Ben Jackson hopes to unite Democrats as district leader

There’s a hunger for leadership locally, Riverdale resident Ben Jackson said, and that is why he is running for male district leader in the 81st Assembly District.

The attorney at Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll said his priority, if elected, is to improve voter engagement and turnout in the district and get Joe Biden re-elected as president.

“There are some people who talk about increasing voter engagement and voter turnout, I’ve actually done it,” Jackson told The Press. “I’ve been doing every single nuts and bolts campaigning thing you can think of since I was a teenager.”

The Benjamin Franklin Reform Democratic candidate said he plans to use his experience as a party organizer to make sure people across the community have a voice and are connected to elected officials in the Assembly district. His goal, he said, is to have a big-tent local party welcoming to Democrats of all stripes.

“I’m not a ‘my way or the highway’ type guy,” Jackson said. “I know there are some conflicts or disputes between your different camps locally, but my goal as a Democratic Party district leader would be to represent all of the people in the party regardless of where they fall on the ideological spectrum or regardless of what club they belong to.”

Since 2021 Jackson has been representing Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll shareholders in lawsuits aiming to hold corporations and executives accountable for fraud. The firm is known for supporting lawsuits on behalf of progressive causes and Democratic members of congress, Jackson said.

The firm successfully sued and blocked the Trump administration from rescinding the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, a program protecting undocumented immigrants brought to the country as children from being deported as well as allowing them to be eligible for work permits. The firm also brought a lawsuit in which former president Donald Trump was found not have presidential immunity for his actions on Jan. 6, 2021.

Jackson’s job as a litigator is one that is transferable, he said, to being a district leader in terms of persuading and communicating with the community.

“As a lawyer, you’re only as good as your work,” Jackson said. “Everything is about credibility with the court, your adversaries, co-counsel. One way it’s prepared me (for running) is I’ve always been scrupulous about making sure I dot all the I’s and cross all the T’s and follow the rules, but maintaining strong ethical standards.”

Before moving to Riverdale, Jackson lived in the south shore of Nassau County in Long Island with his family. Growing up, he watched his parents build a mom-and-pop insurance brokerage. He said the lesson he learned was working hard was the key to success.

When Jackson was 14, he started volunteering for Democratic campaigns. He attended Washington University in St. Louis with a full merit scholarship, where he was on the board of the university’s college Democrats all four years.

He went to then competitive swing state Missouri and advocated for presidential candidate John Kerry in 2004. He also campaigned for Sen. Claire McCaskill and several other races.

In 2008, Jackson graduated from the university with a bachelor of arts in economics. Knowing he wanted to be a litigator,

Jackson went to Harvard Law School, where he graduated with a juris doctorate in 2013. He later moved to Riverdale due to his wife’s family roots in the area and joined the Ben Franklin Club.

One of Jackson’s proudest accomplishments — outside of his two children, he said — was working as the national voter protection and assistance hotline director for the Clinton campaign in 2016. The programs he helped run have helped tens of thousands of people around the country protect and exercise their right to vote, he said.

“There’s nothing like that,” Jackson said. “There’s nothing like the feeling of helping people and strengthening democracy.”

That work is what Jackson said he hopes to continue if elected district leader. One of the things he’s committed himself to doing is educating people about what’s at stake for each election and letting people know about volunteer opportunities.

“Just because the presidential race isn’t competitive in New York doesn’t mean that there’s nothing for us here in the Bronx to do to get Joe Biden re-elected,” Jackson said. “The national campaign is always looking for volunteers to do any number of things. Whether that’s calling people through phone banking or raising money or even going to battleground states to volunteer.”

While there may be some Democrats who are dissatisfied with Biden remaining at the top of the party’s ticket, Jackson said the president has done a great job and it’s important to highlight the threat he believes former president Donald Trump poses to democracy.

“The truth is the two top voter getters in this election are going to be Joe Biden and Donald Trump,” Jackson said. “No doubt. So that being the case, you have to really just grapple with the reality of the gravity of the situation and understand that choice that we’re facing. And I think people know that but I think reinforcing that is important.”

One demographic Jackson said he wants to reach out to is the Hispanic community, which represent more than 40 percent of residents in the district. Jackson, a non-fluent Spanish speaker, hopes to see more Spanish language communications go out and wants to make a concerted effort to physically go out to all parts of the district.

“You can’t just put stuff on social media,” Jackson said. “You have to call people, you have to talk to people. You have to get out there.”

He is funding his campaign with fellow candidates on the Ben Franklin slate, female district leader candidate Emily Hausman, state committee candidate Johanna Edmondson and incumbent Michael Heller.

Jackson faces incumbent Ramdat Singh in the June 25 primary.