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Politics & Government

Out-of-State Donors May Have Helped Hakeem Jeffries Take Congress

In final month, almost half the funds raised came from those trying to keep rival Charles Barron out of Congress, according to the Daily News.

Almost half of the $470,000 donated to Prospect Heights Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries’ campaign for Congress in the month before the June 26 election came from out-of-state donors who wanted to stop City Councilman Charles Barron from taking the seat, says the New York Daily News.

The paper calls Barron a “fiery former Black Panther with a history of making anti-semitic rants,” and says that because of this, Jewish donors from across the country sent money to Jeffries’ campaign fund. 

The Daily News looked at the cash Jeffries’ raised solely in June, they found that the percentage of donors from outside of the city was 60 percent.

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Stanley Wasserman, who moved out of the city 20 years ago and now lives in Westchester County, told the paper that he donated $1,800 to Jeffries in June because of Barron’s “divisive” views.

“Should the Jewish community take a bow? Yes, because they made the conversation national,” said Jeffries’ campaign spokeswoman Lupe Todd. “But the black community should also take a bow; Jews, Baptists, black, white, everyone should take a bow because Hakeem Jeffries won in every corner of the district — he even won Barron’s own city council district.”

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