Antonio Reynoso has spent the closing weeks of the NY-7 race rolling out a platform one plank at a time, on a campaign tour he calls “Real Fights, Real Results.” Put the pieces together and it is one of the most expansive progressive agendas in the four-way Democratic primary to replace Nydia Velazquez: a wealth tax built to actually shrink billionaires’ fortunes, a plan to abolish ICE, an insurance code for a disease most health plans do not recognize, and the decriminalization of sex work.
Start with the money, because that is where Reynoso started his tour. He is running on a wealth tax of 5 percent a year on fortunes above $50 million and 10 percent a year on fortunes above $250 million, which his campaign estimates would raise roughly $6.8 trillion over ten years while leaving more than 99.9 percent of Americans untouched. The point, his campaign is explicit about, is not just revenue. Reynoso says he wants wealth “taxed at rates that reduce the net worth of the ultra-wealthy,” a yearly levy meant to drain the biggest fortunes, not just skim them. “Working people in Brooklyn and Queens are paying higher effective tax rates than billionaires who use insider loopholes to hide their fortunes,” he said in announcing the plan. Around it he wants to close the carried-interest and “mega Roth IRA” loopholes, tax capital gains like wages for the ultra-rich, strengthen the estate tax, restore IRS enforcement, and overturn Citizens United.
On immigration, the third platform of the tour, Reynoso went furthest. Standing with members of Make the Road Action, he called for a pathway to citizenship for millions of undocumented immigrants, an end to ICE enforcement and a move toward abolition, and passage of the New Way Forward Act to dismantle what he calls the prison-to-deportation pipeline. He wants to cut ICE and CBP funding, open congressional investigations into deaths in custody and unconstitutional raids, and subpoena tech companies like Palantir over their role in immigration surveillance. The plan also folds in healthcare for immigrants regardless of status, restored asylum protections, the PRO Act for immigrant workers, and an end to federally funded policing in schools. “Washington has spent decades criminalizing immigrants while letting corporations and politicians profit off fear,” Reynoso said. “That ends now.” Blanca, a Queens resident and Make the Road Action member, said his platform “shows that he is prepared to take our stories to Washington.”
