'Once-in-a-Generation Candidate' for Queens DA Tiffany Caban Counts Sanders, Warren, AOC as Supporters

Once an unknown, today Tiffany Caban has friends in high places.

"Tiffany Caban is a once-in-a-generation candidate who represents a full break from the politics of mass criminalization and mass incarceration plaguing our communities since the passage of the 1994 Crime Bill."
--Jennifer Epps-Addison

The candidate for District Attorney in the New York City borough of Queens has picked up a number of endorsements in the past two months leading up to New York's local elections on June 25, starting with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), the Congressional freshman sensation, on May 22.

"Our criminal justice system needs to change," Ocasio-Cortez toldThe New York Times in May. "New Yorkers deserve a seat at the table, and a champion who will fight to realign our priorities toward equal treatment under the law. If Tiffany Caban wins, things are going to change."

Caban continued racking up support Wednesday when she received public endorsements from the top two progressive candidates for the Democratic nomination for president, Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.). Warren made her endorsement public by tweet, saying she was "proud" to support the public defender and calling for her network to throw their weight behind the Queens candidates.

Half an hour later, Sanders's endorsement was reported by NY1's Gloria Pazmino.

"Like our campaign, Tiffany is taking on virtually the entire political establishment," said Sanders in a tweet. "And like our campaign, Tiffany has put together the kind of grassroots effort it takes to win."

In comment provided to The Washington Post reporter Dave Weigel, Caban said she had spoken to Sanders already but not at that point Warren.

The pair's support for Caban came less than 24 hours after The New York Timesannounced its endorsement of Caban.

"She would bring a perspective suited to one of the world's most diverse communities," the Times wrote, "one where elected officials have rarely reflected that reality."

A longtime public defender, Caban is running on a platform of progressive change that includes ending cash bail, closing the jail on Rikers Island, decriminalizing sex work, and ending drug prosecutions. Her campaign was seen as a long shot until this month.

It's a major reformist platform that could make Caban the most left-leaning D.A. in the country if achieved, as the Center for Popular Democracy Action's co-executive director Jennifer Epps-Addison said in a statement announcing the group's endorsement on June 14.

"Tiffany Caban is a once-in-a-generation candidate who represents a full break from the politics of mass criminalization and mass incarceration plaguing our communities since the passage of the 1994 Crime Bill," said Epps-Addison.

On Monday, Caban was joined on the trail by Philadelphia D.A. Larry Krasner, whose work to reduce incarceration rates and bring a progressive D.A.'s sensibility to a major metropolitan area was the first in a series of left-leaning prosecutors that have been elected across the country.

"Tiffany's history matches her words," Krasner said in a statement endorsing Caban.

Another prominent progressive D.A., Rachael Rollins of Massachusetts's Suffolk County, which includes Boston, expressed her support for Caban as well.

"This movement is like Halley's Comet," Rollins tweeted. "We don't get opportunities like this and bold change requires exceptional leadership."

Caban has been raising money over the past two weeks as well, with NY1 reporting that the campaign took in $233,000 over the last three weeks at an average of $51 a donation.

"We have the most Queens residents making individual donations in this race, far above what anybody else in this race is doing," said Caban.

That tracks with data analysis done by Boston's Bobby Constantino in early June, which showed Caban has many more donations from in the borough than most of her opponents, and the most overall. Those numbers indicate Caban, as Constantino argued, "is the strongest candidate in the race because she has the largest number of supporters eligible to vote in Queens."

During an appearance on Democracy Now! on Wednesday, Caban framed her campaign as a natural outgrowth of the work she'd done for her years in the public defender's office.

"We're in a moment of time where running for district attorney, becoming the district attorney, very much so feels like a continuation of the work that I have always done," said Caban.

Watch Caban's appearance: