Rev. Michael Blake, a former Bronx assemblymember and candidate, once again, for New York’s 15th Congressional District in the upcoming Democratic Primary, has taken aim at incumbent Congressman Ritchie Torres (NY-15) over his stance on immigration and on the recent war with Iran.

 

Home to nearly 740,000 residents, according to Torres, 38, and one of the poorest, if not the poorest congressional district in the country, NY-15 covers some or all of the Bronx neighborhoods of Allerton, Bathgate, Baychester, Belmont, Claremont, Fordham, Melrose, Morrisania, Morris Park, Mott Haven, Riverdale, Spuyten Duyvil, Tremont, Olinville, Norwood, Highbridge, Van Nest, West Farms, Williamsbridge and Woodlawn.

 

Blake, 43, also a former public advocate and mayoral candidate, spoke to Norwood News regarding Torres’s alleged actions / inactions on immigration, the war with Iran, as well as affordability, and campaign financing.

 

Asked how his campaign was going, Blake said, “The campaign is going incredibly well. People all over are craving change, not just in The Bronx but across the country. It’s the reason why we have more endorsements than the incumbent right now (early May), everything ranging from six of the locals in DC37, to former Congressman Jamaal Bowman (NY-16), to Until Freedom, to Jim Owles Liberty Democratic Club, and we deserve better,” he said.

 

As reported, Bowman, a former teacher and progressive Democrat, won his congressional seat in June 2020 when he challenged then-long-term incumbent and now recently deceased former Congressman Elliot Engel. Bowman later lost his seat in 2024 to then Westchester Executive George Latimer, in what was a very contentious primary, emblematic of widespread divisions among voters across the State and country over the U.S. response to the Israel-Gaza war following the Oct. 7, 2023 attacks by Hamas on Southern Israel.

 

Meanwhile, according to its website, Until Freedom is a non-profit organization for community activism, education, and rapid response around tragedies resulting from injustice. “The #UNTIL campaign was designed to protect the lives, build the wealth, and protect the votes of people of color living in underserved communities,” a website extract reads.

 

Following the compelling victory of NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani last year, Blake is also running on a now, widely adopted campaign centered around affordability. “We need to have more money and lower bills,” he said. “We need to be out of this war [with Iran], which is raising our gas prices and we want to say to Norwood, Riverdale, and the Bronx community, if we are serious that we deserve better, then that means we need change. Congressman Torres had taken votes that people need to made aware of. He has voted in support of ICE [U.S. Department of Immigration, Customs & Enforcement] four times. He supports the war.” On June 18, the U.S. and Iran signed a peace deal.

 

According to the below table, courtesy of Ballotpedia, Torres had received campaign contributions of over $6.6 million as of June 3, compared to Blake’s $361,466 as of March 31. We asked Blake if he has challenged Torres directly on the campaign contributions the congressman has received from The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) lobbying group. This was a topic Norwood News had previously reported on at length, and one which we also raised with the congressman during his last reelection campaign.

 

Under United States federal law, foreign nationals and foreign governments are prohibited from making direct contributions to U.S. political campaigns. According to its website, AIPAC’s “members and donors are all Americans, and AIPAC is neither directed nor funded by the Israeli government.” However, as reported, the correlation between AIPAC spending on U.S. political campaigns and U.S. cumulative military and economic spending for Israel’s benefit over the decades can hardly be ignored.

Blake said, “Ritchie Torres has avoided debates. He cancelled on a candidate forum. He does not want to be held accountable. There is video just from last week (late April) where a voter directly asked him would he stop taking funds from AIPAC, and supporting the Israeli government, and his actual answer is ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about.’ Just for context, when you go to AIPAC’s website, the lead photo on the website is Ritchie Torres.”

 

Norwood News mentioned that Torres had informed us in the past that allegations surrounding his campaign contributions from AIPAC were “based on a misunderstanding of federal campaign finance law,” since AIPAC has both a PAC and a SuperPAC. Read more here. For his part, Blake said, “Ritchie Torres has repeatedly stood with AIPAC. I have said I have been to an AIPAC event and I walked away because the way they disrespected [U.S.] President [Barack] Obama, the way they shut down the conversation on apartheid, the way they do not want to acknowledge a genocide…”

 

We asked how they disrespected Obama. “I spoke at an event where we spoke about Black Jewish relations and a video came up of [Israeli Prime Minister] Bibi Netanyahu and President Obama’s name came up, and the entire room started to boo and there was no walking it back,” Blake said. We later asked Blake if he had a copy of the video but he did not.

 

“They have repeatedly described President Obama as a failure,” he continued. “I worked for President Obama. He’s not a failure. You have now had Bibi Netanyahu directly stating that Donald Trump is the president they’ve been waiting for, and so I think it’s important for people to realize that we are in a war we have no damn business being a part of.”

 

He continued, “Ritchie Torres supports it. You have a scenario now when we talk about affordability. I want us to be able to make and keep more money in our pocket. We believe we should be putting money into books, not bombs, to help people with groceries, not a genocide.”

Blake added, “We take those kind of steps, we’re going to get elected to congress and when people ask me, Michael Blake, ‘What is the main difference between you and Ritchie Torres?’ I will focus completely on what’s happening here in The Bronx. Ritchie Torres has made it a priority to support AIPAC.”

