Erik Dilan Field Leader Creates Hostile Scene at Cypress Hills Voting Site as More Victims of Bullying Emerge
The three reports all appear to describe the same individual from the Erik Dilan Campaign.
A heated confrontation broke out on Tuesday at the Dance Atlantic early voting poll site on 2796 Fulton Street in eastern Cypress Hills shortly after the arrival of a Field Leader for NYS Assembly incumbent, Erik Dilan. Dilan is fighting to maintain his political career against a well-organized, grassroots challenge from community-leader and DSA-member Christian Celeste Tate in New York Assembly District 54 (Bushwick, East New York, Cypress Hills). Celeste Tate arrived at the voting site for another day of poll visibility around 10:30am with his campaign supporter, Jo. Jo is a 24 year old, Spanish-speaking, young woman, who grew up in East New York and began the campaign as a dedicated community organizer for Celeste Tate before being hired as part-time staff. They were doing poll visibility together, which is when candidates or campaign supporters stand at least 100 feet away from a voting site (as required by state law) handing out literature to passersby. What was supposed to be a routine morning of speaking to voters for Celeste Tate and Jo took a drastic turn upon the arrival of a tall man in his 50s or 60s who was a member of Dilan’s campaign, appearing to be in a position of authority.
Erik Dilan Field Captain Has Unprompted Outburst
According to Jo (who asked in a phone interview that only her first name be used out of concern for retribution against her or her family from Dilan’s team as they are locals), she and Celeste Tate spent the first thirty minutes of their shift speaking to voters. Around 20 feet away and camped out in chairs not engaging with voters much, were multiple teenagers and an older canvasser being paid by Dilan to do the same. This relatively quiet scene played out for around a half hour until the arrival of a new campaign staffer for Erik Dilan around 11am. A taller, older man, the Dilan staffer immediately began barking orders at the Dilan paid canvassers. Seeing Jo and Celeste Tate enthusiastically approaching voters with their vision for the future, he launched into a loud speech, eventually becoming rife with provocative comments, while gesturing towards and referencing Jo and Celeste Tate.
“You guys cannot just be sitting down. You need to be energetic and having fun. You have to remember that unlike them, you guys are from this neighborhood, you are from here. You were born and raised here.”
Right away, Jo felt he was intentionally speaking excessively loudly to cause a disruption. For a moment, the Dilan canvassers got up from their chairs and each respective campaign spoke to voters as they walked by. Only a few minutes passed before the Dilan Field Leader pulled out his phone, unprompted, and began recording Celeste Tate and Jo while aggressively narrating out loud for the video, starting by saying “This is the candidate and this is his little accomplice…” Realizing they were suddenly on camera in the middle of the street, Celeste Tate gave a level-headed and respectful pitch for the campaign straight to camera while Jo stated she “grew up here and she wants to support Christian.” Around this moment, Jo states she informed him she is native to East New York, even speaking fluent Spanish, and the things he was saying were not true. By this point, Jo states the Dilan Field Leader had closed the distance between them from 20 feet to 5 feet away.
The Field Leader proceeded to put his phone away and loudly continue his previous speech to the other Dilan staff “We need to distinguish, the difference between us and them is we are Democrats. They are socialists. We want to help the community, they want to destroy it. They want to make this place like Cuba. They want to ruin this area. And the other thing is that these socialists, they want to bring trans ideology here. They want to make sure that boys are in skirts and women wear pants. They want to do surgery and make children transgender.” According to Jo, the teenagers being paid by Dilan began appearing uncomfortable, all while voters passed by, watching the bizarre scene. Celeste Tate began attempting to defuse the situation.
Jo spoke-up once again to ask the Dilan Field Leader what was wrong with being transgender. After he said that “socialists want to brainwash children” and “make them sick,” Jo and Celeste Tate explained there are transgender people in AD-54 who would be turned away by his rhetoric, but he was dismissive of trans-people existing in Cypress Hills, Bushwick, or East New York. The Dilan Field Leader continued repeating these same claims for even longer as voters walked past, all while Celeste Tate attempted to tone down the rhetoric. Eventually, Celeste Tate walked Jo home for a break, before she continued canvassing later that day.
