Mayoral hopeful Kathryn Garcia got a significant endorsement in Queens Thursday as local Assemblywoman Nily Rozic — who had initially endorsed City Comptroller Scott Stringer — shifted her support to the former sanitation commissioner.
Rozic had rescinded her support for Stringer after a woman came forward accusing him of sexual harassment last week.
Standing under the iconic Unisphere in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, Rozic said this mayoral election was the most important in her lifetime, and that it was critical to have someone in charge who has the experience and knowledge to cut through bureaucratic red tape and get things done.
“And that’s Kathryn Garcia, without a doubt in my mind,” Rozic said. “Our city faces an uphill battle in the recovery from the pandemic, and we really need experienced leadership that won’t let anything stand in their way of getting the job done.”
Garcia, who was responsible for an army of 10,000 sanitation workers as the department’s commissioner, also garnered an endorsement earlier in the day from Manhattan state Senator Liz Krueger.
Garcia thanked Rozic, the youngest woman ever elected to the state Assembly, for her support, praising her as an outspoken advocate for working and middle-class New Yorkers.
The native Brooklynite thanked Rozic for tackling the rise in hate crimes by promoting education against hate crimes in New York City communities and said that it was important to encourage and streamline reporting of hate crimes.
“I was standing with her just this weekend at another rally against Asian hate crimes. We need to make sure that they are reported, that they are enforced strongly, but that we also are embedding in all of our education the curriculum that talks about what every New Yorker, regardless of their religion or their ethnicity, what they have contributed to building the city,” Garcia said.
