A sitdown with Assembly member-elect Jordan Wright
At this year’s June primary Harlem native Jordan J. G. Wright, 29, scored the coveted 70th Assembly seat to replace longtime Assemblymember Inez Dickens. He sat down with Amsterdam News to talk politics, family legacy, expectations for the general election, and his vision for the future.
Wright arrived last Friday afternoon at the crowded and picturesque NBHD Brulee cafe in Harlem, owned by entrepreneur Duane Chan Shue. Despite the oppressive heatwave in the city, he donned a gray suit and tucked into one of the outside tables. His mood was light and airy, the portrait of a candidate that has temporarily put down the burden of campaigning for office in New York to celebrate his big win.
The race leading up to the primaries was packed with a wide range of candidates. Wright maintained an early lead once the polls closed on June 25, and ultimately gained 48.27% of the vote, according to the Board of Elections (BOE). His opponents finished as follows: Maria Ordoñez, 29.68%; Shana Harmongoff, 16.81%; and Craig Schley, 4.93%.
Besides being one of the youngest candidates in the race, Wright was a standout most notably because he is the son of Manhattan Democratic Party leader and former Assemblymember Keith Wright, who represented the 70th Assembly District in Harlem from 1992 to 2016. Wright’s grandfather was State Supreme Court Judge Bruce Wright.
He was also fresh off running a successful campaign to get Councilmember Yusef Salaam elected and is Salaam’s chief of staff.
Wright had come under fire for his family connections and endorsements from the old guard of Harlem. Dickens, former Congressmember Charles Rangel, as well as District Leaders Wilma Brown and William Allen, and of course his father, all endorsed Wright early. That allowed him to be well-funded and highly publicized in comparison to other more grassroots candidates.
“I got elected because the people of Harlem wanted to elect me. I got elected because 48% of the electorate said, ‘Hey I’m voting for Jordan Wright,’” he said, when asked if he thought it was family legacy or merit that had gotten him this far.
“And I think that comes at the virtue of the support that I received. I think that comes from my work on the councilmember’s campaign and in the councilmember’s office. And I think that the voter’s voice is the voter’s voice and that’s never going to change,” he said.
Wright has undoubtedly grown up with famed Black and Brown political figures in Harlem and benefitted from the sheer privilege of having those people in his life. He has fond memories, deep ties to the community, and a plethora of stories to tell.
“My father was being honored by the Harlem Junior Tennis program growing up. He was getting an award like a lifetime achievement award of some kind and he couldn’t accept it because he was in Albany doing the budget,” said Wright, recalling an encounter he had with late Mayor David Dinkins as a teenager. Wright’s father asked Dinkins if he could accept the award for him and bring his son on stage. Dinkins agreed, and at the last minute shoved him into the limelight by himself instead.
“I go to help the mayor. He looks at me, shakes my hand and says, ‘go get him tiger’ and sends me up by myself,” said Wright. “That was my first real like public speaking engagement.”
He’s consistently expressed that his path to political office is driven by his own passion to serve the Harlem he loves and has grown up with. He has a strong community backing in the polls to support it, turning in a record number of designating petitions on the very first day of filing. Family legacy or not, he admitted he does get nervous about the job ahead of him. He’s hopeful about making his own connections in Albany, tapping into his existing resources, and coordinating with Salaam and other Harlem electeds to prioritize community needs.
But first, he’s focused on campaigning into the November election and maintaining his day job as Salaam’s chief of staff. “I’m still doing work with the community. I’m still in the neighborhood,” said Wright. “Why would I leave Harlem? I’m here.”
During his campaign, Wright’s platform included housing, workforce development, education, mental health, and LGBTQ issues. And, as an environmental advocate, he said on the campaign trail that he would support the New York HEAT Act. He is committed to making cooling stations accessible within walking distance of highly vulnerable areas in the district, making buildings green-energy efficient, and wants to plant more trees.
“I think that the environment is something that I grew up worrying about my entire life. I grew up watching ‘An Inconvenient Truth.’ I grew up with Superstorm Sandy,” said Wright. “Not only what it did to my community but also to the city where people [live and] unfortunately their lives were lost. Those storms will become normal if we don’t really [tamp] down on the environmental issues that we have in the community today. And I think that I look forward to being a great voice for the environment.”
In speaking with future constituents, Wright said that many people talk about pushing for environmental justice in Harlem and for congestion pricing as of late.
Though it’s not all politics, all the time. Wright said he enjoys playing and watching basketball, and is a Jets and Yankees fan—even though his father is a big Mets fan. He likes to read biographies and enjoys the occasional video game in his downtime. “I haven’t been running as much as I’d like to, you know, having run for office,” he joked, sipping iced coffee from the cafe.
In order to stay grounded in his high stress line of work, Wright credits his mother, Susan, with teaching him how to meditate, pray, and generally enjoy the quiet. His family are longtime members of St. Philip’s Episcopal Church on West 134th Street.
“My dad was obviously in government. My mother was not,” said Wright. “So I learned a lot from my mother about how to just chill out, unplugging, detaching and doing what’s best for you at certain times.”
This year meanwhile, the state general election coincides with the presidential election on Tuesday, November 5, 2024. The matchup between incumbent President Joe Biden and ex-President Donald Trump has been an increasingly fraught and even violent affair. Dems have outright called for Biden to drop out of the race while an alleged registered Republican recently shot at Trump during one of his rallies.Wright, along with a contingent of Black voters and political clubs in the city, said they’re sticking with Biden as the candidate to win despite his wavering public support. They’ll be heading to the 2024 Democratic National Convention (DNC) in Chicago in August.A sitdown with Assemblymember-elect Jordan Wright
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