Ritchie Torres Quotes

Ritchie Torres

Profession : Politician

Birth : March 12, 1988

What I bring to Congress is not a college degree or credentials, what I'm going to bring to Congress is the wisdom of lived experience.

Ritchie Torres

I'm a Bronx boy to the core.

Ritchie Torres

If you're a progressive, you believe every American deserves safe, decent, and affordable housing, and there's no institution in American life more dedicated to that proposition than the New York City Housing Authority.

Ritchie Torres

I can serve as a role model and inspiration to people who see their lives and experiences in mine.

Ritchie Torres

Extroverts are energized by social interaction. I'm often exhausted by it. I am someone who needs personal time for deep thought and reflection.

Ritchie Torres

Life as an introverted politician has been a challenge, but I have mastered it.

Ritchie Torres

I never thought I would be elected to office because in truth I am an introvert in a business mostly designed for extroverts.

Ritchie Torres

I take an expansive view of infrastructure. For me, infrastructure is more than roads and bridges. It's about the quality of the water we drink and the air we breathe.

Ritchie Torres

We have to create and preserve enough affordable housing to meet the demand, because the affordability crisis is imposing a hardship on millions of Americans.

Ritchie Torres

The structure of the Senate concentrates power in a small subset of states that are much whiter, much more rural, much more conservative than the rest of America. And the filibuster takes that deeply undemocratic structure to a new extreme.

Ritchie Torres

There's a romanticized vision of the filibuster as the best hope for bipartisanship it's given us nothing but gridlock. It has made Washington, D.C., ungovernable.

Ritchie Torres

I don't hire ideologues or zealots.

Ritchie Torres

Most of the people in the South Bronx are practical rather than ideological. Their concerns are bread and butter, health and housing, schools and jobs.

Ritchie Torres

One of the great ironies of our time is that some of the most progressive cities are among the most systemically racist in their housing policies.

Ritchie Torres

We want better policing. We don't want a total defunding of police.

Ritchie Torres

With sovereignty and security comes the inherent right of self-defense, a right that every state, including our own, takes for granted. Why should Israel be an exception to the rule?

Ritchie Torres

All of us, especially those holding elected office, have to be visible and vocal - fearless and forceful - in standing up for our greatest friend in the Middle East.

Ritchie Torres

We cannot allow ourselves to be silenced by an overbearing Twitter mob, dominated by the extremes of American politics. If we, in elected office, are not willing to say and do what is right, then we are unworthy of the office we hold.

Ritchie Torres

It is shameful to witness legislatures across the country endorse policies that endanger the safety of trans individuals and block access to critical services.

Ritchie Torres

The defund police movement is dead in New York City - and good riddance. And any elected official who's advocating for the abolition and/or even the defunding of police is out of touch with reality and should not be taken seriously.

Ritchie Torres