HTC plays key role in Meng’s historic primary victory
Grace Meng won the primary election to be the Democratic Party's candidate for the newly-redrawn 6th Congressional district in Queens. If elected, she will be the first Asian-American Congressional representative from New York State. The Hotel Trades Council was proud to endorse Meng, who will be a strong advocate for the nearly 3,000 members, many of them immigrants, that live in her district, which includes Flushing, Elmhurst, Rego Park and Middle Village.
Jubilant union members and staff celebrated the victory with Meng at the Plum Restaurant in Bayside. Earlier in the campaign, hundreds of members joined her at a town hall meeting hosted by the union in Flushing, and many members regularly volunteered their time to help her campaign by canvassing. On primary election day, 182 members and staff rang doorbells to turn voters out to the polls. This "ground game" was credited by Crain's New York for benefiting Meng's campaign, when they named us one of this year's primary-day winners. In her victory speech, Meng called receiving the Hotel Trades Council's endorsement the turning point of her campaign, saying, "For those that were around at the start of our campaign, you'll remember that it was rough going for a while. We needed to put together months of campaign runway in a week. But we stayed on message and stayed relentlessly positive. Then Peter Ward and the Hotel Trades Council took a chance on me and they came on board. HTC is at the forefront of modern organizing and their muscle and people have been the spine of our efforts. Peter, Josh -- thank you."
In the past four years, our union has become an increasingly powerful force in New York City and State politics. We are strong because of the thousands of dedicated and politically-informed members who volunteer significant amounts of their time to speak to their co-workers, neighbors and complete strangers to get out the vote for candidates who will fight for us when they are in office.
Crain's Insider. Primary-day winners and losers. Crain's New York. June 27, 2012.
