How ASAAL won the Queens Borough President Primary Election on June 23, 2020!

By Maf Misbah Uddin : The following nine pictures tells the story of Queens Borough President Election. But for those who generally don’t read from pictures here are the detail descriptions for them.

On January 31, 2019 Council member the Hon. Donovan Richards came to my office for a strategic planning session just not to run but on how to win the Presidency of the Worlds Borough known as the Queens election.

On March 30,  2019 we joined him for a fund raising on Donovan’s Birthday which was organized by the Advance Group headed by my friend Scott Levinson. The Advance Group is the well known political think tank that helps a candidate strategically to win an election. At the event we both looked at the cake, laughing, as if that was a victory celebration cake!

He joined in our inauguration ceremony of our ASAAL Queens Chapter Officers installation on May 2019 where he highlighted his mission for the Borough of Queens. He displayed his tenacity as he described his success as a City Council member from South East Queens.

On January 29, 2020  the ASAAL National Executive Council’s Screening Committee met all the four candidates as the Queens Chapter hosted the event at 165-23 Hillside Avenue! At the Screening all four candidates presented their vision for Queens in a very impressive way! We are proud that Queens has so many qualified candidates to be the Borough President.

What separated Donovan Richards is his down to earth presentation of himself and issues faced by the very communities in Queens that he is ready to lead! Born and raised in a housing project from immigrant parents with a humble beginning went to public schools graduating on time despite immense peer pressure surrounding him.

Above all Donovan has a fine family with a child to raise. He is bringing the best Queens Borough First Lady ever as  no one in Queens  ever remembers having one in their life time. We are all lucky to have a beautiful First Lady of Queens!

Once again I must say Donovan Richards is a humble man with a superb vision for Queens! His down to earth attitude towards the community makes him succeed in anything he undertakes! We believed in him and started working from the beginning.

He made us all laugh and immensely happy when he said, “my family and I are no different then a Bangladeshi typical family, a South Asian family and said just this week my father became  a citizen of this great country!” “I know your struggle first hand and I know how to bring everyone together to solve  the problems we face,” he added.

That week the ASAAL Screening Committee majority voted to endorse him officially. As said our endorsement means boots on the ground, our phones started calling, our gatherings in every corner started increasing, every night palm cards were distributed on the street and every store we could we entered.

Our phone banking team called all south Asian Queens residence then continued calling with data provided by the campaign until Election Day! Nothing is more important than contacting a prospective voters by door knocking, by hand shaking, and maki g a phone call. And we are good in all three of these that’s bring the victory in any election we undertook!

On February 28, 2020 we did a fund raising at ASAAL National Headquarters at 165-23 Hillside Avenue. Every ASAAL member
who participated brought a check or cash however small it was!

Then COVID-19 took over the World, including our life election included! We were brought down to a social media campaign. From May we started Zoom meetings then on June 18, 2020 ASAAL Queens and Jackson Heights Chapters volunteers jointly arranged a meeting with our candidate and  the next Borough President the Hon. Donovan Richards for over an hour.

After exchanging our mutual views we agreed to keep doing a winning campaign until every vote is cast and every vote is counted. And indeed, every vote count was done this week,  including absentee ballots giving the victory that we already celebrated with a birthday cake at the beginning of this campaign.

In his victory he expressed gratitude to all by saying, “My childhood friend Puba was murdered when I was 19 years old. I decided to get involved in my community after his death.  I Never imagined I would be here. Thank you @NYCCouncil for giving me a chance.  Kids like me don’t make it out of the hood”.

That may be true but ASAAL does not believe in that, you are the proof! If you can make it so the others can too. Now that you made it through let’s change the life of the rest of the kids in the hood – all the Puba’s in Queens – in the next eight years!

On July 19, 2020 we joined a peace rally with all Queens elected officials including Donovan Richards which is good but bringing socio-economic justice to the community will bring everlasting peace that we are rallying for!

President Donovan, we are with you knowing no cake for now, celebrations are virtual, we intend to go places with you and hope we all will eat that cake when, together, we reach the goal of changing our neighborhoods forever!

-Maf Misbah Uddin, President, International Executive Council, Alliance of South Asian American Labor-ASAAL