Brooks-Powers makes case to keep speaker's gavel in Southeast Queens

Queens Councilmember Selvena Brooks-Powers made her bid official for Council speaker on Thursday.  File photo by Emil Cohen/NYC Council Media Unit

By Ryan Schwach

Queens Councilmember and Majority Whip Selvena Brooks-Powers announced her intentions to campaign for City Council speaker in a letter to colleagues sent out Thursday afternoon.

In the letter, the Far Rockaway councilmember made a pitch to keep the speaker’s gavel in Southeast Queens and follow the footsteps of outgoing Speaker Adrienne Adams.

Brooks-Powers attempted to delineate herself from the frontrunners of the speaker’s race by claiming she would be neither a “check or rubber stamp” on the incoming Mamdani administration.

“I’m running to ensure that this Council delivers for New Yorkers,” Brooks-Powers wrote. “Not only do I believe I can do it, but I have the experience to prove it.”

Brooks-Powers has represented District 31, which includes the eastern end of the Rockaway peninsula and the mainland Southeast Queens neighborhoods of Laurelton and Rosedale, since 2021. She succeeded current Queens Borough President Donovan Richards after winning in a special election.

The 42-year-old lawmaker has since risen through the ranks of the Council under Speaker Adams, ascending to the roles of majority whip and chair of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.

However, Brooks-Powers’ relationship with the speaker reportedly soured after the younger lawmaker endorsed former Governor Andrew Cuomo in the mayoral primary, spurning her longtime ally who was also running. Following the endorsement, Brooks-Powers had her chair in the Council chambers moved further from Adams’, and was pulled from the Council’s powerful budget negotiating team, City & State reported in April.

Brooks-Powers has long been rumored to be in the running for speaker, but she has company, and potentially an uphill battle.

Brooklyn Councilmember Crystal Hudson and Manhattan Councilmember Julie Menin are currently considered the frontrunners for the gig. Lower Manhattan Councilmember Chis Marte also has his hat in the ring.

Hudson has aligned herself with the Council’s left-leaning members, and Menin has courted the body’s more moderate representatives.

Still, Brooks-Powers is making her pitch to succeed Adams and keep the speaker’s gavel firmly in Southeast Queens.

“The next speaker must lead a body that is responsive to the real issues our communities face:

rising costs, safety concerns, housing pressures, and a deep erosion of trust in government,” she wrote. “The people did not send us here to execute political machinations or choose sides in ideological camps. They sent us to solve problems, to make this city work better for everyone.”

“To do that, we must fully leverage the extraordinary talent within our Council,” she added. “We are community leaders, union organizers, teachers, health professionals, parents, survivors, lawyers, and small business owners. Yet too often, we operate as if we are 51 separate offices rather than one governing body. As Speaker, I will bring us together, so the power of this institution matches the power of the people it represents.”

She also laid out a list of priorities – which included increasing affordable housing, expanding transit and further supporting City Council staffers – and how she feels the Council should operate under the incoming Mamdani administration.

“This moment presents a unique opportunity. With Mayor-Elect Zohran Mamdani preparing to take office, we have the chance to redefine the relationship between the Council and the mayor's office,” she said. “Gone are the days when we were positioned as adversaries or automatic allies. From this point forward, we serve together as independent partners working toward shared goals for New Yorkers.”

Mamdani has not weighed in yet on who he prefers as his City Council partner.