Max Rose

Max Rose won election to Congress in 2018 from New York District 11.

2022 endorsements

Max Rose’s claim to be a champion of working people—and more viable general election candidate–is backed up by endorsements from unions like AFGE, AFT, RWDSU, the Carpenters, and IBEW Local 3, a building trades giant in NYC. He also has the support of Congressional Progressive Caucus luminaries like Jamie Raskin (D-MD.), Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) and Ro Khanna (D-CA).

DSA pressure

The first-ever Congressional hearing for Medicare for All took place back in April, and a number of House Reps have signed onto the bill, thanks in part to organizing pressure from DSA chapters throughout the country. Earlier this month, the bill also enjoyed its first hearing in the House’s Ways and Means Committee, which has significant jurisdiction over healthcare policy. In New York City, the healthcare working group is focused on targeting Reps Hakeem Jeffries and Max Rose in Staten Island to pressure them to cosponsor Medicare for All. Staten Island DSA just launched a long stretch of summer canvassing focused on Max Rose, following a lobby meeting with his office back in May. Central Brooklyn DSA has also launched a canvassing operation in Crown Heights targeting Jeffries and has been birddogging him at town halls.

"Eradicate Anti-Muslim Content On Your Platform"

December 15, 2020;

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congresswoman Debbie Dingell (D-MI) today urged immediate action from Facebook to eradicate anti-Muslim bigotry from the platform and demanded Mark Zuckerberg implement six measures to combat bigoted content. In a letter signed by 29 colleagues, Dingell cited instances of anti-Muslim content on Facebook and recent reports showing the role of the platform in inciting violence against the Muslim community.

“Facebook cannot celebrate the success of its platform, while ignoring its role in elevating the dangerous, deadly content targeting Muslim people,” said Congresswoman Dingell. “In Christchurch, New Zealand, a terrorist attack that stole the lives of fifty-one Muslims worshipping in their mosque was streamed live on Facebook around the world. But in the ensuing weeks and months, Facebook failed to offer a single policy intentionally designed to eradicate hateful, anti-Muslim content. Nearly two years later, it’s time for Facebook to demonstrate that this company recognizes the life and death consequences of their lack of action.”

Dingell’s letter was signed by Debbie Dingell, Rashida Tlaib, André Carson, Carolyn Maloney, Ilhan Omar, Jahana Hayes, Max Rose, Barbara Lee, Eddie Bernice Johnson, Bobby Rush, Dan Kildee, Jared Huffman, Kathy Castor, Gwen Moore, Lauren Underwood, Jan Schakowsky, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Mark Pocan, Grace Meng, Bonnie Watson Coleman, Darren Soto, Don Beyer, Jim McGovern, Peter Welch, Jamie Raskin, Pramila Jayapal, Yvette Clarke, Raul Grijalva, Earl Blumenauer, and Nydia Velazquez. Additionally, her letter has received the support of the following organizations: CODEPINK, Common Defense, Council on American-Islamic Relations, Islamic Networks Group, Jetpac, Jewish Voice for Peace Action, Justice for Muslims Collective, MomsRising, National Iranian American Council, Peace Action, Progressive Democrats of America, Project South, ReThinking Foreign Policy, and National Network for Arab American Communities.

Common Defense endorsement

Common Defense endorsed Max Rose for Congress in 2018.

Muslim Democratic Club endorsement

The Muslim Democratic Club of New York endorsed Max Rose for Congress in 2018.

Alex Hing campaigns for Max Rose

From Alex Hing:

“This is the most important election of our lives” was my mantra during this election season. No way I was going to sit this one out and only vote and donate money. While there were many campaigns that needed volunteers, I was intuitively and by happenstance drawn to the Max Rose for Congress campaign in Staten Island. Flipping the House was my main concern and although I know that working with my union or the Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance (APALA) in other very important campaigns is what I should have been doing, I decided to go it alone since they were not participating in Rose’s campaign.

I decided to take a week off work and volunteer for the GOTV part of the campaign. My condo president, Kim Parker, who is active in the Democratic Party, showed me a list of events where Manhattanites could help other campaigns. Two Staten Island Ferry Terminal leafleting events were listed. The volunteers were mainly older whites from the Upper West Side and the Village. When I mentioned to one of them that my first campaign was in 1968 in San Francisco with Eldridge Cleaver for President, he told me that he worked with Bayard Rustin and SNCC and participated in the Eugene McCarthy campaign.

Supporting Max Rose was different. This is a bald white guy who emphasized that he was a highly decorated combat platoon leader in Afghanistan. The beginning of his campaign video shows armed soldiers exiting a helicopter in Kandahar to evacuate him from battle. However, he refused corporate PAC money, criticized both parties for inaction on infrastructure development, wants health care reform and action on the opioid epidemic.

Leafleting is not what I really wanted to do. Knocking on doors and talking with voters is my passion which I have been doing for fifty years since petitioning for Eldridge in the Fillmore (now called the Western Addition) and put the Peace and Freedom Party on the California ballot. Door to door canvassing is the most effective method for mobilizing support for a candidate or proposal. It is far more effective than TV advertising which most campaigns emphasize and spend a fortune on. Fortunately, Milan Rahman, a union organizer and APALA member suggested that I contact Shahana Masum from New York Immigrant Action. She lives on Staten Island’s North Shore, where Muslims, immigrants and Blacks live as well as working class whites. Part of the District is in South Brooklyn with the same demographics. I gave her a call and she and her husband Mir picked me up from the ferry on a dreary Friday morning and drove me to a modest house whose exterior was covered with Max Rose signage where they live with their two sons and their grandmother.

They were really glad that I was volunteering for the rest of the campaign and wanted to go door knocking. They are from Bangladesh and organize among Muslims in the North Shore mainly through the masjids and public schools. So how do you get Muslims to vote for a proud US imperialist warrior? Charles Fall is a Muslim whose parents immigrated from Guinea and ran a successful primary campaign in the North Shore for the State Assembly focusing on Blacks, immigrants and Muslims. Immigrant Action was a part of his coalition which joined with the Rose Campaign for the general election even though Fall had no opposition in that race. I believe this was crucial to flipping the district. In 2016, the North Shore basically stayed home after a good turnout in the primary which Hillary won by 2 points. By keeping Fall’s campaign alive, Rose could mobilize in the underserved community.

Aside from canvassing and phone banking, I leafleted at the Staten Island Shopping Mall and the bus terminal with folks from Immigrant Action. At the end of my tenure, I knocked on over 175 doors, spent several hours on the phone and leafleted hundreds of voters. Mir told me at the Stapleton voting site, there were long lines of people waiting in the rain to vote and that umbrellas were left on the line by people entering the building. Max Rose defeated his opponent by 6 points, flipping Staten Island for the first time in ten years. In spite of a cold, I felt great.

References

Template:Reflist