This candidate won unexpectedly during the 2018 blue wave election. While he was one of the more conservative Democratic incumbents in our coalition, he was very good on a few select issues. He was defeated in 2020 when he had to run with TFG heading the ticket. With TFG not running, he has a chance of reclaiming his former seat. Majority Savers heads to Staten Island in New York City to profile Max Rose, our nominee for New York’s 11th district!
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Max Rose for New York-11
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Candidate Background
Rose has been very busy throughout his career, with Congress just a small part of the full picture. It is hard to fully go into great detail about his entire background, so visiting his campaign website is a better bet than reading three small bullet points.
- Rose had a typical Jewish upbringing in the Park Slope neighborhood in Brooklyn. He eventually went to Wesleyan University for a bachelor’s in history. He graduated from the London School of Economics with degrees in philosophy and public policy as his master’s degrees.
- Rose served is Afghanistan for five years in an armored division. He won a Bronze Star and a Purple Heart for his actions in the war, which left him with scars on his face and his right knee. He still is in the National Guard, and deployed to help during the COVID-19 pandemic.
- Rose was tapped by Biden as Secretary of Defense for COVID-19 early in his presidency. In this position, he not only crafted the internal military response for COVID, but also coordinated the global efforts by the military in deploying to fight this virus.
Signature Issues
Rep. Max Rose was one of the more moderate to conservative members of our delegation in 2019-2021. He touts his bipartisan record quite frequently, while his opponent is an incumbent that rarely breaks from the GQP party line. He will likely continue to be on the right flank of our caucus if elected again, which is the best we can hope for from Staten Island.
Climate Change: Rose stated that leaving the Paris Climate Agreement was one of the gravest mistakes TFG has made. As a member of Congress of an area devastated by Superstorm Sandy, Rose is all about mobilizing a response to climate change throughout America. This includes military preparedness, modernizing infrastructure, R&D into green technologies, and much more.
Gun Safety: Rose has to support police and first responder efforts given the district he’s in, but he would focus more manpower on violent crimes instead of small infractions. Rose is for universal background checks and an assault weapons ban, and work on banning “ghost guns” from our streets. He would support a beefed up ATF in order to handle these threats.
Health Care and Abortion: Rose supports adding a public option to the ACA exchange and permanently adding the subsidies in order to make health care more affordable. He supports the efforts of the Inflation Reduction Act in lowering prescription drug costs. Finally, Rose is 100% pro-choice and abortion is one of the main attacks he is launching against the incumbent this year.
Elections History
Recent Elections —
2020 President: TFG (R-inc) 53.2%, Joe Biden (D) 45.6%
2020 House: Nicole Malliotakis (R) 53.2%, Max Rose (D-inc) 46.0%
2022 PVI: R+6
2022 Race Rating: Likely Republican
Staten Island is traditionally the most conservative borough in New York City, and it traditionally is where the GQP does the best in New York City. That means the GQP usually represents this district, as the Brooklyn part of the district cannot overwhelm the redness of Staten Island. It takes a special occasion for Democrats to break through and win here.
One such special occasion happened in the 2008 election, when Rep. Mike McMahon easily won an election to replace disgraced Rep. Vito Fossella, who was busted with a secret family in Virginia and promptly retired. The original GQP candidate died of a heart attack, meaning a greatly disliked candidate took the reins. McMahon would only last one term, as the 2010 red wave washed him away and brought in Rep. Michael Grimm.
Eventually, Grimm would have to resign due to his own scandals. That brought a special election in which Rep. Dan Donovan took over the district. He didn’t have any issues until the 2018 blue wave election. That’s when disgust with TFG was at its highest and a compelling candidate in Max Rose ran for Democrats. The stars aligned, and Rose won in an upset 53-47. Rose, as indicated above, lost after one term and is running again in 2022.
Political Tour of the District
This district in the original map for this decade was a swing seat that leaned Democratic. The courts didn’t like that map, so a version of this district that is very similar to last decade was drawn instead. This race is a longshot because of that, instead of an easy pickup as projected at first.
Here’s where this race will be won in the 11th district.
- Northern Staten Island: This area is reliably blue, and Rose will have to do extremely well in this portion of the district in order to win overall. This area is traditionally plagued with poor turnout, but Rose cannot afford that to happen.
- Brooklyn: Except for one area covered below, the portion of Brooklyn covered by the district is swingy to a light blue in nature. It is critical for Rose to do as well as possible in this section of the district, as it is his home base. He basically has to win in a blowout here to compete.
Here’s where we need to keep the margins down, or we lose.
- Dyker Heights: This area of Brooklyn is quite red in character, and it is an exception to the rule that Brooklyn is more Democratic leaning than Staten Island. Rose needs to limit the damage done by this neighborhood as much as possible, and possibly even win it to get to Congress.
- Rest of Staten Island: Other than the northern shore, Staten Island is a sea of red. This is where many firefighters and NYPD officers reside, as well as many Irish, Italian, and Russian Americans which lean GOP. Rose has to break through again similar to 2018 to win.
Activism — Help How You Can!
Max Rose still has those fundraising connections he made while in Congress, because he outraised Malliotakis $725k to $710k in the time period of Quarter 2. Outraising an incumbent can be a sign of a competitive race in a swing seat, and it may mean dark money will be needed to counteract Rose. I expect both incumbents to have a much better Quarter 3, and that will determine who wins.
Malliotakis has the advantage in cash on hand, having $2.59 MILLION dollars to spend. Max Rose has quite a bit as well, with a total of $1.88 MILLION to spend. However, both will need to up their fundraising totals to compete in the pricy New York City media market. That, more than anything, may keep the alphabet orgs and dark money out of this race. Rose needs donations to be competitive, please donate today!
DONATE TO MAX ROSE HERE
In terms of volunteers, Rose could use them — especially in northern Staten Island which is critical to his chances. Without an army of volunteers, Rose will have no chance of winning. There is no direct volunteer link on his campaign website, but going to the link below will register you to volunteer.
https://maxroseforcongress.com/get-involved
In terms of social media, Rose definitely has built a decent following, at least on Twitter. He has a great number of followers for a challenger — 50.5k of them to be exact. That means his message is definitely getting out to the greater political world, unlike some incumbents and challengers I have profiled. Here is Max Rose hitting Malliotakis hard on abortion.
He is just as prolific on Facebook at MaxRoseNY and Instagram at maxrose4ny. If there is anything interesting at either site, don’t hesitate to share it below!
This is a longshot race, and it would be off the board if any other candidate but Max Rose were running. Staten Island is TFG central, and full of voters who are devoted to him. Rose has to do a balancing act, as he cannot be too liberal or he will lose — but being too conservative will alienate the voters he needs to win. Majority Savers wishes him luck in converting New York’s 11th district!
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Max Rose for New York-11
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