Experience and Qualifications
Rev. Michael Blake was named after Jamaican Prime Ministers Michael Manley and Alexander Bustamante. Michael’s public service began when he was trained by then Senator Barack Obama in the 2006 Yes We Can program and worked on both Obama campaigns. Michael worked for President Obama as his White House Director of African American, Minority and Women Business and local elected outreach. Michael Blake also served as the Vice Chair, Democratic National Committee. Michael Blake returned to The Bronx and served as State Assembly Member for the 79th Assembly District from 2014 to 2020, where he championed Raise The Age, MWBE Prompt Pay, Diversity In Medicine and made New York the first state to create a My Brother's Keeper program, ecuring more than $74 million for Black and Brown boys and young men.
Community Involvement
Assistant Pastor, Union Grove Missionary Baptist Church. Brother of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc., 100 Black Men & Prince Hall Masons
Education
P.S. 79, JHS 118, DeWitt Clinton High School, Northwestern University
Party Endorsements
Democratic clubs and progressive party organizations: New York State Federation of Democratic Women, Fordham College Democrats, Jim Owles Liberal Democratic Club, Three Bridges Democratic Club (3BDC), Muslim Democratic Club of New York, New York Progressive Action Network (NYPAN). Labor: UNITE HERE Local 100; AFSCME DC37 Locals 372, 1359, 2627, 1407; Head Start Local 95; Alliance of South Asian American Labor (ASAAL). Advocacy and Community: Citizens Against AIPAC Corruption, NY Communities
Campaign Phone
(718)362-2192
Campaign Instagram
michaelblakeforcongress
Campaign YouTube
(1) Affordability. We will lower rent, groceries and gas prices. We will end using credit scores, increase income limits and create a Local Median Income for housing. We will Protect Medicaid for Seniors and achieve Medicare For All. We will hold people accountable to fully restore NYCHA. We must have Federal Universal Childcare, Green New Deal and high paying jobs with benefits and pension.
(2) Democracy and Human rights: We Deserve Better. We will restore Black and Brown voting rights. We must reject AIPAC. We will end this War and Genocide that is costing us lives and rising our gas and grocery prices. We need Supreme Court reform, to pass the John Lewis Voting Rights act, reject SAVE ACT that attacks women’s voting power and codify reproductive rights.
(3) Protect immigrants. As the son of Jamaican immigrants, we must abolish and prosecute ICE, repeal the Laken Riley Act that increases deportations (designate schools & community as safe havens) and lawyers at immigration hearings
The federal government has a clear duty to ensure free, fair, and uncorrupted elections. Citizens United was a profound mistake. The flood of corporate, super-PAC, AIPAC, and dark money since the decision has drowned out the voices of working people.
I support overturning Citizens United through a constitutional amendment if necessary. In the meantime, I will work to pass the DISCLOSE Act to require full donor disclosure, public financing of federal elections modeled on New York City's 8-to-1 small-donor matching program, strengthen the Federal Election Commission with real enforcement teeth, end congressional stock trading with full divestment for Members and their immediate families, and close the revolving-door loopholes that turn Congress into a feeder for corporate and defense industries.
The Member of Congress for the poorest district in America should be funded and feel most accountable to the district’s constituents, not to the industries that profit from its poverty.
Louisiana vs. Callais is devastating for Black people with the potential loss of 19 Black Congressional members and certainly makes its voting more challenging for Black people. The Voting Rights Act, particularly Section 2, has been the foundation of nearly every meaningful gain in Black and Latino political representation for sixty years. As states race to redraw Black districts, this harm is coming into reality quickly.
As a Black Reverend running to represent one of the most racially diverse congressional districts in New York, I will champion the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act to restore the preclearance protections the Court gutted in Shelby County v. Holder, and the Freedom to Vote Act to set strong federal floors for voting access. I will fight against racial discrimination in voting and work to reinstate the necessary protections of the Voting Rights Act.
End this War and Genocide that is costing us lives and raising our gas and grocery prices. My opponent supports this War, and I do not!
Climate change is the defining challenge of our generation. Frontline communities in The Bronx pay the highest price, with childhood asthma rates among the worst in America because we breathe more diesel than any borough.
I will champion a Green New Deal that puts millions of Americans to work building clean energy and electrified public transit. I will pass federal investment in retrofitting buildings for energy efficiency, cutting both emissions and utility bills for working families. I will work to end the wars that destabilize global energy markets and inflate gas prices for American families. I will pass full federal funding for clean transit including Penn Station Access to bring Metro-North to The Bronx, environmental justice remediation including capping the Cross-Bronx Expressway and decommissioning Hunts Point peaker plants, reinstate the
I support active U.S. engagement in the United Nations, NATO, and the International Criminal Court.
The UN remains the indispensable forum for global cooperation on peace, public health, climate, refugees, and human rights. I will fight to fully fund our UN obligations and restore U.S. funding for UNRWA and the World Health Organization.
NATO is the bedrock of transatlantic security. I oppose any effort to weaken the alliance, condition our commitments on political favors, or treat our allies as transactional.
The International Criminal Court is the world's primary mechanism for holding war criminals accountable. The U.S. should support the ICC's work, including its proceedings against those facing arrest warrants such as Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, who must be held accountable. The U.S. must cooperate with the ICC’s investigations and ratify the Rome Statute.
We must reject AIPAC's influence in elections.
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