Puerto Rico and the communities of NY-07 share deeply entwined histories. For decades, thousands of Puerto Ricans have moved to communities like Williamsburg and Bushwick in pursuit of a better life. 

In the face of divestment and neglect from the City, local leaders organized themselves into groups like Los Sures and El Puente that remain a force for resilience and resistance to this day. And no leader has fought harder for Puerto Ricans in New York, on the island, and across the diaspora than our very own Congresswoman Nydia Velázquez, the first Puerto Rican woman elected to Congress. 

Since 1993, Rep. Velázquez has been a relentless fighter for both the people of NY-07 and the people of Puerto Rico who are systematically deprived of essential rights and freedoms. 

In Congress, Antonio will continue Rep. Velázquez's fight to ensure the people of Puerto Rico, and no one else, decide their future. He will reintroduce Rep. Velazquez’s Puerto Rico Self-Determination Act to create a fair, independent, democratic process for Puerto Ricans to decide how they want to govern themselves.

Today, Puerto Rico is caught in the crossfire of corporate greed, climate change, and Donald Trump’s imperialist agenda. 

Antonio will work with the Puerto Rican community to ensure these pressing issues are addressed in the halls of Congress. 

Amid rolling blackouts, high utility bills, and a crippled power grid, he will hold LUMA Energy and Genera PR accountable and champion a reliable, affordable power system for Puerto Ricans. As the island is hit with stronger and more frequent climate disasters, he will call for billions in recovery and resiliency funding. 

Antonio understands the people of Puerto Rico will never be truly free without economic justice. He will advocate for the total cancellation of Puerto Rico’s debt and fight for Puerto Rico’s right to have sustainable economic development away from La Junta’s unelected regime of austerity and injustice. He will support an overhaul to rigged tax haven policies like Puerto Rico’s Act 22, which has destabilized the local housing market, displaced longtime residents, and cheated the Puerto Rican government from billions of dollars of critical revenue by exempting outside investors from paying taxes on interests, dividends, and capital gains. 

As Donald Trump threatens to invade Venezuela and deploys thousands of troops to Vieques, decades after locals successfully forced the Navy out, Antonio will call for transparency, denounce the remilitarization of Puerto Rico, and oppose any actions that threaten the environmental and physical well-being of the island and its residents.