For Immediate Release

June 25, 2012 — New York, NY — Today the 504 Democratic Club, which represents the needs and interests of New Yorkers with disabilities, announced that it is endorsing Joyce Johnson for Congress in the 13th Congressional District. Citing Joyce’s stellar track record advocating and mobilizing on behalf of important issues impacting these communities, Club President Chris Noel stated that she is the best candidate to represent the people of Upper Manhattan and the Bronx on Capitol Hill.

“The 504 North Star Democratic Club voted to endorse for the 13th Congressional District, candidate Joyce Johnson, based on her views and experiences in dealing with the growing population of seniors and people with disabilities in Harlem, Washington Heights, and the Bronx communities,” said Noel. “As a candidate who cares about the needs, and desires to help improve access to affordable housing and healthcare for this vital group of people with disabilities and seniors, we applaud her efforts to do so once elected into office”.

About today’s endorsement, Joyce said, “I am grateful for the support of the 504 Democratic Club, an organization that has long been an agent of change in our communities. Their announcement today further underscores that District voters are ready for a new era of leadership, one that will put them first above political self-interests. Once elected to office I will not waste any time getting to work uniting our District, and fighting for the issues most important to everyone, such as job creation, immigration reform, bettering our schools, and protecting and advancing the rights of seniors, people with disabilities, women and people of color. I urge everyone to get out tomorrow and vote for me, the only candidate in this race who will make Congress work for them.”

Over the next 24 hours, Joyce will continue meeting with voters across the 13th District about the concerns most important to them. Today at 5:30pm she will be greeting strap-hangers at 125th Street and Malcolm X Boulevard.

####

Today’s DNAInfo feature on my campaign provides a glimpse into why I’ve chosen to run for Congress. I believe that you deserve better than what you’ve been getting. I am running because I know how to get things done. I did it as a public servant and as a corporate leader. Being a good leader is in my blood and in my heart. I am running because of my determination to make Congress finally work for you.

Click here to read the full story by journalist Jeff Mays.

Will you help us get there? Your collective contributions will take us all the way. To contribute online today visit us at electjoycejohnson.com/donate.

Under the current leadership, our communities have been hemorrhaging jobs, affordable housing has sharply dwindled, and our education system has become an embarrassment. Our District must shift course urgently.

This is why I need you to join our campaign. Change cannot happen without you.

With your support, I will be the person to lead us to that change. As your Congresswoman I will remain focused on finding solutions and showing results. I will not treat the elected seat like a throne, but rather as a job working for you. I am in this to serve and represent your interests, not to advance my own personal legacy.

Please remind your family, friends, and neighbors that the Democratic Primaries are this coming Tuesday, June 26. Help them plan ahead by identifying nearby voting locations, and carpooling to the polls if necessary. But be sure to get out there! This race is too important to miss out on.

Can I count on your support?

Thank you,
Joyce Johnson
Working for Progress, Together

It’s not easy to get New Yorkers’ attention, and at a subway station at 5 p.m. on a gorgeous Friday afternoon, it’s nearly impossible.

But that’s what Joyce Johnson, a candidate for the 13th Congressional District seat, did last week.

Standing outside of the train station at Lexington Avenue and 96th Street, Johnson, 64, handed out campaign literature and talked up her second attempt at the seat held for four decades by incumbent Rep. Charles Rangel.

Some straphangers angrily waved Johnson off, while others took a flier without looking her in the eye and kept walking.

But Johnson was persistent. Before long, she struck up conversations with the people she considers to be her core constituency: Women.

The full piece can be read here.

Promoting equal pay for women is a priority for Johnson, and she said that voters in her district are especially affected by pay disparity, as so many women are supporting their families on one paycheck. She also said she’s well accustomed to fighting for women’s rights—she had to fight to assert her own authority in the workplace years ago, when she became the first woman in a management position at a Seagram’s distillery in 1970. She faced a lot of opposition at first, managing a union crew that was barely accustomed to working with African Americans, let alone taking orders from a woman, but eventually rose through the ranks at Seagram’s and worked for their corporate office.

Read the entire piece here.

This is one of the most critical issues facing our District today, not which elected representative deserves another term over another. While the political establishment in Harlem has remained focused on sustaining its own self-interests, the economic outlook for families throughout Upper Manhattan and the Bronx has continued to flounder. People are tired of their leaders telling them they sympathize with their plight, then turning around and doing nothing. We need change in our District, the community knows it and the incumbent leadership does too.

This data also helps to underscore that, despite the divisive rhetoric that’s been a mainstay during most of this race, the issues facing Black and Latino Americans are largely the same: economic inequality, lack of job opportunities, poor schools, unequal rights. The 13th C.D. needs leadership that is capable of working across the aisle to unite people of all races, ethnicities, genders, and political agendas. This united front is the only way that we will collectively win the future.

What we need are leaders who are centrally focused on finding solutions to what is ailing the community. We need investments in youth employment and job training programs so that our young people are adequately prepared to enter the workforce. We need to seek out economic development opportunities that will more evenly spread the bread and butter that are New York’s hospitality and tourism industry and ensure that people in the community have access to jobs resulting from those projects. We must give small business owners strong incentives to hire people from the community, so that we’re able to keep jobs here and fuel the entrepreneurial spirit that has long been a staple of local economic sustainability.

Next Tuesday, 13th District residents will cast their vote for the person who can best accomplish these goals and set Upper Manhattan back on track towards true and lasting recovery. Your votes will represent the very real possibility for a better, brighter future for the community, city, and nation. If you elect me to Congress, I promise you that will be the person to help get us there. I hope I can count on your support on Primary Day.