16 Facts About Dan Cantor

Daniel Cantor is an American political organizer known for organizing labor and community figures to advocate for social democratic reforms in the Alinskyite Social Democrat tradition.

Dan Cantor is most well known for being the co-founder and long-time leader of the Working Families Party, a social democratic and progressive third party in New York.

Dan Cantor's mother was a librarian who was active in civic affairs and engaged in anti-censorship movements.

Dan Cantor has stated that his interest in politics began when, as a teenager, his uncle gifted him a subscription to The Progressive.

Dan Cantor enrolled at Wesleyan University, but left in his sophomore year to work on an Israeli Kibbutz.

In 1984, Dan Cantor joined the National Labor Committee in Support of Democracy and Human Rights in El Salvador and mobilized opposition to AFL-CIO's policy in Latin America.

Dan Cantor worked on Jesse Jackson's 1984 and 1988 presidential campaigns.

Dan Cantor moved to New York City, where fusion remained legal, and began working with leaders from the political organizations ACORN and Citizen Action, as well as from unions like the Communications Workers of America and United Auto Workers, to launch the Working Families Party in 1998.

Dan Cantor, meanwhile, focused on local issues; childhood education, affordable college, and increased park and library budgets.

In 2013 with an interview with Bill Moyers, Cantor argued for extensive political finance reform to effectively overturn Citizens United v FEC at a local level.

Dan Cantor argued for "one person one vote, not one dollar one vote," and to construct limits on the amount of money in politics.

Dan Cantor argued that local, grassroots donations should be the sole metric of if a campaign is viable so that the politician is held responsible to their constituents instead of their donors.

The party and Dan Cantor's influence entered a period of decline during and after the 2014 New York gubernatorial election where Dan Cantor initially sought to run a WFP candidate against Andrew Cuomo, opposing his tax cuts for the wealthy and for banks, and his expansion of union-free charter schools.

In 2017 Dan Cantor helped organize anti-Trump healthcare protests, organizing "sit-ins" in numerous Republican offices after Trump signaled that he would be replacing the Affordable Care Act.

Dan Cantor stepped down as the head of the WFP after nearly 20 years leaving the party in 2018, being succeeded by Maurice Mitchell, a well-known social strategist and organizer in the Black Lives Matter movement.

Dan Cantor closed the op-ed criticizing Andrew Cuomo's attempt to ban fusion voting practice in New York, and calling for it to be adopted nationally.