Carlos Menchaca, First Mexican American Elected as Candidate to City Council

By Claudio Iván Remeseira | Posted Thursday, September 12, 2013 at 1:56 pm ET. Last modified: Sat., Sept 14, 2013 at 12:21 pm ET

Photo Courtesy Carlos Menchaca

Carlos Menchaca made history Tuesday night as he became the first Mexican-American ever elected as a candidat to New York City public office and the first openly gay public official in Brooklyn. Menchaca defeated three-term incumbent Sara Gonzalez in City Council District 38, which covers Red Hook, Sunset Park, Windsor Terrace, Borough Park, Gowanus and parts of Park Slope and Bay Ridge.  

“I am proud of the work we did together,” said Menchaca, 33, at the victory celebration at Sunset Park's Saint Jacobi Evangelical Lutheran Church. Menchaca was supported by local Democratic powerbrokers like Rep. Nydia Velázquez  and received the endorsement among other organizations of 32BJ SEIU, the property workers union that also endorsed mayoral candidate Bill de Blasio. Similarly to de Blasio, Menchaca ran on a progressive platform, vowing to address the needs of the working class and the immigrant communities. 

Menchaca's victory in the September 10th primaries was part of another larger phenomenon: the takeover of the borough's Democratic party by a new generation of young, left-leaning politicians. Perhaps the most signficant of those changes was the triumph of 30-year-old Antonio Reynoso over old-time Democratic boss Vito Lopez, who was recently at the center of a sexual harassment scandal. Reynoso has been aid to councilwoman Diana Reyna, a former protegee of Lopez's, now bitterly opposed to the disgraced politico.

See full results of September 10 primaries here

Read more at Voices of NY and the Daily News.