Abundance is on the ballot—and so is our co-founder

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Abundance New York officially launched two years ago this month—but our founder origin story dates back nearly 22 years, to the fall of 2004, when Ryder Kessler and I met in the ensemble of The Pirates of Penzance. Neither of us remembers the exact moment our friendship started, but after many late nights singing and dancing and loading in the set and doing our stage makeup, we had become inseparable.

After the show ended, we replaced rehearsals with TV binges and late-night conversations about what we were going to do with our lives. We both wanted to work in fields where we’d have social impact, but we puzzled over how: Work for a nonprofit? Jump into a campaign? Join or create a mission-driven company? As I agonized over these choices, Ryder brought a much-needed levity; there was a Sex and the City line, it turned out, for every situation.

Underneath the wit was a deeply principled approach to helping others. When we graduated, Ryder founded a start-up to help service workers make more in tips. Our late-night conversations continued as our thinking on social impact evolved. We kept orbiting the same conclusion: to truly solve people’s affordability problems, you need smarter policy—and to get that policy, you need to build power. Our careers started to intertwine. He helped me start an organization focused on state legislative politics in the wake of Trump’s first election. And when he ran for State Assembly himself in 2022, I eagerly supported his campaign, hosting events with my increasingly pregnant belly.

When he lost to a notoriously NIMBY incumbent, we put our heads together. How could we make it easier for candidates like him to run and win—and then actually solve the problems plaguing New York? Abundance New York was our answer to that question: we needed a political ecosystem that could rival the political machines keeping the status quo in place.

Over the past two years (and, indeed, the past 22), I’ve been awed by how big Ryder dreams—and how his speed, savvy, and stick-to-it-ness can turn those dreams into reality faster than I’d ever imagined. Since our founding, we’ve grown from 500 to 5,000 subscribers, hosted over 60 events, and had our voter guide recommendations viewed over 400,000 times. Ryder has been a driving force behind this growth: building relationships with abundance champions across the political spectrum, creating original content on state and local policy, and—true to form—making the whole thing fun.

The result? We’ve notched some major wins on housing and transit: City of Yes for Housing Opportunity passed the Council, congestion pricing is on and thriving, voters approved last year’s charter amendments, and SEQRA reform passed through this year’s budget. We’ve helped elect 20 abundance champions, up and down the ballot. Our mayor and governor both proudly claim their abundance bona fides, demonstrating the movement’s ability to unify politicians across ideological divides. And we’ve created a political ecosystem where federal candidates are now vying to be named the “abundance” champion—and where even Ryder’s main opponent is (falsely) claiming the YIMBY mantle. The politics of abundance are winning, in large part thanks to Ryder’s steadfast work.

With the incumbent in State Assembly District 66 retiring, Ryder is now running again to represent the village, SoHo, NoHo, TriBeCa, and Meatpacking District, with an even more impressive track record of accomplishments. We endorsed him on the basis of this track record—and as his friend and co-founder, I wanted to offer a look behind the curtain at what working with Ryder is like.

• Ryder is a champion for the working class. An unabashed progressive and two-time Working Families Party endorsee, Ryder demonstrates how abundance and progressivism are compatible, not at odds—that being a progressive champion of the working class and the marginalized demands a focus on building more housing, transit, and energy infrastructure to make New York more affordable and welcoming.

• His policies are deeply personal. Ryder speaks passionately about how his great-grandparents came to New York to flee religious persecution, his great-uncle snuck his mother into the Stonewall Inn, where he used to do drag—and two generations later, Ryder could grow up in this city knowing he was free to live out and proud as a gay man. But, with median rents in Manhattan over $5,000, New York cannot be the haven for LGBTQ youth—or refugees fleeing persecution—it has historically been. He sees and truly believes in the throughline between abundance policy and our deeper hopes and aspirations.

• No one works harder than Ryder. When Governor Hochul paused congestion pricing weeks before the cameras were set to turn on, Ryder sprang into action. He immediately identified the most critical step—convincing the legislature to push back against Hochul by voting “no” on MTA stopgap funding—and started tracking which legislators were on record about the pause, determining who needed convincing, and calling their teams as the vote extended into the night. He’s brought this energy and speed to every challenge we’ve faced, from whipping Community Board votes on City of Yes for Housing Opportunity to organizing volunteers to support last year’s charter amendments. I can’t wait to see him bring this drive to the Assembly.

Working with Ryder has been a dream—one that started, improbably, in a Gilbert & Sullivan ensemble 22 years ago. The thing that made our friendship stick then is the same thing that makes this movement work now: Ryder shows up, fully, for whatever the moment requires. On June 23, we have a chance to show up for him and send him to Albany.

If you’ve been part of this community, this is your moment too. Volunteer, tell your friends, and show up to vote.