Eight years ago, Donald Trump’s election enraged and energized New York’s progressives, who took control of the state Senate and slashed rent growth in rent-stabilized housing.
Now, history could repeat itself, in a slightly different form.
A week after Trump’s election to a second term, the City Council is expected to vote on a bill that aims to save tenants thousands of dollars on broker fees when they lease apartments.
Shortly before Election Day, Council members were given copies of the measure to review, indicating approval is imminent. The bill was likely to be approved next week regardless of who won the White House, but progressives can point to its passage as proof to their constituents that they are responding to Trump’s victory.
“The FARE Act is a powerful example of how Progressives are taking on the real economic struggles everyday people face, like being price gouged on rent and broker fees,” Council member Sandy Nurse, co-chair of the Council’s Progressive Caucus, said in a statement.
“While moderate and right-wing politicians play their game of divide and distract, blaming immigrants, trans people, and progressives for the struggles of the working class, this bill does the real work.”
“It’s time the moderate wing of the Democratic Party stop playing it safe and lean into populist platforms like the FARE Act that brings people together by meeting their real, urgent needs,” she continued.
In New York City, Trump lost to Vice President Kamala Harris by 37 percentage points, according to unofficial election results. He had lost to Biden by 54 points four years ago and by 63 points to Hillary Clinton in 2016. Trump gained ground in Chinese and Orthodox Jewish communities in Brooklyn, Hispanic communities in the Bronx and Queens, and Chinese and South Asian neighborhoods in Queens, the New York Times reported.
“He didn’t do that badly in New York,” said political consultant George Artz. “The margins were not great.”
Democrats saw their edge slip, albeit slightly, in other races too. The party kept its majorities in the state legislature, but lost its supermajority — a veto-proof majority — in the Senate, according to City & State.
Democratic incumbents largely held onto seats in competitive races, and Democrats flipped three House seats, but in Brooklyn, Republican Steven Chan defeated Democratic state Sen. Iwen Chu.
Having the potential in both the Senate and Assembly to override a governor’s veto gave Democrats more leverage to push progressive policies, even without ever overriding a veto by Gov. Kathy Hochul.
The 2019 rent reform, which restricted the ways that landlords can increase rents on stabilized apartments, was progressives’ most significant real estate victory in ages. After years of trying to pass good cause eviction, they succeeded this year, but changes to the legislation prompted the city chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America to say the industry “effectively defeated it by watering it down.”
Harris’ loss could result in a tug of war between the far left and moderates who have diametrically different views about the path the Democratic Party should follow.
In a statement, the DSA criticized Democrats for “support for war criminals and billionaires, and scolding people of conscience [for] objecting to Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza” and an agenda that “doubled down on austerity.”
“Under Trump, we will organize together in solidarity, and we will not give an inch,” the group said in a statement. The group pointed to its mayoral candidate, Assembly member Zohran Mamdani, who has pledged to freeze rents if he wins (though it is the Rent Guidelines Board that decides on annual rent increases for stabilized apartments).
Democratic Rep. Ritchie Torres, who has repeatedly clashed with the DSA, posted on the social media platform X that “there is more to lose than there is to gain” from “pandering” to the far left.
“Donald Trump has no greater friend than the far left, which has managed to alienate historic numbers of Latinos, Blacks, Asians, and Jews from the Democratic Party with absurdities like ‘Defund the Police’ or ‘From the River to the Sea’ or ‘Latinx,’” Torres wrote.
Jay Martin of landlord group the New York Apartment Association said moving left would be a “fatal error” for Democrats that could result in a Republican mayor.
“The Democratic Party has to decide if they want to govern for all New Yorkers or be pushed further and further to the left,” Martin said.
Trump’s victory has also raised questions about the federal corruption case against Mayor Eric Adams, including whether the Department of Justice will drop the charges or whether Trump will pardon the mayor if he is convicted.
In the near term, the City Council is expected to vote on the broker-fee bill on Nov. 13. The mayor has expressed concern that the bill will hurt small landlords.
The FARE Act — for Fairness in Apartment Rentals Expenses — would set rules for how rental brokers are paid. The custom in the city has been for tenants to pay brokers a fee at lease-signing of 15 percent of the annual rent. Council member Chi Ossé’s bill specifies that whoever hires a broker must pay the commission.
The Real Estate Board of New York has argued that landlords would respond by raising rents, resulting in no net benefit for tenants and less income for brokers. Supporters say tenants would save thousands of dollars in upfront costs to lease an apartment, making it easier to move — thus giving them leverage in renewal negotiations.
Bess Freedman, CEO of Brown Harris Stevens, said she is concerned that Trump’s win could make political “extremes more extreme,” and expressed frustration that the City Council is not listening to concerns from agents about the FARE Act.
“Real estate agents are not the devil. We do all sorts of work,” she said. “The City Council doesn’t want to hear that. They want to demonize the whole industry, and it’s bullshit.”
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