Christian Celeste Tate is not from here. That's the first thing he says.
Assembly District 54 (Bushwick, Cypress Hills, East New York) just elected him to Albany, but the origin story living in every press release ("31-year-old anti-poverty activist ends the Dilan dynasty") is not the story he tells about himself.
Sitting down with ENYT host Brian Vines for his first long-form local interview, Tate pushed back on the framing right at the top.
"First of all, I want to know where 'anti-poverty activist' came from. I don't know what that is."
He came from Maryland. Moved to New York in 2018. Spent his first years here doing what almost every young person who moves to this city does: getting pushed around, apartment to apartment.
"I was being starved of a sense of place. So I decided, even before I moved to Bushwick, that after years of being pushed around, the next place I live, I'm going to make that place mine. And I'm going to know my neighbors' names, and I'm going to join my community board."
That place ended up being Bushwick. That community board ended up being CB4. And the first person he sat next to at his first meeting (Millie Sandoval, director of organizing at Communities Resist) gave him the advice he still repeats.
"I asked her how folks new to the community could best show up. And she literally said: 'Say hi. It's that simple.'"
Eight years and one landslide primary later, here's what he told us.
On the two ICE arrests
Brian asked Tate about walking into the Assembly chamber the same way he'd walked into federal custody: "just a few months ago I saw you let out in handcuffs."
Tate did not flinch. "I suspect I'll be let out in the same way again."
Pressed for specifics, he named both actions on the record for the first time:
"One was at Federal Plaza in Manhattan. The folks who organized the rally identified a vehicle ramp that would be how they would take folks in and out, who they swept up going to federal court. So we occupied that ramp to prevent them from taking anybody out of the complex, and then were arrested on site.
The other was at a Hilton. Hilton was housing ICE agents who were in Manhattan, so we occupied the lobby and made a lot of noise to let non-ICE guests know that you're staying: the person in the room next to you might be an ICE agent, and by the way, this corporation profiting off of your business is also taking money from a fascist regime."
Asked whether he was still prepared to be that person once he had a seat on the Assembly floor:
"I'm an organizer. …There absolutely are times when building that world requires agitation. And I think it is a mistake that we often think about our elected officials as our movement leaders. I don't think that's true.
The dynamic I'm looking for is one in which I can be deployed by my community to go play this part, go play that part, and sometimes that part means walking off in handcuffs, and sometimes that part means finding some Republicans I can work with to pass a bill that's going to benefit East New York."
On the day job
Brian pivoted to a job Tate presumably did not find on Craigslist: his role as a Senior Manager at The Bridgespan Group. How, Brian asked, would his parents describe the work to their friends?
Tate laughed.
"I have no idea what they would say. I think it's intentionally hard to understand."
Brian pushed. Big-dollar donor: what does that actually mean?
Tate gave a number no other outlet has printed:
"One of my primary clients had a goal of spending, I think it was like $10 billion over the next 10 years. That's the high end. That's enormous amounts of money."
Then the answer that reframes everything:
"I got to spend time trying to figure out: how would I spend $10 billion in 10 years in order to reduce poverty? …But it also was really affirming that if we're going to have a more just world, it won't be because of somebody else's charity. …That will never produce the world that I want to build.
And so it was both helpful and also radicalizing."
He called his own consulting career, in so many words, radicalizing, pushing him into the community organizing he does when he's not at that desk.
On the criticism that changed him
Brian asked what was the most valid criticism Tate had received. He didn't reach for the easy answer.
"So much of what activated me in my New York experience was the classic tenant experience of being pushed around. And although my auntie's a homeowner in Bed-Stuy, I've heard her version of the homeowner experience. …It required me to receive the tough feedback of like, this movement of keeping people in their homes, that's not a tenant movement. That movement does need to center tenants in a lot of ways, but it also is a homeowner movement.
It wasn't until I started having conversations with folks on the community boards and with the East New York Community Land Trust that I started to really broaden my understanding."
In a district where deed theft is an active crisis, that admission matters.
On Mamdani, Sandy Nurse, and who actually moves voters
Tate served as East Brooklyn field coordinator for Mayor Mamdani's general, but Mamdani never returned the favor with a primary endorsement. Tate was diplomatic:
"Did I want his endorsement? Of course I did. But more than I wanted his endorsement, I want this work to be successful."
Then he pivoted to who did move voters:
"We knocked on 75,000 doors. I knocked on almost 4,000 of those myself. And we had endorsements from Bernie Sanders and AOC. And I would be talking to somebody at the door thinking I'm something, talking about Bernie Sanders, and they would cut me off and say, 'Is Sandy with you or what?'
And I love that. Because that is a testament to how present she is."
Sandy Nurse. City Council. Local. Not the national names.
On why 190 votes became 62%
Two cycles ago, the incumbent held AD-54 by fewer than 200 votes. This time Tate took 62%. Brian asked for the secret sauce. Tate said it's the moment.
"We have watched genocide and unsanctioned wars and economic violence, in addition to the physical violence that a fascist government is inflicting in our name. …Folks are looking around, wondering who is fighting for them.
And I think that environment just does not allow for representatives who are skating by. It doesn't allow for folks who are there in title, but not in physical presence."
"Sometimes that part means walking off in handcuffs, and sometimes that part means finding some Republicans I can work with to pass a bill that's going to benefit East New York."
What We're Watching
Five Threads From This Interview
- The ICE actions on the record. Federal Plaza. The Hilton lobby. We'll be following up on case dispositions.
- The Bridgespan question. Whether he keeps the consulting job through the legislative session, and how it interacts with his state disclosures.
- The East New York Community Land Trust. How much of his housing agenda in Albany carries their fingerprints.
- The Sandy Nurse alliance. What Council Member Nurse and Assembly Member Tate build together will shape hyperlocal power for the rest of the decade.
- The presence test. He said the era doesn't allow for representatives "there in title, but not in physical presence." We'll be reporting on whether he is.
Have documents or tips from inside AD-54? Reach us at info@eastnewyorktimes.com
Interview conducted by Brian Vines for East New York Times. Story written by Deric Johnson.
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