Press release:
Today, New York State Senator Rob Ortt, Army combat veteran, and candidate for New York’s 27th Congressional District criticized the New York State Working Families Party for calling on candidates to “stop defending taxpayers.” Ortt called on Nate McMurray and all Democrats running for office to publicly declare that they will not seek the Working Families Party line in an election, and to publicly denounce this ridiculous statement.
“New York’s 27th Congressional District is home to hundreds of thousands of ‘taxpayers’ who work hard every day to support their families,” Ortt said. “In fact, these taxpayers pay the highest taxes in the country and are forced to fund the radical proposals from groups like the Working Families Party including free college tuition and driver’s licenses for illegal aliens.
"Any politician who can’t speak out in opposition to these absurd comments from the Working Families Party does not deserve to represent the hardworking taxpayers in any elected position.”
The Working Families Party, backed by progressive donors, often aligns itself with candidates running as Democrats. In the party’s 2020 questionnaire, they state:
Messages that frame "taxpayers" as an aggrieved or marginalized group promotes an anti-tax, anti-government worldview that is often used to justify disinvestment and austerity policies. "Taxpayer" has also become a racially coded term designed to appeal to white individuals and reinforce the misconception that they are paying taxes to support the needs of people (often implied to be non-white) who don’t pay taxes. Will you avoid messaging that centers "taxpayers" or "tax burdens" and instead talk about "public funding" and the public as a whole?
The New York State Working Families Party has already endorsed several candidates for 2020, including for U.S. President (Elizabeth Warren), U.S. Congress (Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez), and Democratic candidates for the New York State Legislature. In 2018, Nate McMurray ran for Congress on the Working Families Party line. Ortt called on all candidates running for office to denounce the Working Families Party and refuse their support.
“This is an absolute insult to every overtaxed working family throughout New York,” Ortt said. “Anyone who seeks the Working Families Party support is clearly stating that they do not work for the men and women they are elected to represent, but rather a political party tasked with fulfilling the agenda of out-of-touch special interest groups and extreme regressive advocates.”
