Charles Barron - 2012 Congressional Campaign

2012 Congressional Campaign

Barron announced that he would seek the 2012 Democratic nomination for the House seat. Incumbent Edolphus Towns is retiring and Barron will face New York State Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries and other candidates in a primary election. By mid-June, 2012, Jeffries had raised $700,000 in campaign donations compared to Barrons' $50,000.

On June 11, 2012, former Mayor Ed Koch, Congressman Jerrold Nadler, Councilman David G. Greenfield, Assemblyman Dov Hikind gathered with several other elected officials to support Jeffries and denounce his opponent in the Democratic primary, Charles Barron. Barron was described as anti-Semitic, and his support of Zimbabwe ruler Robert Mugabe and former Libya ruler Muammar Gaddafi denounced. Barron responded that such attacks had not been raised when he spoke before Jewish groups in Brooklyn, and that his constituents were interested in discussing "bread and butter" issues, not foreign policy. The candidates differed strongly on charter schools. Barron is one of the charter schools' strongest critics, while Jeffries endorses them.

Barron lost the Democratic nomination to Jeffries, with Jeffries taking 72% for the vote to Barron's 28% on June 26, 2012. Barron refused to congratulate Jeffries, accusing the Jeffries campaign of "r a smear campaign show a lack of character." He added: "They had the media. They called us names — the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Post, the white media — because we were endorsed by the Amsterdam News and Black Star. We had the Wall Street corporate elite, the Democratic establishment, and the media all against us. But we put the state and nation on notice." Jeffries stated in his own victory speech that "The political pundits said that this was going to be a close race, but that was before the people had spoken."