Despite State of the Left reaching out to Erik Dilan’s campaign for comment on the situation and clarity on if the individual in question would face disciplinary action, he did not respond.
Christian Celeste Tate’s campaign responded with the following statement
"The thing I love most about campaigns is their potential to build community. Good campaigns bring neighbors together from all different backgrounds, united by a sense of solidarity and a love of their community. It’s disheartening, though unsurprising, to see this behavior from Dilan’s campaign. Part of a political dynasty, he has held on to power for 24 years by discouraging participation and pulling on people’s fears. We are doing the opposite. Our campaign is for everyone. No matter where you come from or how you identify, we are fighting together for the world we deserve."
More Accusations of Provocative Behavior from Dilan Campaign Staff Emerge
As State of the Left moved closer to publication of this article, other individuals reached out to share similar stories from the 2022 primary election cycle, when Dilan was challenged by Samy Nemir Olivares.
A volunteer for Samy named Aaron Fernando, who was 21 years old at the time, stated the following experience from 2022:
“I did poll site visibility for the Samy campaign in 2022 in Cypress Hills. We were extremely outnumbered by a dozen Dilan volunteers in chairs who chatted up people as they walked by and to go in and vote. One guy in particular (in his late 50s, early 60s) was friendly to me at first, but got more aggressive as the shift went on. At one point I thought I saw him standing too close to the entrance and tried to speak to a young poll worker about it who was hanging up signs. He started yelling at me, accusing me of electioneering because I was wearing Samy merch and had briefly stepped closer to the entrance to speak to the poll worker. He then proceeded to follow me and this young woman into the school while yelling and recording us both on his phone. The pollsite coordinator sorted it out, but the Dilan volunteer continued to yell and record me as I went outside, until I finally gave up and left to avoid the harassment. He ended up following me down half a block as I walked to my bike, essentially chasing me out of the pollsite and threatening to get me in trouble. I was really shaken up and had to stop volunteering for the day. It was definitely the most intense experience I’ve had doing pollsite visibility, in the seven years I’ve done it.”
Aaron stated afterwards the man in question spoke to voters in Spanish.
A second volunteer from the 2022 primary cycle named Jake, 30 years old at the time, also came forward with a similar story. He asked to only have his first name used and his account was put here word for word. Jake added afterwards that he remembered the man being tall/large.
“Primary Day June 2022, I was volunteering for Samy Nemir Olivares. I was there for most of the day, so I took some earlier shifts knocking doors and in the afternoon I switched to poll site visibility (IIRC it was in southeastern Bushwick, on Bushwick Ave – not certain but Street View suggests it was St. Thomas Episcopal Church). For the bulk of the time, I was there solo.
I got there around 2pm or 3pm. There was a very slow trickle of folks coming in. Very sleepy, until trouble showed up. There were a couple of them, I want to say it was two older women? who were quiet and kept to themselves. But they had a man with them, probably in his late 30s or 40s, who was, to put it charitably, a fucking asshole. While ostensibly he was doing the same job I was, just for the other side, clearly he was a goon, there for the purpose of intimidating me or whoever else showed up to do viz for Samy.
He would constantly attempt to disrupt my conversations with voters by shouting at/over us things like “HE* [Samy] WANTS TO LEGALIZE PROSTITUTION!!!” and other lies and smears, mostly about how electing Samy would lead to more crime and chaos (the dominant media narrative of 2022). Every time I tried to approach someone he would start trying to drown out whatever I was saying and poison the vibes. I swear, this dude’s voice did not go under 90 decibels the entire time he was there. Kind of impressed he could keep his voice ngl. I also don’t even remember him making any kind of positive case for Dilan to voters he talked to; as far as I could tell, he was there solely to harass Samy vols. (*I’ll also note that he consistently misgendered Samy, who’s non-binary and uses they/them, though I have no idea if this was knowing/intentional or not.)
