Democratic Party leaders from Brooklyn overwhelmingly slammed Brooklyn Democratic Party Chair Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn’s announced plans to rewrite party rules in order to keep herself in power. Bichotte faces a coming leadership vote after a new majority of District Leaders, who make up the party’s Executive Committee, were elected by Brooklyn voters in the June primary. She is now trying to rig that vote in her favor by packing the committee with dozens of her handpicked supporters. 

The following leaders have issued statements opposing the Chair’s proposed power grab: U.S. Reps. Hakeem Jeffries, Yvette Clark, Nydia Velázquez; Democratic Congressional nominees Brad Lander and Mike DeCillis; New York State Attorney General Letitia James; New York City Public Advocate Jumaane Williams; NYC Comptroller Mark Levine; New York State Senator Andrew Gounardes; New York State Assemblymembers Brian Cunningham, Robert Carroll, Joanne Simon, Phara Souffrant Forrest, and Emily Gallagher; NYC City Council Members Crystal Hudson, Jennifer Gutierrez, Shahana Hanif, Sandy Nurse, Lincoln Restler, Chi Ossé, and Kayla Santosuosso; and New York State Democratic Party Chair Jay Jacobs.

This June, Brooklyn Democrats elected 22 District Leaders from the Brooklyn Can’t Wait coalition who had pledged to bring a new era of leadership to a Brooklyn Democratic Party that for too long has been weak, corrupt, and visionless. 

Those 22 District Leaders make up a majority of the 42-member executive committee that will elect the party chair once they are seated at the party’s yet-to-be-announced organizational meeting. Last month, the Brooklyn Can’t Wait coalition announced their united intent to elect Julio Peña III as the new party chair.

Today, the outgoing party chair, Assemblymember Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn, announced a vague plan to throw out the party rules and pack the executive committee with more than two dozen of her handpicked party officers so that she can overrule Brooklyn voters and hang on to her position. This would be a flagrantly anti-democratic power grab, a return to the worst days of bossism — Vito Lopez tried the same trick two decades ago before he resigned in disgrace. It would go against everything our party should stand for. All Democrats should reject it.

The Brooklyn Can’t Wait (BCW) campaign today announces that its coalition of 22 incoming District Leaders have voted to nominate and elect District Leader Julio Peña III as Chair of the Executive Committee (Party Chair) this coming September. This coalition constitutes a majority of the Kings County Democratic Party Executive Committee, and together they look forward to electing Mr. Peña as the party’s new Chair and beginning the hard work of building a new Brooklyn Democratic Party.  

Brooklyn Can’t Wait was founded in 2022 by a coalition of Democratic clubs and organizations frustrated by the party’s corruption and inaction. These failures have cost Democrats in Brooklyn – and this coalition recognized the need for new leadership to build a party that does the work: turning out voters, mobilizing to achieve policy wins, and helping our communities. To this end, the coalition supported District Leader candidates in the last three primary elections to bring change to the Party. 

Candidates endorsed by Brooklyn Can’t Wait won 14 seats in both 2022 and 2024. In the 2026 June primary, BCW candidates expanded these gains to win an unprecedented 22 seats. Eight candidates won competitive races, joining 14 candidates in the coalition who ran uncontested.

Now that this coalition controls a majority of the party’s Executive Committee, with this announcement Brooklyn Can’t Wait begins the process of transitioning the party to new leadership and a new vision of its future.