Andre Easton

Andre Easton's career experience includes working as a high school teacher.[1]

Who are you? Tell us about yourself.

I am an educator, father, husband, and socialist, running for Congress to represent New York’s 15th Congressional District. I am a lifelong Bronx resident and have taught in South Bronx public schools for 13 years.

My campaign is building a grassroots movement in the Bronx for socialism. The Bronx deserves lower rent, higher wages, clean air, free healthcare, fully funded schools, and a future that belongs to us — not the billionaires, not the landlords, but the workers who make society run.

Please list below 3 key messages of your campaign. What are the main points you want voters to remember about your goals for your time in office?

For one in three Bronx households, over half of all income is spent on rent. While rent, grocery, and gas prices go up, our wages stay the same, keeping our families in crisis mode.

Our rent will keep skyrocketing as long as our homes are controlled by corporate landlords fixated only on ever-growing profit. The only solution is to take the profit motive out of our housing system entirely.

I will fight to repeal the Faircloth Amendment, the federal ban that's blocked new public housing construction for decades.

New public housing builds will not only be good quality and fully modernized, but also truly affordable, with rents that cost us no more than 20% of our income.No one should work full-time and still live in poverty, but that is the reality for many in New York's 15th Congressional District — where more than 30% of our neighbors live below the poverty line.

Since the 1970s, worker productivity has more than doubled, but our wages have barely moved. That's why, on day one, I will fight to raise the federal minimum wage to $30 an hour. Families cannot be expected to keep up with inflation and corporate price gouging on paychecks that haven't budged in over a decade.In Congress, I will demand the bloated U.S. military budget be slashed by 90%. I will also fight to end all U.S. aid to Israel. Those funds must be reallocated toward the resources our people desperately need.

In the two years following October 7, 2023, the U.S. sent Israel nearly $22 billion in military financing. Year after year, Democratic or Republican, hundreds of billions of dollars are poured into U.S. "defense," but we can hardly look at the state of the world or our country and say it is any more secure.

NY-15's high poverty rate and poor health outcomes could be fixed immediately by reallocating the funds we use for war and genocide.

As Tupac said, “they got money for wars, but can't feed the poor.”

What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about?

Education: Having taught English for 13 years in the South Bronx, I know our education system is in crisis. I'm fighting for free childcare and pre-K, modern classrooms, more teachers and counselors, and fully funded arts education and after-school programs.

Healthcare: In the Bronx, we are already rent-burdened and wage-squeezed. Medical debt turns this everyday struggle into a crisis. Once in office, I will fight for free and universal healthcare.

Housing: We must guarantee housing as a human right by building brand-new public housing units. For individuals suffering from mental health issues or addiction, I will fight for free healthcare and treatment.

Who do you look up to? Whose example would you like to follow, and why?

I look up to my father. He is the blueprint for how I understand masculinity, commitment, and the ability to be a servant to my own family and community.

Two other New Yorkers have deeply influenced me. Malcolm X showed me that through our own journeys, education, and commitment to transformation, each of us has the ability to change the world and return nutrients to the soil of the traditions that birthed us. He had a sharp, clear assessment of the world. He built organizations, intervened in history, and was still open to being transformed when presented with new information.

Assata Shakur threw herself into her studies, became involved in the struggle for change, and committed herself to uplifting her people and challenging the systems that were harming her community and people around the world.

What characteristics or principles are most important for an elected official?

We need leaders who answer to working people, not the billionaires. Our leaders must be unafraid to demand what working people need, regardless of what the political establishment or their billionaire donors might want.

What do you believe are the core responsibilities for someone elected to this office?

Being a socialist means accountability to the people, not to billionaire donors or establishment parties. We need people in office who will be fearless advocates for building more public housing, fully funding our public schools, fighting for free healthcare and childcare, getting ICE out of our communities, and winning a $30 minimum wage.

What legacy would you like to leave?

I want to leave a legacy that exemplifies a willingness and fearlessness to enter into struggle alongside others to change the world.

What was your very first job? How long did you have it?

My first official job was at McDonald's, I was sweeping up at a barbershop before that, but McDonald's was my first real paycheck. I made the minimum wage at the time: $5.15 an hour. I was 17, a junior in high school, and eventually I got fired because I couldn't make my 1:30 p.m. shift and go to school at the same time.

What is something that has been a struggle in your life?

Correcting injustice has been the thread running through every stage of my life. Most of the conflicts I've gotten into came from trying to correct something I felt was wrong, and that impulse still lives in me today.

District 15 is ripe for the kind of transformation a socialist system could bring to the people who live here. That's my struggle now. And we're going to keep struggling until the people who deserve the power, the workers who create all the value in our society, control where that value goes and what it produces.

What organizations or individuals have endorsed your campaign?

Kristen Richardson Jordan, former NYC City Council member

Kshama Sawant, former Seattle City Council member

Kujegi Camara, West African community leader

Fordham Graduate Student Workers Union

What was the first historical event that happened in your lifetime that you remember?

It wasn't the first major historical event of my lifetime, but as a New Yorker, I consider 9/11 the most impactful. It was the end of one world and the beginning of another. We are still grappling with the impacts of the security state and the war economy that have been built up in its aftermath. The normalized Islamophobia and generalized suspicion of people from different backgrounds that were inflamed and promoted after 9/11 continue to shape our country today.