NY-16 Primary Challenger Andom Ghebreghiorgis Suspends Campaign for Congress

June 1, 2020—Andom Ghebreghiorgis is suspending his insurgent progressive campaign to represent New York’s 16th Congressional District, the northern Bronx and southern Westchester.

“When I announced that I was running for Congress last June in Mount Vernon’s Hartley Park, I spoke about the ways in which our district's needs were not being met,” Andom Ghebreghiorgis said. “I wanted to represent the community I grew up in, taught in, and lived in and articulate a politics that would transform our material reality.”

Andom announced his primary challenge of Engel in June 2019. In the last year, former special education teacher Andom has changed the district’s political landscape by bringing a comprehensive, progressive platform to the forefront of this important Congressional race. In challenging Engel, an incumbent who has been in office for 31 years, Andom brought attention to Engel’s support of funding endless wars, a position Engel has legislated through his actions as a Congressional representative as well as his position as Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

Campaign Accomplishments

The campaign called over 70,000 residents in NY-16 and knocked tens of thousands of doors. It reached out and mobilized communities that have been and continue to be overlooked in NY-16. The campaign is particularly proud to have engaged many high school and college students and organized a youth- oriented Fellowship program.

The first candidate in the district to host a virtual town hall during the coronavirus pandemic, Andom also held conversations with a wide variety of guests several times a week in his ‘On the Line’ broadcast. Local guests included pediatricians discussing coronavirus protocol, small business owners, and personalities with captivating life stories. Other guests included experts on subjects such as reparations, police brutality, modern monetary theory, Palestinian human rights, and Caribbean decolonization.

Andom was the only candidate in the race calling for a $20-per-hour living wage and the only one with policy planks for disability rights, a Federal Jobs Guarantee, and racial justice. Andom had nearly 6,000 donations and had the highest-percentage of small-dollar donors of any candidate in the race. Andom also continued to attend protests for various causes during his campaign, enacted a Mutual Aid solidarity network to aid constituents during the pandemic, and occupied a campaign office in Mount Vernon, the city in which he was raised and still lives.

Andom Ghebreghiorgis said, “I am proud of what we have been able to accomplish: the power we mobilized and built in Westchester and the Bronx; our neighbors we stood with and supported as we continue to survive this pandemic; the consciousness we raised and sparked; the contribution we made to our continued struggle for a just America and world. I look forward to continuing to fight for our district in a different capacity.”

Andom’s Endorsement of Jamaal Bowman

Upon his campaign’s suspension, Andom Ghebreghiorgis is endorsing Bronx principal and Working Families Party candidate Jamaal Bowman for the June 23rd primary. As a fellow educator, Andom recognizes Bowman’s commitment to equitable public education.

“I entered this race because the people of the Bronx and Westchester deserve representation who prioritizes their needs. With the backing of our incredible grassroots volunteers, supporters, and neighbors, we’ve brought thousands of folks into the political process for the first time. I want to thank my tireless team, and every supporter who made calls, knocked doors, and chipped in to back this campaign. With the election almost upon us, the reason why I entered the race hasn’t changed. I have faith that Jamaal can deliver a progressive win and unseat Rep. Engel. He’s a fellow Bronx educator whom I respect. I’m proud to stand with the Working Families Party in making the final push to send Jamaal to Congress.”

Although Andom Ghebreghiorgis is suspending his campaign, he will still be advocating for change here in NY, throughout the US, as well as around the globe. His campaign ends, but his fight for justice for all continues.

Andom’s Campaign Platform

Andom’s platform included detailed planks on foreign policy, public education, a Green New Deal, affordable housing, immigration, single-payer Medicare- for-All, a Federal Jobs Guarantee, unions and workers’ rights, Social Security, progressive tax reform, democracy and voting rights, women’s rights, LBGTQ+ rights, decarceration and justice, racial justice, gun violence, mental health and disability rights, and a $20-per-hour living wage. a foreign policy of peace and multilateral cooperation, investment in public education, support for the Green New Deal, racial justice, housing as a human right, free prisons, healthcare for all, and just immigration. He challenged the existing status quo in NY-16 and pivoted from a far-reaching, people-based, street campaign to a people-based virtual campaign during New York’s “pause” during coronavirus.

To view Andom’s platform, visit:

https://www.andomforny.com/our-issues

About Andom Ghebreghiorgis

Andom Ghebreghiorgis is a first-generation American of Eritrean descent from Mount Vernon, NY. He ran for Congress in NY's 16th District because he could no longer reconcile the disinvestment in the communities he grew up and taught in with the trillions of dollars the US wasted on forever wars and unnecessary prisons. Andom graduated from Yale with degrees in Political Science and Economics and CCNY with a master's in secondary special education. He worked at the Robin Hood Foundation after college, and then he became a NYC Teaching Fellow in 2009. He taught MS special education at a high-needs public school in the Williams Bridge section of the Bronx, was a special education coordinator/ELA teacher at The Equity Project in Washington Heights, and taught English Writing at a Quaker school in the West Bank. Andom is active within the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) and the Eritrean human rights organization One Day Seyoum.

Andom’s campaign didn’t accept donations from corporate PACs.

Media contact: Gayle Snible, snible@andomforny.com.