On a recent steamy Thursday afternoon, State Senator Jessica Ramos was speaking to a small crowd of retired Nepalese residents in Jackson Heights. After shaking some hands and taking some photos, the eight-year incumbent explained how to apply for food stamps and rental assistance. She also delivered a warning.
"The owner of the Mets, the baseball team, wants to open a casino next to the baseball stadium," Ramos said, pausing for a translator to translate her words into Nepalese. "I know that for some people, a casino can seem like entertainment. But beyond that, gambling can be very addictive, and given the challenges we have along Roosevelt Avenue with criminal organizations, the casino is only going to amplify the crime we've seen."
Ramos has spent the past three years of her political life fighting against billionaire Mets owner Steve Cohen, hard enough to nearly derail the $8 billion project by holding up a critical piece of legislation for Cohen's casino bid, before Cohen was able to use his massive wealth to get around her and win the license last year. Along the way, Ramos gained considerable enemies among those who saw Cohen as a genial billionaire who wanted to shower Queens with cash and jobs—someone who should be supported, not stopped.
Now, Cohen's political allies want to get rid of her once and for all. Ramos is facing a primary challenge from State Assemblymember Jessica González-Rojas, who is backed by a coalition of progressive groups and politicians who would usually line up against someone like Cohen, but have instead found common ground in this race.
Make the Road Action, a political group associated with the immigrant-led organization Make the Road, for example, a longtime supporter of Ramos, has now mobilized behind González-Rojas. The Working Families Party, who helped Ramos rise to power, has also turned on her, as has nearly every other local politician with an overlapping district to Ramos.
All of them agree: Jessica Ramos must go.
What happened to the rising star who in 2018 seized the western Queens Senate seat from a senator who caucused with Republicans, then quickly rose through the ranks to become the Senate's labor chair? The single mother who passed critical and headline-grabbing legislation that gave billions to workers and others in the state who were excluded from federal assistance during the pandemic? Why would the progressive hotbeds of Jackson Heights, Corona, and Elmhurst want to get rid of a state senator who votes consistently in support of labor and immigrants?
Ramos, for her part, sees Cohen around every corner in this race. "I mean, in this part of New York, everyone fell in line so quickly," she said about the casino bid. She pointed out the millions that Cohen had thrown at different nonprofits and local politicians in the area, not to mention the millions more he had funneled to local lobbyists, to make sure his casino became a reality.
But to many in the district, Ramos's political defenestration was a long time coming.
I spent time with each Jessica—Ramos, and Gonzáles-Rojas—to understand how it all came to this.