New York Prohibition Party Publishes Anniversary Edition of The Prohibitionist

The New York Prohibition Party recently published the anniversary edition of its official newsletter, The Prohibitionist, celebrating the national party’s 154th anniversary and outlining the state party’s priorities for the coming year.

The anniversary issue, published late last month, commemorates both the national Prohibition Party’s founding on September 1, 1869, and the New York state party’s seventh year since reorganizing on September 8, 2017. As with past editions, the newsletter explores party history and state-specific electoral highlights. A significant portion is also dedicated to detailing the party’s activities throughout the year and its main priorities for the future.

The New York Prohibition Party writes that it is working toward establishing a fully operational state executive committee and is exploring fielding candidates for local elections, especially for school board races and positions in town and village governments. The party also seeks to expand its outreach efforts, particularly through social media, local events, and building local community ties with ideological allies, as a response to combatting misinformation and propaganda from the alcohol industry, which it says has “long spread throughout the state.”

“In order to do this, we must forge connections with community groups, health organizations, educators, faith groups, historians, and the like, convince them of these things, and work with them to help inform the public,” the newsletter states.

The party states that it ultimately aims to engage in larger-scale advocacy once it has grown to a point where it can successfully do so. However, the party acknowledges that, for the immediate future, it will continue to operate as a non-recognized political party, focusing primarily on issue advocacy and nominating candidates through independent petitions until it becomes viable enough to seek official party recognition.

Additionally, the party admits that placing a future Prohibition Party presidential nominee on the ballot is unlikely under the state’s current ballot access requirements. However, it intends to continue organizing efforts aimed at securing write-in votes for its future candidates. Notably, the national Prohibition Party’s 2024 presidential ticket of Michael Wood and John Pietrowski failed to submit the paperwork necessary to be recognized as a write-in option in the state, which the New York Prohibition Party acknowledges was due to an inability to complete the required paperwork in time.