It’s a beautiful day to be a New Yorker, unless you’re Jessica Ramos. The New York state senator made an unsuccessful bid for the Democratic nomination for mayor, taking home just 0.4 percent, or 3,862 votes, per the New York Times’ latest count. More concerning, however, is the fact that she seemed to misplace her integrity along the way.
After calling fellow candidate Andrew Cuomo a “corrupt egomaniac” and a “bully” earlier this year, Ramos did a 180 and endorsed him earlier this month. At a Cuomo rally, she urged voters to “make the right choice,” telling the crowd, “Andrew Cuomo is the only option to stand up to Donald Trump and keep our families safe.” Cuomo, notably, did not endorse her back, and on Tuesday, he told reporters that he would only rank himself on the ballot.
Whatever Ramos’s plan was (perhaps angling for a plum appointment in a Cuomo administration?), it did not pan out. Cuomo conceded to 33-year-old Democratic Socialist Zohran Mamdani on Tuesday night, which really put a damper on his Election Night party — where, moments before his speech, Ramos told the New York Times that she was “feeling good.” Come Wednesday, she opted not to congratulate Mamdani publicly. But she did manage to repost an Instagram Reel from the New York City Independent Budget Office about the city’s new fiscal year. “It’s a good day to start understanding the NYC budget,” she wrote in what certainly reads like a jab at Mamdani, who’s been criticized for his lack of experience operating a budget as sprawling as New York’s.
Ramos, meanwhile, seems to have come a long way from her original platform, which was built largely on protecting women’s rights. In 2018, she won her congressional seat as a progressive fresh face who would advocate for women and immigrants. In 2021, she called on Cuomo to resign after multiple women alleged that he sexually harassed them (he has denied the allegations). She co-sponsored 2022’s Adult Survivors Act, which lifted the statute of limitations so victims could sue their sexual abusers, and later pushed to legalize sex work in New York.
Perhaps because of how sharply she seems to have turned on those values, Ramos, who joined the State Senate in 2018 and currently chairs the Committee on Labor, seems to have lost quite a few political allies over her endorsement of an alleged sexual harasser. Alessandra Biaggi, Ramos’s former colleague in the State Legislature, told Intelligencer that she wasn’t surprised about the pro-Cuomo pivot. “It sucks because, honestly, it’s like, to support Andrew Cuomo is like selling your soul to the devil,” she said. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez retweeted the news that Cuomo was not cross-endorsing Ramos, writing, “lol. Lmao.” I might offer the same sentiment to Ramos now.