Reformers faced off against the Brooklyn Democratic Party establishment in New York State Supreme Court Tuesday afternoon with the future of the county’s political party hanging in the balance.
Before a courtroom packed with supporters and critics of current party chair Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn alike, both camps made their case to Judge Jill Epstein, who was elevated to the state bench with the party’s blessing earlier this year.
“What we are looking at is an issue of a subversion of democracy,” argued Mark Hanna, an election lawyer representing the reformers and a longtime district leader aligned with New Kings Democrats.
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Mark Hanna, a district leader and election attorney representing reformers who sued the Brooklyn Democratic Party, speaks to reporters after a State Supreme Court hearing, Sept. 3, 2026. Credit: Gwynne Hogan/The City Reporter
The contentious legal fight comes in the wake of the June primary, when reformers aligned with New Kings Democrats flipped enough district leader seats to be able to select a new party chair, after nearly two decades of organizing against the party establishment. They’d lined up behind a longtime district leader from Sunset Park, Julio Peña III, who runs afterschool programming in his day job.
District leaders are unpaid elected positions who vote to select a leader of the county’s party every two years.
But before the newly elected district leaders could vote, current party chair Bichotte Hermelyn convened a meeting of the outgoing district leaders, pushing forth a series of changes to the party’s rules that added dozens of new voting members to the executive committee.
The expanded committee would make the New Kings Democrats newfound majority irrelevant by the time the party picks a chair later this fall.
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The rules changes drew the condemnation of every major Democrat in the state, from Governor Kathy Hochul to state Democratic Party chair Jay Jacobs.
Reformers sued, arguing the vote was an illegal power grab that violates election law and the party’s bylaws. They point to one part of election law that says district leaders “shall hold office until the next election at which members of the committee are elected,” arguing that the outgoing district leaders had no authority to vote to change party rules once the primary took place.
“They cannot vote on rules changes because they do not have the authority to vote,” Hanna said.
He pointed to a 2024 appellate court ruling in a lawsuit brought by Assemblymember Eddie Gibbs in Manhattan. In that case, the court overturned a vote taken by outgoing members of the leadership committee to install new district leaders, a party chair and a secretary. The vote took place after the primary, and the court found that outgoing members could no longer “exercise functions in substantial matters.”
But attorneys for the Brooklyn Democratic Party point to another section of the law, that says that until the new district leaders take their seats at the county committee meeting, “the existing county committee shall exercise all legal authority.”
A screenshot form a video in which Brooklyn Democratic Party chair Rodneyse Bichotte-Hermelyn defended the controversial rule changes. Credit: Brooklyn Democratic Party via X
The county committee meeting, which by law must occur between Sept. 17 and Oct. 6, used to take place on the heels of a September primary, but now happens months after the primary, which was moved to June in 2020.
“They had the legal authority when they acted as they did,” argued attorney Amy Beth Marion.
Marion offered a more sedate appearance than that of Anthony Genovesi, a longtime lawyer for the Brooklyn Democratic Party who had appeared twice before Judge Epstein last week, often drawing the judge’s ire for repeatedly interrupting her and other people in the courtroom, raising his voice and lurching to his feet.
In some ways, the political power struggle echoes a struggle for Black political power in Brooklyn, as communities across the city have rapidly gentrified. Bichotte Hermelyn has been quick to lean in that narrative.
In an interview with NY1 ahead of the vote last month, she listed a number of people who’d condemned her proposed rule changes including State Assemblymember Bobby Carroll, state Sen. Andrew Gounardes, Councilmember Lincoln Restler and congressional candidate Brad Lander. “What’s in common? White men. White men who are agitated…” she said. “I don’t accept that and the Black community certainly don’t accept that.”
District Leader Julio Peña III speaks on the steps of Brooklyn Borough Hall about his support to lead the borough’s Democratic party, Aug. 24, 2026. Credit: Ben Fractenberg/The City Reporter
But reformers point to a diverse slate of incoming district leaders including several newly-elected Black leaders who aren’t satisfied with the status quo. At a press conference last week, Akwasi Agyeman, one of those incoming district leaders aligned with New Kings Democrats, spoke about having to fend off a legal challenge from the county establishment to keep his place on the ballot. “I had to fight off this lady who tried to sue me,” he said. “I look like you, and I’m from Brooklyn.”
The reformers argue Brooklynites are eager to move past years of petty corruption and favor-trading that have marred the party, capped off by Mayor Eric Adams’s one term as mayor, which he won with the enthusiastic backing of the Brooklyn Democratic Party.
As Tuesday’s hearing concluded, a group of Brooklyn Democratic Party supporters — mostly older Black men and women — chanted “we are the community” as they walked out together. Anthony Jones, a district leader who voted with Bichotte Hermelyn, led the march down the hall.
“We want to make sure that all the representatives of the community by increasing the numbers we’re going to be able to get stay-at-home moms, stay-at-home dads, senior citizens, people from different ethnicities and different backgrounds,” Jones said.
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A longtime Bichotte Hermelyn ally, Jones previously conceded that members of his political club had submitted forged signatures on filings seeking to boot opponents of Bichotte Hermelyn.
“One of the things I want to say to New Kings Democrats, ‘Respect Mommy,” he said, referring to Bichotte Hermelyn.
Several of the people leaving court said they’d gotten a call from their district leader asking them to show up in court, with little explanation of what they were attending. One woman who declined to give her name said she’d gotten a call from someone in Bichotte Hermelyn’s office.
“Just to come to the meeting. They didn’t give us no details,” the woman said. She’d arrived after the courtroom was full and waited outside and said she wasn’t sure what had happened. “I didn’t know anything.”
Bichotte Hermelyn didn’t appear in court for three consecutive appearances and hasn’t spoken to reporters about the vote since absconding out the back door of the Thomas Jefferson Democratic Club in Mill Basin last month.
Brooklyn Democratic district leaders met inside the Thomas Jefferson Club in Mill Basin to vote on changing bylaws for electing the borough’s party chair, Aug. 25, 2026. Credit: Katie Honan/The City Reporter
Instead, she’s released a series of video messages defending the rules change as a way to democratize leadership of the party.
While the rules changes add many new seats to the executive committee, they would be voted on through the county committee, of which Bichotte Hermelyn controls hundreds of proxy votes, meaning she could easily select a slate of dozens of new executive committee members, more than doubling the current number of existing district leaders, reformers argue.
During the last county committee meeting in 2024, Bichotte Hermelyn and her allies held more than 600 proxy votes, while New Kings Democrats and their allies held around 200, records kept by New Kings Democrats shared with The City Reporter show.
In latest video message, Bichotte Hermelyn dunked on New Kings Democrats, declaring “y’all have been out-organized again.”
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