By Phineas Rueckert

With less than three weeks left to go before the Democratic primary for Queens District Attorney, public defender Tiffany Cabán ramped up her campaign with several high-profile endorsements, a rally and a powerful campaign ad.

The DA hopeful, who has already racked up endorsements from U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, State Sen. Jessica Ramos, and a number of other politicians and activists, added several more this week.

On Thursday afternoon, Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner, a leader in the justice reform movement, endorsed Cabán at a small rally in Jackson Heights. Over the rumbling sounds of the elevated subway, Krasner touted Caban’s campaign as the one truly progressive campaign in the Queens DA race.

“Make no mistake, the progressive candidate that we are supporting — and by ‘we,’ I mean those of us who care deeply about criminal justice reform — and speaking for myself as Philadelphia’s District Attorney, the one I am supporting is Tiffany Caban,” he said.

Cabán’s campaign has paralleled Krasner’s 2017 bid for Philadelphia DA, by championing “transformational” change in the prosecutor’s office.

“I’ve spent my entire career representing over 1,000 people who are trapped in our racist, classist justice system,” Cabán said. “It’s going to take a public defender … to fundamentally transform the status quo and the metrics of success within our district attorney’s office.”

Krasner, who once called himself “completely unelectable” because of the number of times (75) that he had sued the Philadelphia Police Department, won his election in Philadelphia with more than three-quarters of the votes after running on a progressive platform focused on decarceration.

Krasner framed Caban’s candidacy in terms of both its present and future impact.

“What somebody like Tiffany does — if the campaign does it well — is bring in new voters, bring in young voters, which is incredibly important for her, but it’s also important because those people will be voters for life,” Krasner told the Eagle.

Later in the evening, about 150 people, many of them in their 20s and 30s, attended another event at Anable Basin in Long Island City, which featured speeches from Krasner, Browder; State Sen. Ramos, journalist and activist Shaun King and Councilmember Jimmy Van Bramer.