One particular interaction I remember was with a nice older Hispanic lady. Realizing she didn’t speak much English, I switched to Spanish; I’m certainly not fluent but I can stumble through a conversation okay. I made a Samy pitch as best I could and then as soon as she walked away, the goon swooped in and, of course, started talking shit about me/Samy to her in Spanish. Then he shouted back to me “SHE TOLD ME SHE THINKS YOU’RE A LIAR!! SHE SAYS EVERYTHING YOU SAID TO HER WAS A LIE!” I overheard and understood enough of the conversation to know that this nice abuela did not actually say any of those nasty things he claimed she about me. Maybe was implied, but want to be clear about that!) Straight up third-grader shit!
Poll workers and police weren’t helpful; I think most of what he was doing was technically legal (I don’t recall him or his companions going within the 100-foot line, for instance).
As you can imagine, this was completely exhausting to deal with, but I decided I couldn’t let him win. He was my enemy now, and I had to outlast him. Around 7:30 or 8, he and his crew packed up shop, and I was the last one standing. It may have been a victory, but I sure felt pretty awful after getting yelled at for hours and hours on end.”
A third person from the 2022 election cycle allegedly had a similar account as well. However, it wasn’t received in time for publication of this article and it will be updated if it is.
Two of the three accounts recall a man in his 50s or 60s, with both of those instances happening at a Cypress Hills polling location. One account is Jo, from Tuesday, and the other is Aaron Fernando, from the primary 2022 cycle. Another two of the three accounts specifically recall a man who was tall or large. One account is Jo (per the included photo) and the other is Jake, from the 2022 primary cycle. Additionally, all three accounts state the man spoke Spanish on and off throughout the encounters. All of this together seems to raise the distinct possibility it is the same individual across both election cycles in all three of the accounts.
State of the Left again followed-up with Erik Dilan’s campaign for comment.
Kings County Democratic Party AD-54 District Leader Heriberto Mateo Was Present
While this episode played out, also present was Kings County Democratic Party AD-54 District Leader Heriberto Mateo. Mateo and his fellow incumbent, Arleny Alvarado-McCalla, are known to be aligned with Dilan and are being challenged for their seats by community activist Alan Gamboa and NYC Councilmember Sandy Nurse. According to Jo, Mateo was campaigning alongside the Dilan workers. Upon the arrival of the Dilan Field Captain and the beginnings of his outburst, Jo says Mateo quietly told her he did not agree with what the Dilan Field Captain was saying. While Jo says he was respectful and dignified, he quickly crossed to the other side of the street, leaving the Dilan Field Captain to continue his outburst.
Alan Gamboa, candidate for AD-54 District Leader, had this to say “I am running on a platform that New York is for all of us, that all people deserve dignity, respect, safety, and a good life. It’s disappointing to see the Dilan camp vocally expressing such fear mongering and prejudice. I will always affirm that trans rights are human rights, and that we should all enjoy the freedom to be ourselves without facing violence and hatred. I am also angered by their nativist contempt for the millions of people who come here to pursue their dreams, whether they are coming from China, DR, New Jersey, or Ohio. We all belong and I will always speak out for this.”
State of the Left attempted to reach Heriberto Mateo, but he has no campaign website and there is no way listed to contact him on the Brooklyn Democratic Party website either. Upon trying to click on the photo of Mateo on the Brooklyn Dems website to see if that would lead to contact info, a photo of Erik Dilan erroneously comes up instead.
This has led State of the Left to publish a seperate article about The Brooklyn Democratic Party spending unapproved party funds on protecting District Leader incumbents, no contact info being listed on their website for district leaders, and a slew of erroneous photos on the Brooklyn Dems website.