 

Norwood News put it to Blake that despite the prevailing opposition to the war in Gaza at the time, and to the congressman’s funding by AIPAC, Torres still got reelected two years ago with 76.2% of the vote. We asked what he thinks will be different this time. “He was unopposed in both primaries,” Blake said. “You now have a contested primary. You have a scenario where you have to answer for your votes and very specifically, the very first bill that Donald Trump signed when he returned to office, The Laken Riley Act. The Laken Riley Act ends due process to increase deportations. Ritchie Torres voted for that. Ritchie Torres voted to express gratitude for ICE, while standing up for the Israeli government.”

 

He continued, “Ritchie Torres has made it very clear that he has prioritized other priorities, rather than what’s happening here in The Bronx, and when we think about why am I running? I’m saying very clearly you need to make sure that you have guaranteed jobs of guaranteed income with union protections. We need to actually have a My Brother’s Keeper, My Sisters’ Keeper program to help kids graduate from school.

 

He continued, “We need to protect our women around what’s happening with domestic violence, while addressing maternal health. We need to have Medicare for all. We need to have all these things but we also have to, simultaneously, say that a genocide is happening, and I’m confident to say… I’m a reverend. I have preached in the Middle East. I have seen this, and we have to be able to say to ourselves, how are we finding money for war, but we can’t feed the poor?”

Blake added, “And The Bronx has an opportunity to send a message, and so, when you look at what we’ve been building, the reason I have more union endorsements than he does, the reason we have more organizational endorsements than he does is that people are saying enough is enough.”

 

Blake continued, “[Torres] has voted to support the border in the Laken Riley Act.” U.S. President Donald Trump signed the Laken Riley Act into law on January 29, 2025. It “requires the [U.S.] Secretary of Homeland Security to take into custody aliens who have been charged in the United States with theft, and for other purposes.” It is named for Laken Riley, a Georgia college student who was brutally murdered by an undocumented immigrant. Critics of the law say it is too restrictive.

 

Blake plans to repeal the Laken Riley Act, which amends the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) by expanding mandatory detention of certain inadmissible non-citizens who are arrested or charged with certain offenses, and to replace it with what he says is a fairer law that honors Riley’s legacy without abandoning constitutional due process. Of Torres, Blake said, “He has not given any indication of opposition [to the Act] other than saying Trump has to be held accountable; Everyone can agree with that.”

 

Asked what he would say to those people who are in support of The Laken Riley Act, Blake said, “What happened to Laken Riley… murder is unacceptable; it’s heinous, it’s vile and it had to be handled with criminal accountability, no question about that. Simultaneously, we have to have strong border patrol opportunities to make sure that if there is a person who is actually taking on illegal behavior, then that’s a different conversation, but what’s happening right now is that immigrants and families of immigrants are being vilified.”

 

Blake said there was no good argument to be made on why anyone would end due process. “You are literally creating a scenario which Ritchie Torres supports that will increase deporting people, and the problem with it is it’s any potential immigrant that they‘re going to go after,” he said.

 

Blake continued, “They are showing us right now they don’t care how you came here and, candidly, they don’t care if you’re a citizen because we are seeing citizens that are also being hurt by this, and so, at the end of the day, we have to be clear. Why did Ritchie do this? Because, as evidenced in a news article two years ago when Ritchie wanted to run for governor and he was criticizing Gov. Hochul, he said that he thought this would make him more appealing to Republicans and moderates, not that it was the right policy and so, at the end of the day, I say we need to protect our immigrants.”

Blake alleged Torres supported “deporting our immigrants.” He continued, “I say we need to actually help our immigrants. Ritchie Torres is putting money towards ICE. There’s a tremendous difference between the two. We have to make sure that we have accountability, no doubt about that, but we also have to make sure that there’s a path to citizenship and helping all of our immigrants have a chance to achieve that.”

 

Norwood News mentioned that Democrats had an immigration reform policy under Biden that was not supported by Republicans and now we have a Trump immigration policy that Democrats are opposed to. We asked Blake what he thought was the solution or if there was a compromise.

 

“Ritchie Torres has been a legislative failure,” Blake said. “He had a chance for changes when we had a Democratic president, a Democratic Senate, a Democratic House. Ritchie still does not have a bill that he is the prime sponsor that has become law that addresses affordability. It’s six years. So, whether it’s a Democratic president, a Republican president, a Democratic congress, a Republican congress, he has failed on addressing the fundamental issue of affordability, and has absolutely failed on immigration, and it is important for us, in a community in The Bronx.”

 

He added, “We are a borough of immigrants. It’s the diversity of who we are, and you have someone in Ritchie Torres who has repeatedly voted to deport people. Ritchie Torres does not deserve to be our congressman and it’s important for people to know that, and it’s important for people to be able to say, like me, as a son of immigrants, we deserve better and we’re going to give them better when we get to Congress.”

 

Norwood News reached out to a representative for Torres last week to request his comment(s) on this story. We did not receive an immediate response but will share any feedback we receive.

When we previously reached out to the congressman’s team last year for a comment on the fact that he was being challenged for his seat in this year’s June primary, his aide, Benjamin Stanislawski, said, “Ritchie Torres is a lifelong Bronx resident, which is why Bronx voters trust him to be their voice fighting for them in Washington. Ritchie has been laser-focused on issues like public housing and affordability while standing up to Donald Trump. That’s why he’s going to win again next year.”

 

Early voting is underway and continues through Sunday, June 21, until 5 p.m. Election Day is Tuesday, June 23. Learn more here.

 

Editor’s Note: The section of this story relating to Torres’ response to Norwood News about his AIPAC campaign contributions has been reworded to better summarize what the congressman previously told us on this topic in the past.