About Ana María

Ana María Archila has been a leader in New York and nationally in the fight for immigrant rights, worker justice, LGBTQ rights, and women’s rights for two decades. Born in Colombia, Ana María has spent her entire adult life in New York. She co-founded and led several grassroots progressive organizations, including Make the Road New York and the Center for Popular Democracy, and has dedicated her life to fighting for the rights and dignity of working people - Black, Latino, Asian, white, immigrant and native born.

In New York, she fought for years so that every young person would be able to access high-quality education--helping lead campaigns to fully fund public schools, create school-based college access programs, and pass the New York Dream Act. She was also deeply involved in the fights for paid sick days, raising the minimum wage, and a range of other economic, racial, and justice campaigns. In New York and nationally, she has been a leader in the fight for humane immigration reform. 

She ran for Lieutenant Governor of New York in 2020 and led a remarkable effort; as a first-time candidate, she shaped the entire debate about the race and earned the votes of more than 200,000 New Yorkers in the Democratic primary.

Memorably, Ana María confronted former Arizona Senator Jeff Flake just before the Senate Judiciary Committee’s vote for controversial Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, leading to a delay in the process and forcing Flake and all Senators to reckon with their responsibility for allowing someone credibly accused of sexual assault to ascend to the Supreme Court. She joined Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez as a guest of honor at the 2019 State of the Union.