As Hillary Clinton Draws a Crowd at Co-op City Rally, The Bronx Becomes An Unlikely Battleground For The Presidency of Our Nation

Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr introduces Hillary Clinton.
Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr introduces Hillary Clinton.

At 3PM in the Co-op City neighborhood of The Bronx, one wouldn’t think that a presidential candidate, let alone of the stature of Hillary Clinton, was coming to the area for a political rally.

Roughly 50 people were standing in like compared to the thousands that were lined up for Bernie Sanders rally in St Mary’s Park two weeks ago.

That rally saw almost half of Co-op City’s population of 50,000 with about 18,500 supporters but here in the northeast Bronx only about 700 had gathered by 7:15PM just minutes before the event began.

Attendees were anxious and angry as they had to endure a long wait and many were seniors who couldn’t find seating and had to stand during the event.

“This is the worst political event I’ve ever attended,” shouted a woman in disgust as she was finally let into the auditorium and saw that seating was extremely limited.

And indeed this was acknowledged by NYS Senator Ruth Hassell-Thompson when she took the stage and asked folks to please be patient and she mentioned how her seniors, “had to wait outside.”

Unlike Bernie’s rally which only had one Bronx elected official—NYS Assemblyman Luis Sepulveda who is the only one endorsing Sanders—Hillary had a bevy of Bronx elected officials including Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr, Bronx Democratic Party chair Marcos Crespo, Congressman Eliot Engel, Councilman Andy King, and also NYS Assemblyman Michael Benedetto.

Councilman Andy King took jabs at Bernie Sanders calling him "BS". The councilman also pleaded with millennials to vote for Hillary.
Councilman Andy King took jabs at Bernie Sanders calling him “BS”. The councilman also pleaded with millennials to vote for Hillary.

The last two took serious jabs at Bernie Sanders with Councilman King crassly calling Senator Bernie Sanders “BS” by his initials and stating that, “that’s all ‘the other’ candidate stands for…BS” which received a thunderous applause from the audience.

King pleaded with millennials—the group of voters that have overwhelmingly supported Sanders—to please consider voting for Hillary.

Finally, when Hillary was escorted on stage by Ruben Diaz Jr, the crowd was so anxious that several shouted for him to, “LET HER SPEAK!” to which he quipped, “Let your borough president say a few things before the next president of The United States speaks”.

Hillary Clinton spoke for perhaps 15-20 minutes which was much shorter than her Democratic rival and during her speech she emphasized her ties to The Bronx and New York but for someone who often tries to be a separate person from her husband and President Bill Clinton, she referred to his campaigning in The Bronx several times.

But one thing’s for sure is that The Bronx has all of a sudden become an unlikely rallying point during the weeks leading up to New York State’s primary on April 19th.

Never in our borough’s history have so many candidates flocked to The Bronx, and in the case of Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton, let alone multiple times.

However, it is only to those not familiar with the Bronx narrative that would actually believe that our borough would play an unlikely role in the election of our nation’s president in 2016.

Democratic Presidential Candidate Hillary Clinton speaks to about 700 individuals in Co-op city.
Democratic Presidential Candidate Hillary Clinton speaks to about 700 individuals in Co-op city.

You see, The Bronx’s story is as American as it gets. It’s one filled with a golden era, a great decline, and a transformative rebirth by the resiliency of its people.

If we were a city in our own right, we’d be the 9th largest in America and that’s nothing to sneeze at. The Bronx is often referred to as the most Democratic county in the nation and indeed The Bronx delivered the highest percentage of votes to Obama than any other county in the country.

Next week’s primary election will be interesting and will go down in history. Who will the victor be? One never knows even though polls have Hillary Clinton ahead of Bernie Sanders, however, Sanders has eaten away considerably at her lead.

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Ed García Conde

Ed García Conde is a life-long Bronxite who spends his time documenting the people, places, and things that make the borough a special place in the hopes of dispelling the negative stereotypes associated with The Bronx. His writings are often cited by mainstream media and is often consulted for his expertise on the borough's rich history.