Former Stonewall Democratic Club of NYC president Justin Sanchez defeated Antirson Ortiz in the fourth round of ranked choice voting to become Bronx District 17’s Democratic nominee for New York City Council, according to ranked choice results released on July 1.
Sanchez will face off in November against Conservative candidate Marisol Duran for term-limited Councilmember Rafael Salamanca Jr. ‘s seat representing South Bronx neighborhoods like Hunts Point, Longwood, and parts of Morrisania.
The 33-year-old progressive candidate took home around 62% of the vote after all the ranked choice tallies were in, compared to Ortiz’s nearly 38%. In each round, Sanchez took home the majority of the ranked choice votes from the candidates who had been eliminated — meaning that if Sanchez wasn’t the first choice on someone’s ballot, he was ranked second, third, or fourth if all other candidates were eliminated.
Sanchez said he was with friends and family eagerly waiting for the results to come in on July 1.
“My immediate reaction was just super proud and super excited seeing all of the hard work that we did throughout the course of this campaign really come into fruition,” Sanchez said. “But more humbled than anything to see all of the support that we got, not only in the first round but also in the subsequent rounds where we really saw that folks believed in us and what we were doing.”
Running on a platform titled “17 for 17,” Sanchez prioritized quality-of-life improvements, including sanitation, drug treatment, and youth programming. His campaign’s blunt slogan — “cleaning the damn streets” — cut through political noise and connected with voters.
He said his team came up with a plan to listen more than they talked, and in the end it paid off. Knocking on over 100,000 doors, Sanchez said that his campaign didn’t start out asking for votes, but instead, asking what voters wanted to see.
“They were worried about who’s going to help them with their quality of life,” Sanchez said. “Who’s gonna help them [with] cleaning the damn streets— exactly what we ran on. Who’s going to make sure to get trash cans on street corners. Getting folks that are dealing with substance use disorder off of our streets into the long-term care that they need, and improving our education system. Getting our kids the opportunities that they deserve.”
If elected, Sanchez would become only the second openly gay candidate to be elected to the City Council from the Bronx, the third LGBTQ+ representative to serve from the borough, and the first from District 17. US Representative Ritchie Torres was the first openly gay candidate to be elected from the Bronx in 2014. Former City Council Member James Vacca, a Democrat representing District 13, came out publicly to an outpouring of support on social media in 2016 while he was already serving in office.
The Bronx is known for some high-profile anti-LGBTQ rhetoric from politicians. Former Bronx City Council Member Rev. Ruben Diaz Sr. accused the City Council of being “controlled by the homosexual community” in a Spanish-language interview on a show for cab drivers in 2019. Former City Council Member Fernando Cabrera in 2014 praised the country of Uganda for its stance on homosexuality— a country with some of the harshest punishments for same-sex relations in the world.
Sanchez said he was aware that his identity might have been seen negatively.
“We ran in a generally conservative district where these social issues could have played out in a very ugly and nasty way,” Sanchez said. “But we made sure that we ran a campaign focused on the issues and not on identity politics and I think that really resonated through.”
But, Sanchez said that voters in the district cared more about his core message of “cleaning the damn streets” because he built his platform based on what he was hearing from constituents.
“ Clearly with the mandate that you saw that we got from the voters, I don’t think that [being gay] was a real top of mind issue,” Sanchez said.
He said being a queer elected official didn’t just mean representing queer Bronxites and that being a Bronx representative also meant advocating for the LGBTQ+ Bronx community.
”I think there’s a huge responsibility not only on myself, but on all of the electeds across New York City to really stand up for those that are most marginalized, especially in the face of this federal administration,” Sanchez said. “Making sure that we’re showing what we can do when we stand together instead of attacking each other.”
