Jose Vega returns to UK Column after more than a year, ahead of the US midterms where he again challenges Ritchie Torres in the Bronx.
This time his campaign took a two-pronged approach, to run in the Democratic primary and on the general election ballot. Once again he gathered more than 15,000 signatures to do it and took six percent in the June primary.
The discussion covers the confrontational interventions for which Vega is known — AOC, Mike Pompeo, Kamala Harris and Hakeem Jeffries among his targets — and why he believes that kind of public challenge lends credibility money cannot buy.
He explains his slogan, Declare Independence, as wider than to step away from political parties: it is a call to break out of the narrative that dictates what people think they are permitted to believe. He argues Congress should be replaced wholesale by 25 to 35 year olds, sets out his account of how AIPAC identifies and funds politicians early in their careers, and points to Section 219 of the NDAA, which would deepen US–Israeli military and intelligence integration, as the immediate test of whether ordinary people can force their representatives to act.
Vega's campaign: votevega.nyc