Rep. Nydia Velazquez sent out a fundraising email boasting that she’s fought to wrest power from “old white men.”
But there was a problem with the pitch: Some of the people she’s soliciting for donations to her re-election campaign are … old white men.
“When I was first elected to Congress, I ran against the wishes of the party machine that wanted to keep power in the hands of the old white men who had previously had it,” said Velazquez, the first female of Puerto Rican descent elected to Congress, in the Thursday message.
Her political director, Fernando Ramos, reinforced the “old white men” theme in a subsequent email fundraising pitch on Friday.
“Nydia ran for Congress to take on the old white men who had power and to deliver results and representation for the people of her community,” Ramos said.
“She never stopped fighting — and that’s why throughout Manhattan, Queens, and Brooklyn, if you talk about La Luchardora, everyone knows you’re talking about Nydia.”
Velazquez’s 7th Congressional District takes in neighborhoods from the boroughs of Brooklyn, the Lower East Side of Manhattan and Queens — which includes residents of all races and ethnic backgrounds.
“Her logic is as thin as her nearly three-decade record on non-accomplishment,” fumed one older white Democrat who received the e-solicitation.
Also, old white men are among the potential leading candidates vying for the party’s nomination to take on President Trump’s re-election bid: Bernie Sanders has already announced his candidacy, and former Vice President Joe Biden and ex-New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg are weighing a run. They are all in their 70s.
“Nydia has always stood for diversity, taken on entrenched interests and, yes, when she first ran, old white men had a chokehold on much of local politics,” a spokesperson for Velazquez said. “She’ll always stand for all working people in her community.”