Give now to stop one of the worst Democrats from joining Congress!

New York’s 15th Congressional District, located in the South Bronx, has the distinction of being the bluest House seat in the entire country. Yet despite that fact, there’s a very real chance that it could soon be represented by one of the most disgusting, unhinged homophobes in politics today—and the worst part is, he’s a Democrat: New York City Councilman Ruben Diaz Sr.

Fortunately, there’s a far better option, which is why Daily Kos is endorsing City Councilman Ritchie Torres in the June 23 Democratic primary. Torres is a fierce progressive who, at the age of just 25, was the very first gay person to win elected office in the Bronx and would be the first gay Latino member of Congress.

Torres and Diaz could not be more different. While Torres has devoted his career to fighting for the disadvantaged, Diaz has spent years attacking LGBTQ people. Here are just some of the lowlights:

• Diaz was stripped of his committee assignments on the City Council last year after he said that City Hall was “controlled by the homosexual community.”
• He has "equated being gay to 'having sex with animals' and attacked the 1994 Gay Games in New York because he said the participants were 'likely infected with AIDS.'"
• He sued to block the expansion of a public school serving at-risk gay teens.
• When he served in the state Senate, he was the only Democrat to vote against legalizing same-sex marriage—and he even led a rally to unsuccessfully try to derail the bill.

And, like all bigots, his hatred doesn’t stop with gay people. He’s called abortion “the American Holocaust” and said abortion clinics “are doing more extreme things” than Josef Mengele. He also proudly campaigned with Ted Cruz when Cruz was running for president, and when asked who he planned to vote for in 2016 said, “I do like Donald Trump,” adding, “He’s like me, making enemies everywhere he goes.”

Count us among Diaz’s enemies, too—gladly.

Leading the charge is Torres, the son of an African American mother and Puerto Rican father, who became the youngest member of the City Council when he was elected in 2013. There, he’s championed the needs of those in public housing, leading the effort to obtain a $3 billion grant from FEMA—one of the largest in the agency’s history—to help give people the safe homes he never had. He’s also spearheaded an investigation into Jared Kushner’s real estate conglomerate for (surprise!) falsifying paperwork and harassing rent-stabilized tenants out of their apartments with “weaponized construction.”

Torres is, in other words, exactly the sort of representative the 15th District deserves. The problem is that a dozen Democrats have filed to run for this seat, which is open because Rep. Jose Serrano is retiring. That means Diaz can secure the Democratic nomination (which is tantamount to winning the general election) with just a small plurality of the vote—perhaps as little as 25%—because there are no runoffs.

That’s why we have to rally around Torres, who not only embodies progressive beliefs but is best-positioned to stop Diaz. In fact, public polling shows him just two points behind, 22-20, with the rest of the field trailing distantly. Diaz, however, has held office in the Bronx for 20 years, and he has a core constituency that’s deeply loyal to him despite his bigotry. He’s a well-known name, and he’ll be difficult to beat.

Please send $3 to help Ritchie Torres stop one of the worst Democrats in the country from winning a seat in the House!