The 2018 victory of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is still reverberating through Queens with no example more clear than Tiffany Cabán prevailing at the polls in Tuesday’s primary for district attorney.
If the 31-year-old queer Latina can replicate her success in the general election, she will be the first new DA in the borough in over 28 years, succeeding the late Richard A. Brown.
The majority of the precincts had reported 39.6 of votes in favor as Cabán celebrated with a mass of supporters, including prominent elected officials, at LaBoom in Woodside. Her margin, however, is slim. She’s up about 1,100 votes on Queens Borough President Melinda Katz, who declined to concede and is opting to wait until all the paper ballots are counted.
”We built a campaign that said every community deserves justice,” Cabán said in front of her crowd of supporters at La Boom in Woodside. “We did it, y’all.”
“But we did it, yall.” @CabanForQueens pic.twitter.com/j8iJxqz3b1
— Mark Hallum (@MarkuuSan) June 26, 2019
A public defender only seven years out of law school, Cabán faced doubt as to her ability to lead an office of over 600 staff members. But along the campaign trail, she garnered high-profile endorsements from the likes of Ocasio-Cortez, Philadelphia DA Larry Krasner, and Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren.
But Cabán drew nationwide attention with a progressive platform that took an aggressive stance against mass incarceration and decriminalizing sex work.
Cabán also said she would not request cash bail from defendants, regardless of the crime.
