Jose Vega, a self-described journalist according to his X profile, and member of the international LaRouche Youth Movemement, announced his campaign to run for Congress in New York’s 15th congressional district on Nov. 2. Held in El Maestro boxing gym in the Crotona Park East neighborhood of The Bronx, the Bronx town hall launched was called, “The Bronx is Gaza West, Rebuilding Starts Here and There.”

 

As reported, Vega already ran for Congress in the 2024 general election, also for NY-15, on the LaRouche Party ticket and garnered 2.3% of the vote. Incumbent Democratic Congressman Ritchie Torres won with around 76.2% of the vote, while Republican Party/Conservative Party candidate, Gonzalo Duran, garnered 21%.

 

According to the U.S. Department of Justice (DOT), LaRouche, the inspiration behind the LaRouche Party, began his political odyssey from the far left to the far right in the 1940s as part of the Socialist Labor Party, and since that time has organized a small but fanatical core group of followers whose influence is felt at every level of America’s political process.

 

“LaRouche has had frequent encounters with the law and has voiced his blatant anti-Semitism. He has also made outrageous accusations against prominent political figures, such as accusing the Queen of England of being the head of an international Jewish drug conspiracy and calling Henry Kissinger a Soviet spy,” an extract from the Justice department reads.

 

Meanwhile, Vega’s campaign team said that the November Bronx town hall brought together Bronx residents from all walks of life, families, single mothers, city workers, elders, former gang-affiliated members, representatives from the major Abrahamic faiths, young adults, and other New York congressional candidates.

 

“We gathered these representatives of The Bronx in the historic El Maestro boxing gym, which has been a community center for Bronx youth,” a campaign surrogate said. “We convened to discuss the root cause of poverty in The Bronx, namely Ritchie Torres’ policy of benign neglect, which is the same policy that dictates our foreign policy in Palestine, Sudan, and others. It is clear: our foreign policy is our domestic policy.”

 

Norwood News reached out to Torres’ office for comment on the remarks. We will share any feedback we receive. Meanwhile, Vega’s campaign surrogate added, “We brought two seasoned and outspoken veterans, former U.S. Army All-Source Intel Analyst of 17 years, Josephine Guilbeau, and former Green Beret of 25 years, Tony Aguilar, to share their expertise and experience on the topic.”

 

Vega’s campaign team said Guilbeau began by sharing her experience of joining the military and seeing that as the only option for her, having come from “a poor, working-class background in the rural bayou of Louisiana.” The campaign team said Guilbeau referred to that recruitment process now as an “economic draft” to illustrate the fact that poverty was a necessary precursor for enlistment.

 

Vega’s campaign team went on to say that prior to the Oct. 7th attacks by Hamas on Southern Israel, Guilbeau said she saw her profession as a means to an end to support her family and as her duty as an American citizen. Vega’s campaign said she said that after the Oct. 7th attacks, “the moral burden of the mass slaughtering of Palestinian children and the self-immolation of Aaron Bushnell moved her to discharge from her position as U.S. Army All-Source Intel Analyst and cybersecurity expert for the U.S. State Department.”

 

Vega’s campaign team said Guilbeau explained that it was then that she became “a whistleblower against the military industrial complex.” The campaign team said Guilbeau ended with an endorsement of her support for Jose Vega. “I am here to support Jose Vega. Why?” she reportedly asked. “Because he is principled in the values of humanity and that is what we are missing in our leaders.”

 

Vega’s campaign team said Aguilar followed with “detailed” expertise on what was described as “the current foreign policy of self-destruction.” The campaign said Aguilar explained the particulars of the U.S. current military exercises abroad in Venezuela, Nigeria, Palestine, the Caribbean, and the South China Sea as providing the legal basis to usher in a military dictatorship domestically.

 

The campaign said Aguilar spoke of “the mounting interventionist actions that the U.S. has taken,” and that he recounted the oath he made when he enlisted in the army at 17, pledging his loyalty not to a president, not to an administration, not to money, not to any particular faith, and especially not to any foreign government.

 

The campaign said that Aguilar said that it was based on that same oath that he later spoke out against the (so-called) Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which he said he worked on as a contractor as a retired veteran. The United Nations (U.N.) has also called for the dismantling of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.

