The New York Working Families Party, which holds significant sway in local Democratic primaries, is throwing its weight behind Justin Brannan’s comptroller campaign, the group’s first citywide endorsement in this year’s election cycle.
Brannan, a term-limited City Council member representing Brooklyn, is squaring off against Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine in June’s Democratic comptroller primary, and the WFP endorsement gives Brannan a big boost as the campaign season heats up.
The WFP, a powerhouse of progressive politics, is known for launching extensive get-out-the-vote efforts for its candidates, including door-to-door canvassing. If he wins June’s primary, Brannan, who chairs the Council’s Finance Committee, will also get his name on the WFP line on November’s general election ballot thanks to the endorsement.
“Justin knows how to listen to people across the political spectrum without abandoning a commitment to working families,” Ana María Archila and Jasmine Gripper, WFP’s co-directors, told the Daily News in a statement that also credited him for being “a fighter for workers and their families year after year in his role negotiating the city’s budget.”
Brannan has received the WFP endorsement for his previous Council campaigns, and he called it a “true honor” to have the party’s backing in the comptroller race, too.
“As we face an existential threat from Donald Trump and his band of unelected oligarchs, I will be a bulldog fighting for working people and I’m proud to do it side by side with the Working Families Party,” he said after touting his role in reversing deep budget cuts enacted by Mayor Adams.
Levine, an ex-Council member, has netted WFP’s endorsement for some of his previous campaigns, a fact Archila acknowledged.
“We are proud that the two people that are the main candidates for comptroller are people who had at some point the seal of approval of the WFP,” she told The News.
For his comptroller bid, Levine has been endorsed by influential politicians like Reps. Jerry Nadler and Dan Goldman. He has also by far raised the most cash in the race to date, sitting on more than $2.3 million, most of it public matching funds.
The Brannan endorsement marks the kickoff for WFP’s operations in the 2025 election cycle. Archila said the party will start hitting the streets for Brannan as soon as this week as part of the ballot petitioning process.
The comptroller’s race is competitive because incumbent Brad Lander is foregoing a reelection run to challenge Adams in June’s mayoral primary instead.
The party’s expected to endorse in the mayoral primary, too. The party has already said that as part of that endorsement it will urge all voters to not rank Adams anywhere on their ballots as the embattled mayor remains politically wounded amid the Trump administration’s controversial effort to drop his corruption indictment.