The Democratic congressional candidate for New York's 19th District, Antonio Delgado, shared a picture on social media of volunteers fired up to canvass for his campaign, but he didn't mention several were bused in from New York City.
Delgado, who is challenging incumbent Rep. John Faso (R., N.Y.), is a former rapper and six-figure lawyer at Akin Gump, a top-50 law firm with over $1 billion in annual revenue and the largest lobbying firm by revenue in the United States. He tweeted out a picture on Saturday showing him surrounded by a couple dozen volunteers in Kingston, New York.
"Check out our volunteers in Kingston before they went out to talk with voters in #NY19!" Delgado tweeted.
Check out our volunteers in Kingston before they went out to talk with voters in #NY19! #TeamDelgado pic.twitter.com/eMCTZKTGlU
— Antonio Delgado (@DelgadoforNY19) September 15, 2018
Kim Moscaritolo, a progressive activist and Democratic district leader in Manhattan, said last week that a bus would be traveling up to Delgado's district to campaign. Her tweet prompted Dusty Reidy, the campaign director for NY19 Votes, a group that "grew out of the resistance and Indivisible movement," to ask if they would be in Kingston to volunteer that weekend.
"I won't be on this bus, unfortunately, but several of my compatriots will be!" Moscaritolo tweeted.
I won't be on this bus, unfortunately, but several of my compatriots will be!
— Kim Moscaritolo (@kimmosc) September 12, 2018
"We will be riding a bus to the 19th Congressional District in the Hudson Valley (Kingston, NY) in support of Democratic candidate Antonio Delgado for Congress," the event details read. "We will knock on doors and encourage every progressive voter in the district to come out on Election Day, so we can flip the House away from the GOP."
Some of the progressive activists who traveled to campaign for Delgado and were pictured in the candidate's tweeted photo include Planned Parenthood activist and refugee Ionuț Gitan and Sara Kimbell, a New York Democratic County Committee member. It is unclear what the official head count was for the bus trip.
The National Republican Congressional Committee slammed Delgado for what it said was an attempt to prop up his "anemic campaign."
"It speaks volumes that Antonio Delgado needs to bring in volunteers by the busload from New York City to prop up his anemic campaign," said NRCC spokesman Chris Martin. "They’re probably thrilled to support someone who’s campaigning on their liberal values."
Rep. John Faso (R., N.Y.) touted his support from volunteers within the 19th Congressional District, saying Delegado is "bussing Democratic-Socialists up from Manhattan." He went on to say that the district needs somebody who will represent the values of the district, not those of New York City. Republicans have represented the district since 2011.
The district's Indivisible chapter didn't deny some of the people brought up from Manhattan were democratic socialists, tweeting, "Democratic Socialists? Maybe," before attacking Faso and calling him one of the "traitors" in the Republican Party.