Politics
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Q&A
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July 2, 2025
From Kirsten Gillibrand (“she should resign”) to Eric Adams (“a power-hungry, egotistical man”) to the Democratic establishment, NYC’s Gen-Z political star doesn’t hold back.
New York City Council member Chi Ossé speaks at a rally in Brooklyn on May 24, 2025.
(Madison Swart / Hans Lucas / AFP via Getty Images)
Chi Ossé is the first Gen Z member of the New York City Council and one of the youngest elected officials in the country. Over the last few years, Ossé, 27, who represents Bedford-Stuyvesant and parts of Crown Heights, has risen to prominence thanks to his catchy and charismatic presence on social media. Using a string of viral videos, Ossé was able to rally nationwide support for his FARE Act legislation, which banned rental broker fees in New York City. He has also produced a series called “Why Shit Not Working,” which highlights systemic failures in city governance. In early 2025, Ossé became one of the most notable backers of Zohran Mamdani’s successful Democratic mayoral primary candidacy.
I spoke to Ossé on Tuesday about Mamdani’s victory, the November mayoral election, his social media strategy, the Democratic Party, and more. The interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
—Andrew Sciallo
Andrew Sciallo: Tell me about the generational split within the Democratic Party right now.
Chi Ossé: We’re seeing a shift in priorities for the up-and-coming generation of Americans. We see that in how we communicate. It’s in what we want to see change in this country. That’s what we are experiencing as a generation who don’t have the liberty and privileges of, at least most of us, putting a down payment on a mortgage. I think we are experiencing a lot of the real-time effects of late-stage capitalism, of a level of complacency that exists within our government, not only by the Republicans, [but] by some of our older Democratic leaders as well.
A lot of young people are tuning in. They are pissed about what’s happening in Gaza, and they are pissed about their student loan debt. They are pissed about the economy, and are either leaving the party or voting for individuals that they see themselves in, like Zohran Mamdani, like AOC, like more progressives that have been coming into our party for years up until this point.
AS: I also wanted to get your reaction to Kirsten Gillibrand and Hakeem Jeffries’ recent comments about Mamdani. [Gillibrand was widely denounced for falsely claiming that Mamdani had endorsed “global jihad.”] You recently posted on Instagram calling for Gillibrand to be primaried.
CO: Yeah, she should resign. I don’t think that she will. It’s very upsetting, but unsurprising. I mean, her comments were just racist and false. The rise of [Islamophobic] rhetoric after Zohran’s win is disgusting, and the fact that it’s happening from a New York Democrat is gross. She’s kind of been a do-nothing Democrat for some years now, only working on behalf of her donors, whether it be AIPAC or crypto. So it’s unsurprising, but still very disappointing.
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A lot of our establishment Democrats do and say more about progressives and folks who are trying to enter this party with new and fresh ideas than they do against Trump and Republicans. I think it speaks to the fact that, you know, the one party that really does exist in this country is the party of oligarchs, right? We see them [owning] both Democrats and Republicans, and we really see the pushback to insurgents like Zohran or AOC as a reflection of how much power those oligarchs do not want to give up, both with the help of Republicans and Democrats.
AS: How do you and Zohran plan to heal this growing divide between Arab and Jewish New Yorkers?
CO: I don’t know if I know how we solve the issues in the Middle East, but what I will say is that, you know, Jewish folks and Muslim folks are not a monolith, right? And Zohran received the second-most amount of support among Jewish New Yorkers this past primary. A lot of young people are just getting more involved and engaged in what is happening within our country and within our world, and I believe we will start to see shifts within that dynamic as we grow as an electorate.
AS: What do you think of the party’s position right now on trans rights? I’m wondering what the necessary steps are for keeping trans New Yorkers safe from being scapegoated and pawns in a political football, like we saw during the 2024 election.
CO: I think some Democrats have been doing a worse job than others. I do not believe that we should turn our backs on the trans community in any way, shape, or form. I’ve been very proud to sponsor legislation that has increased trans healthcare and access to trans healthcare for our trans siblings here in the city. I’ve advocated for funding, and I’ve won it within the city budget alongside members of my LGBTQ caucus.
I do think a lot of Democrats are trying to turn their back on trans people, which I think is disgusting. We saw that after the November election. The true 1 percent of the population we should be concerned about are not trans people but the billionaires and those who are hoarding wealth, and who are responsible for the economic inequality that we are all experiencing within this country.
AS: I wanted to ask about the FARE Act. What was the catalyst for that legislation, and did you expect it to take off the way that it did?
CO: I was looking for housing myself, and just dealing with this unfair system, like being forced to pay a broker fee, which made me go to the drawing board. I was like, why are we all just accepting this as a reality, and paying this broker whom we’ve never hired, or sometimes never even met, to move into an apartment that we’re already spending so much money on? I think this was my second year in office. I was like, let me see if I can do something about this. This is a very unique issue to New Yorkers, but one that comes to the top of people’s minds.
