Corey Johnson is eyeing the New York City mayorship.
Just as openly gay Indiana mayor Pete Buttigieg is raising attention in his pursuit of U.S. Presidency, Johnson is announcing his pursuit of NYC mayorship.
Johnson tweeted on Monday that he’s “thinking about a potential people-powered Mayoral run,” which his ultimately him gauging the public on whether or not they’ll support him.
Johnson says that he will not fuel his campaign with donation money from real estate developers, lobbyists, or corporate PACs. He also says he won’t take more than $250 from any single person. Though, some twitter users were quick to point out that Johnson has already received $63K from real estate execs in campaign contributions.
As the New York Times surmises, he would need at least 7,286 contributors to reach the maximum spending limit.
"I think this is the future of the Democratic Party,” Johnson told the Times. “I think a lot of anxiety in New York City about gentrification and over development and people don’t like any appearance of influence based off of contributions. This is a way to totally eliminate that.”
Johnson, who is openly gay and HIV-positive, has earned great respect for his political achievements in the past year. The City And State NY Magazine wrote a piece on him and titled it, “Is Corey Johnson Already Mayor?”
This time last year, Corey Johnson was elected as the Speaker of New York City Council. In that one year, he has lobbied and fought for budgeting limits, making public transport more affordable for New Yorkers, limiting the number of for-hire vehicles like Uber in the city, strengthening the Oversight and Investigations Committee against fellow politicians, and much more.
Then at the start of this year, Johnson took on the additional role of acting public advocate. While a special election is being held to replace Letitia James, who was elected as state attorney general, Johnson has been working the dual-positions in New York City.
With the leverage and attention gained from holding both of those positions, Corey Johnson has now made this campaign announcement. We’re looking forward to seeing what he’ll do next.
