Communist Party USA Member Elected to Ithaca, New York Council on Democratic and WFP Lines

A member of the Communist Party USA was elected this month to the Ithaca Common Council in New York on the Democratic and Working Families Party lines, defeating an independent candidate in a two-way race for the city’s Ward 5 seat.

A November 7 People’s World report shared by the Communist Party USA confirmed that Hannah Shvets, a Cornell University student elected November 4 as an Alderperson, is a member of the organization’s Ithaca club. The report added that she also ran with support from the Democratic Socialists of America and its student affiliate, the Young Democratic Socialists of America, with the Cornell chapter describing her as “the youngest elected endorsed by DSA in history.”

“The Shvets campaign, which leveraged a working-class coalition against a clique of property owners, demonstrated the potential for exceptional electoral success when emphasis is placed on community coalition-building rather than a strategy of public relations and personal relationships among the existing political elite,” the People’s World report reads. It further notes that she was endorsed by advocacy groups like the United Auto Workers, United Electrical, Radio & Machine Workers of America, and the Ithaca Teachers Association.

Before seeking office, Shvets was active in local organizing around labor and student activism. According to her campaign website, she worked with the Tompkins County Workers’ Center, where she assisted with labor outreach and community education. She also participated in student organizing efforts at Cornell University and local campaigns advocating for workplace protections and affordable housing.

Shvets’s campaign centered on labor rights, housing affordability, and tenant protections. Her policy proposals included creating a local Workers Rights Committee, adopting a Just Cause employment standard, establishing a city-specific minimum wage, and implementing rent stabilization measures. She also called for expanded public transit and community-owned renewable energy projects.

While she ran on two ballot lines, unofficial county returns list only Shvets’s combined total. She received 243 votes, or 64.12%, compared with 134 for G.P. “Gepe” Zurenda, who ran as an independent on the Affordable Ithaca Party line. It was a rematch for the two, as Zurenda had earlier lost the Democratic primary to Shvets by 11 votes. No Republican or Conservative candidate contested the Ward 5 race.