I got a lot of pushback from the real estate industry. It really gave me a closer experience to see how prevalent the real estate lobby is within New York State and New York City government, and how much they pressure local elected officials, state elected officials. It was truly disgusting, but as someone who is younger, who utilizes social media, I didn’t see anyone within politics using social media in a creative way to push that agenda. And I realized early on that video was the medium of today, and I invested heavily in getting good editing to push this bill forward, so much so that it became the number one popular issue that folks wanted to see the City Council pass.
Everyone was talking about it, and I knew it would pop off because of how many people have complained about brokers in my life. And I sometimes think the best politics is when the answer is right there, right? When you listen to what the complaints are from your group chat, from your family, from your friends, from your neighbors, and then try to find a solution around it. And once we introduced it, and organized around it, and put together a huge coalition behind it, it popped off. And with the support of the public, we were able to pass it last year.
AS: Tell me about how you and Zohran Mamdani were able to forge this unique partnership during the mayoral primary.
CO: I met Zohran maybe four years ago, after I first got elected. I think we’re both very silly people. So we hit it off very quickly. It was July of last year when he told me that he was thinking about running for office. And I put him in touch with a pastor within my district, gave him some advice about video filming and editing, and began [advising] him as he was running his race. When he posted his first campaign video on Instagram, I went on his TikTok and didn’t see that it was posted there. I was like, “You have to post it on TikTok!”
I think he took a lot of inspiration from how we launched our FARE Act campaign in terms of short-form media being a means to push politics. I was definitely happy to consult with him and to give him advice and just wanted to add as much supplemental support, you know, working with his team to highlight different endorsements that he received, especially with John Liu, and trying to get his mission out in as many languages as possible. And working with the Working Families Party very closely on building that narrative of why we shouldn’t rank Cuomo, which I do believe was very successful.
We put together one of the last GOTV rallies on Sunday, and I cohosted it with the Working Families Party. We got Tish James on stage to compare Zohran to Barack Obama in terms of the energy and the charisma that he was bringing to the race. And having those words said about him by Tish James within Crown Heights was something I think that helped in this race.
AS: What do you say to critics who claim Zohran is lacking support among Black New Yorkers?
CO: Cuomo won the Black vote. [But] I truly believe that as a democratic socialist running on a citywide level, Zohran made a lot of inroads. His best voter group, which I don’t think is talked about enough, was younger Black voters. And the fact that he still made a dent within Black support, even if it was not the majority of support, means he still ran a very successful campaign and made some inroads and will continue to do so.
AS: Talk a little bit about your relationship with Mayor Eric Adams, who is running against Mamdani in November.
CO: He’s a very power-hungry, egotistical man, and does not believe in government collaboration. I tried to engage with him multiple times when I was first in office, but we just had a lot of disagreements in terms of how government should run. I think it should run well. I think he has different ideas.
He’s a very comical individual. I don’t think Donald Trump and Eric Adams should have gotten into politics—they would have been perfectly fine if they were on reality TV. I never want him to be in a position of power again.
This is a man who got elected off the back of the rich. And over the past four years, he’s had to carry out their bidding, raising rents in every single year that he’s been in office, cutting from mental health services, cutting from a plethora of different services with an austerity budget every single year that the council had to fight to restore funding for every single time. And that type of leadership in New York City is so uncreative. It does not create hope, not to mention, you know, the bribery charges that he received and now cozying up to Donald Trump. I mean, the list goes on. He’s not been protecting New York, he’s been protecting himself.
AS: What do you say to people who are critics of some of these young leaders that are now coming up, like yourself and Mamdani, who say that you guys are too young, that you’re too inexperienced?
CO: I passed the most impactful bill within four years in office at the age of 26. The work speaks for itself. I think a lot of the folks who say that are supporters of elected officials who have corruption charges, who are working for billionaires and millionaires, and I don’t take those claims seriously. I just keep to the work.
AS: What is the plan to reach those skeptical voters for the general election?
CO: I do have confidence in Zohran. I think he’s an excellent communicator. I believe that his plan of economic populism, you know, is going to appeal to a lot of voters. A lot of people didn’t know him, and a lot of older voters don’t vote for people they don’t know. That’s why a lot of people voted for Cuomo. But there wasn’t a lot of enthusiasm behind Cuomo. So, you know, I think that fact plus who Zohran is, what he stands for, what an amazing orator he is, is certainly going to get him past the finish line in November.
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AS: As we’ve seen a rise in political violence across the US. Is this something that concerns you personally?
CO: It’s a very toxic time right now in politics. And, you know, I wish a lot of our leaders, folks from the Republican Party who are acting on it, you know, would calm the flames, but also, I wish Democrats would speak about it more. The fact that there were two Democrats who were murdered a couple of weeks ago, and it’s not being talked about, or it’s not like a primary focus that’s being spoken about endangers all of us. I don’t fear for my life. I think a lot of women, especially women of color, receive some of that, which is just terrible. And I hope that more leaders will start to call that out.
AS: How important is it to you to have a life outside of politics?
CO: I’m a normal person. So I just try to enjoy my life. That’s how I stay balanced. I think a lot of politicians don’t have lives outside of politics, and that’s why they become a bit corrosive within their line of work, because it’s all that they have. But I had a life before this, and I still have a life now.
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