 

“The GHF, a non-governmental organization created by Israel in February 2025, with US support, to allegedly distribute aid in Gaza, is an utterly disturbing example of how humanitarian relief can be exploited for covert military and geopolitical agendas in serious breach of international law,” U.N. experts said. “The entanglement of Israeli intelligence, US contractors and ambiguous non-governmental entities underlines the urgent need for robust international oversight and action under UN auspices.”

 

Vega’s campaign team said Agular also concluded his remarks offering his support of Vega’s campaign for Congress. The campaign team said Vega closed out the event with a speech on the question of, “What is the purpose of this campaign?”

 

They said Vega first recounted stories of two Bronx citizens, one from the present, a single mother who is working to put her daughter through private school while dealing with deteriorating public housing conditions, and one from the past, Gouverneur_Morris, the author of the preamble to the U.S. Constitution.

 

The campaign team said Vega explained that both stories were connected to illustrate the roots of The Bronx as a place built to center great ideas. They said Vega spoke of the degradation the borough has experienced as a result of “a policy of neglect.” They said Vega explained his campaign’s purpose in the context of The Bronx’s roots in “brilliant thinkers,” commemorated in various street names and neighborhoods.

 

“In my last campaign, I was sleeping in my car because I believed so much in what we were doing and what we were building,” Vega said. “Because we have to prove, that any American citizen with the right ideas, motivated by a pursuit for truth, should be allowed to run for Congress and win…We will measure the success of this campaign not just in the winning, but [by] how many people will learn the name Gouverneur Morris and who wrote the preamble of this Constitution.”

 

After the speeches, Vega’s campaign team said the group engaged in what was described as a lively Q&A and a discussion with the audience on engaging with the constituents, organizing opportunities, and creative pursuits that the campaign could take on to continually grow.

 

As reported, Torres is already being challenged by four other candidates who have launched campaigns since the beginning of November in NY-15, one of the poorest congressional districts in America which stretches from the northwest of the borough to the South Bronx. His detractors have cited his position on Gaza and the fact that he is heavily backed by AIPAC-interests, as one of the main reasons for opposing him.

 

The congressman has long defended U.S. support of what became a sustained Israeli bombing campaign in Gaza following the Oct. 7th 2023 attacks on southern Israel by Hamas which resulted in the deaths of around 1,200 Israeli people, and the kidnapping of more than 250 Israeli hostages. Some of the hostages have been released, some have been killed, and some remain captive, despite the latest ceasefire deal brokered by U.S. President Donald Trump on Oct. 10, which has not totally held.

 

It has been estimated by various sources that around 69,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces since the attacks, including around 20,000 children, that around 170,694 have been wounded, and Gaza has been decimated. As reported, Torres had endorsed former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo for mayor in the mayoral Democratic primary, even before he announced he was running.

 

Though he had publicly opposed Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani’s candidacy, Torres later denounced and rejected calls by a Republican congressman to deport Mamdani. Torres has also endorsed New York Gov. Kathy Hochul in her reelection bid. Hochul, in turn, had endorsed Mamdani ahead of the general election.

 

The Hon. Rev. Michael Blake, a former Bronx assemblyman in A.D. 79, which covers some or all of the Bronx neighborhoods of Claremont Village, Morrisania, Forest Houses, Crotona Park East, and Tremont and is currently represented by Assemblywoman Chantal Jackson, previously ran for Mayor of New York City, as reported, cross-endorsing Mamdani in the process. Blake announced Nov. 5 that he is now running to unseat Torres.

 

He previously ran for Congress in the Democratic Primary for the same district in 2020, as reported, garnering around 18% of the vote (2nd place), and for public advocate in 2019, winning 8.4% of the vote (4th place).

 

Meanwhile, attorney and advocate, the Hon. Dalourny Nemorin is also challenging Torres in NY-15. A native of Miami, Nemorin is a 2014 graduate of CUNY Law School, an alum of the prestigious Obama Foundation’s Leaders Program, a Legal Aid attorney specializing in criminal court appeals, and a member of Bronx Community Board 1, where she is the policy committee chair.

 

Her campaign said over the coming weeks and months, Nemorin and her allies will together “elevate the issues that matter to working-class Bronx residents, like housing, healthcare, public safety, and immigration, and the solutions they want the federal government to pursue to make their lives better and the world more just.”

 

Jon LaTona has also announced he is running in the Democratic Primary in NY-15, while Anthony Easton, an independent, is also aiming to win the seat.

 

Norwood News previously reached out to Torres’ team for a comment on the fact that he is being challenged for his seat. 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.”