Gotham Gazette

The Place for New York Policy and politics

Jessica González-Rojas

Jessica González-Rojas

  • As Senate Approves ‘Coverage for All,’ Focus Shifts to Assembly on Health Coverage for Undocumented New Yorkers

    Inside the State Senate (photo: NYS Senate Media Services)


    In the final days of the legislative session in Albany last week, the State Senate passed a bill that would expand healthcare access to hundreds of thousands of low-income New Yorkers regardless of their immigration status. But the State Assembly ran out of time and adjourned without taking up the bill and now faces pressure to approve it when it returns to address unfinished business on June 20 and 21. 

    On Thursday, the Senate approved the “Coverage for All”

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  • We’re Assembly Members, Healthcare Experts, Women of Color, Mothers, and Fed Up: It’s Time to Pass the New York Health Act

    "Healthcare is a right" (photo: Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office)


    The fact is, New York’s profit-driven health-care system continues to fail marginalized communities like those we represent in the State Legislature. As a matter of racial and gender justice, we must finally pass single-payer health care this state legislative session.

    Before we were elected to office, we each worked in or around New York’s health-care system – Assemblymember Reyes as an oncology nurse, Assemblymember Forrest as a maternal-child health nurse,

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  • Latino Vote '21 Podcast: Queens, with Assemblymember Jessica González-Rojas

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    Assemblymember Jessica González-Rojas (photo: @votejgr)


    For the third episode of the Latino Vote '21 pop-up podcast, Assemblymember Jessica González-Rojas joined host Eli Valentin to discuss the Latino vote in Queens. Listen through the audio below or find this and other episodes under the "Max & Murphy" podcast stream wherever you get podcasts:


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  • With More Than 1 Million Uninsured, New York Needs Immediate Comprehensive Health-Care for All

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    Health care push (photo: Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office)


    The pandemic has been raging throughout New York for nearly a year, killing tens of thousands of our neighbors and dramatically altering every New Yorker’s life. None of us have been untouched by this deadly virus.

    Throughout this year, the critical need for access to health care has become more clear than ever. So too have the gaping inequities across our state. And, while Governor Cuomo has claimed to make confronting the pandemic his number one priority, he has ...

  • ‘The Electorate Has a Bias for Youth and Energy’: Younger Candidates Take New York Politics by Storm

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    Queens Assembly candidate Khaleel Anderson (photo: @KhaleelAnderson)


    A younger generation of Democratic political candidates — which has grown up amid the Great Recession, growing inequality, rising costs of higher education and massive student loan debt, the ticking time-bomb that is climate change, and other crises including, now, the coronavirus pandemic and its fallout — has been offering ambitious policy goals and great urgency around achieving them, resonating with voters and finding success in their runs for office.

    In recent election cycles, New York

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  • 2020 Primaries: Winds of Change Shifting Latino Politics in New York City

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    Ritchie Torres (photo: William Alatriste/City Council)


    As this month’s primary election results seem to be proving, the winds of change are blowing and are shifting the direction of Latino politics in New York City. Has a new era of leadership in Latino political representation arrived?

    In the Bronx, Ritchie Torres seems to be ahead with a comfortable margin, defeating Michael Blake, long-time politico Ruben Diaz, Sr., and many others in the 15th Congressional District. In these pages ...

  • Competitive Queens Primary in District Ravaged by Coronavirus Strikes Familiar Themes

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    Assemblymember Michael DenDekker (photo: @mgdendekker)


    A Queens State Assembly member faces stiff competition this primary election cycle, and for the first time in his 12-year legislative career.

    Assemblymember Michael DenDekker, who represents parts of Jackson Heights, East Elmhurst and Woodside in Assembly District 34, is aiming to survive four Democratic challengers for his seat in this month’s party primary election. The race follows a larger trend that accelerated in 2018, with one or more challengers running from the left, and often promising to bring more

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