A New Yorker cartoonist chronicles the rise of a socialist state senator

By Michael Cavna for The Washington Post

Julia Salazar after winning the Democratic primary in a New York State Senate race in 2018. (Julie Jacobson/Associated Press)

Sofia Warren’s belief in government was plummeting toward rock bottom. Demoralized and disillusioned, she tried making political donations, but nothing was “changing the landscape of my life all that much.”

From such a low view, though, sometimes you stop to appreciate what’s growing at the grass roots. And in her community four years ago, a movement was gaining traction.

Warren, a cartoonist who contributes to the New Yorker, began to notice a new candidate who piqued her creative interest. This energetic woman from Brooklyn was nicknamed “La Esperanza (the Hope) de Bushwick.”