Syracuse Mayoral Race 2017

Howie Hawkins declares 3rd mayoral run in 13 years

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Howie Hawkins enters the Syracuse mayoral race as the 10th candidate to announce their campaign. He is up against seven Democrats, one GOP candidate and one Independent.

Howie Hawkins declared his candidacy for Syracuse mayor on Thursday, making him the sole Green Party candidate so far.

Hawkins has run for public office more than 20 times, including a previous campaign for mayor of Syracuse in 2005. He has never won an election since his first campaign in 1993. Hawkins also lost the New York gubernatorial race as a Green Party candidate in 2010 and 2014 and Syracuse auditor in 2015.

The mayoral candidate is centering his campaign on his “Sustainable Syracuse” vision, which promotes desegregation of neighborhoods and employment, progressive tax reform, community policing and publicly-owned and modernized infrastructure and utilities.

The campaign platform also includes a plan to establish a community hiring hall to help Syracuse residents obtain city and city-contractor jobs while simultaneously fulfilling affirmative action goals for minority hiring in city jobs. It also includes a plan to encourage voter turnout and promote publicly and community-owned business growth.

Despite his past losses, Hawkins garnered more than 100,000 votes in the 2014 New York gubernatorial race and put the Green Party on the fourth line of the ballot, according to Hawkins’ press release. On his campaign website, Hawkins called his strategy to win “grassroots,” which means getting volunteers to help the campaign through canvassing.



Since the 1960s, Hawkins has pushed progressive reform, which began in his hometown in the Bay Area and has since migrated to Syracuse when he moved to the city in 1991. Within two years he was on the Syracuse Common Council ballot.

Hawkins enters the mayoral race as the 10th candidate to announce their campaign. He is up against seven Democrats, one Republican candidate and one independent.





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