In June, Rep. Max Rose participated in a large march in New York with his life and infant son. | Max Rose/Twitter
When Rep. Max Rose took the stage on a disappointing election night, there was more on his mind than the wide margin by which he was trailing his Republican challenger.
The imperiled freshman Democrat devoted much of his remarks to defending his decision to attend a Staten Island protest march in June after the death of George Floyd — a decision that was repeatedly attacked by his opponent Assemblywoman Nicole Malliotakis, who painted Rose throughout the campaign as anti-police.
“Young Staten Islanders marched to express their pain, and for that they were called rioters. They were called thugs, all on national television,” Rose said. “They were demonized for their faith in this country’s capability, this country’s capacity to be better, their belief that peaceful protest is how you change this country for the better.”
The Black Lives Matter movement loomed large in electoral contests throughout New York this week — perhaps nowhere more than Staten Island, which many NYPD officers and first responders call home. For Rose, his participation in the protest made the already difficult task of running as a Democrat in the city's most conservative borough all the harder.
With in-person votes counted, Malliotakis leads Rose by 58 percent to 42 percent, or about 37,000 votes. The Board of Elections has received more than 41,000 absentee ballots so far, and those still have to be counted.
Malliotakis declared victory on election night, but Rose has not conceded and the Associated Press has not called the race.
The wave of protests against police brutality became a wedge issue in the contest. Staten Island is the only borough in the city to vote for President Donald Trump. Rose won the seat, which also covers a piece of southern Brooklyn, when he defeated Republican incumbent Dan Donovan two years ago — part of a "blue wave" that helped Democrats take control of the House.
In June, Rose posted a photo of himself and his wife and infant son taking part in a large march.
“Staten Island's youth are leading an incredibly powerful, peaceful movement for justice in honor of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and so many Black lives that have been lost due to senseless acts of violence,” he said. “Leigh, Miles and I were proud to march with them today.”
The protest was by all accounts peaceful. But Malliotakis seized on the fact that some in the crowd were holding signs with an acronym standing for “all cops are bastards” and briefly chanted in favor of defunding the police.
In one ad, the Malliotakis camp used footage of chaos on the streets and said Rose “joined de Blasio and the defund the police crowd calling to dismantle the NYPD.”
In an ad run by a Republican super PAC, retired NYPD officers denounce Rose for participating in the protest, with one saying he “gave every New York City police officer the finger.”
Rose has spoken out against defunding the police, including in an op-ed in the Staten Island Advance this summer, calling the idea “shortsighted and wrong.”
He has also gone to great lengths to denounce de Blasio, running one viral ad that consists entirely of him saying to the camera: “Bill de Blasio is the worst mayor in the history of New York City. That’s the whole ad.”
Still, the attacks resonated with some voters who chose Malliotakis on election day. "He is against the police," said Tiffany Deangelis, who was voting in Annadale.
Rose had “difficult conversations” about the issue with many voters on the trail, said senior adviser Kevin Elkins, and was able to win some of them over, but not others.
“I don’t think we were surprised Nicole did that, but we were surprised by how brazen and hurtful and downright disturbing some of those ads were,” he said.
In his election night speech, Rose, who has run as a moderate, said the controversy was emblematic of the country's divisions.
“Black parents worry that a chance encounter could end with their baby boy or baby girl never coming home. And yes, the wife or husband of a police officer feels their heart leave their chest every time a tour starts, scared that the love of their life may not come home,” he said. “Only in our broken politics would it be controversial to believe that either one or the other is legitimate.”
Law enforcement unions endorsed Malliotakis, along with Trump.
“If you don’t have a cop in the family, you have a cop on the block, and if you don’t have a cop on the block, you have a first responder who’s sympathetic to that point of view,” said College of Staten Island professor Richard Flanagan.
He said the attacks hurt Rose but believes the Democrat likely would have come up short anyway because so many voters came out to support Trump, outpacing his support four years ago.
“They’re just pro-Trumpers filling out the rest of the ovals under the R,” he said.
Joe Anuta contributed to this report.
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Police protests took center stage in already tough race for Max Rose - Politico
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