly disengaged voters finding a home on the Working Families’ line … From the school board to the White House, we’re growing at every level of government.”
