Women's Equality Party (New York)


The Women's Equality Party is a New York political party active only in that state. It was founded in 2014.

History

, the incumbent Governor of New York, created the party in July 2014 under New York's electoral fusion laws, which allow votes on any ballot line to count toward a ticket's overall vote count. The party's name came from the Women's Equality Act, a bill that Cuomo was attempting to push through the New York State Legislature but stalled after he and the bill's supporters demanded a clause codifying Roe v. Wade be included even as the Republican-led New York State Senate refused to include the clause.
From its beginning, the party was met with controversy. Zephyr Teachout, who was challenging Cuomo in a primary election, accused Cuomo of blatant pandering, since Cuomo was not a woman.
The party attained over 50,000 votes for the Cuomo–Hochul ticket in the 2014 gubernatorial elections, granting it automatic ballot access as a full political party under state law. Cuomo and Hochul submitted a set of rules that has twice been challenged: once by a pair of Republican clerks who noted that the rules were not approved by a majority of the WEP's statewide candidates, and again by former State Senator Cecilia Tkaczyk, who submitted her own set of rules in an attempt to become chair of the party.
In 2016, the party was led by acting chair Rachel Gold. In January 2018, Susan Zimet became chair of the party. Despite the change in leadership, and the fact that he is once again being challenged by a woman, the party supported Cuomo's 2018 reelection. The party is widely believed to still be controlled and funded by the Cuomo gubernatorial campaign as a front organization, with the party having minimal independent operations.
The party's acronym is visually close to that of the Working Families Party, a left-wing New York third party that endorsed Nixon in the Democratic primary. Political observers accused Cuomo of creating the party to confuse voters who may have otherwise supported the WFP.
The WEP was described by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez as a cynical, centrist group that endorsed male incumbents over female primary challengers like her and Cynthia Nixon.
In 2018 gubernatorial election, the party lost its automatic ballot line after failing to capture 50,000 votes for Cuomo. At the time it lost ballot access, it had approximately 1,100 registered members.