Dianne Morales running to be the first Hispanic mayor of NYC

(Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)

By Delilah Alvarado

(NEW YORK) New York City mayoral candidate Dianne Morales continues to run on a progressive campaign as the first Afro-Latina candidate.

Brooklyn native Morales left her job as a former nonprofit executive in 2019 to run for mayor, according to NBC News. She was also recently the CEO of Phipps Neighborhoods, a Bronx-based nonprofit that provides affordable housing and social services to low-income families. She sat on Mayor Bill de Blasio's Community School advisory board and on the board of the Human Services Council and is also a founding member of the early education organization Jumpstart.

Morales pitches herself as a progressive candidate that seeks to reform the city government's priorities towards New Yorkers who need the most help.

One of her standing issues is defunding of the police, something many candidates have shied away from. She said that the killing of George Floyd at the hands of police made it possible for her “to be uncompromising” on her stances on policing. She reminds voters that New York City has the nation's largest police force.

Morales proposes allocating some of the police budgets to create a new government entity that responds to crises and crimes with different resources.

Morales also acknowledges a racial profiling problem in the force that she aims to tackle. She also wants to change the way police and immigration forces work together, in order to regain the trust of immigrants.

Morales believes that her background of being a Puerto Rican woman growing up in public housing in Brooklyn can make her stand out as a candidate. She is also a first-generation college student and holds two master's degrees – one from Harvard University and another from Columbia University.

“I am running because I want to position myself to actually be able to help create change,” she said. “It's important to me to stand up for what is right, no matter the cost.”

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