Sean Davis for Astoria

I’ve announced that I’m running for Astoria mayor and even though it is a nonpartisan position, people keep asking what party I am. I’m not trying to be intentionally vague or pander for votes when I say I hate that we’ve turned politics into a name tag.  

Democrat. Republican. Liberal. Conservative. Left. Right.

One word, slapped on each of us, and once that label gets applied, people start assuming they know everything about us: what we believe, who we care about, what we fear, what we value, what kind of country we want to live in. The whole messy miracle of democracy reduced to a checkbox on a ballot. 

But none of us are that simple.

I registered as Working Families Party last year, before I ever thought seriously about running for office, because I had grown disappointed with both major parties. I didn’t like how either of them lead as separate parties, and I am very disappointed with how they govern together. I was tired of watching two sides that often seem more interested in defeating each other than serving the people they represent. We have real problems in our communities: housing, homelessness, addiction, mental health, jobs, infrastructure, public safety, aging veterans, families trying to stay afloat. And too often, our politics answers those problems with theater, talking points, and another round of professionally manufactured outrage. It would be funny if it weren’t so exhausting, if people weren’t suffering from the lack of leadership.

If you want to know my views on a certain topic. Reach out to me personally and I will tell you. We can have a conversation or even an honest argument, an that is how this is supposed to work.

I dislike the two party system. The numbers show I’m not alone. Gallup reported in January 2026 that 45% of U.S. adults identified as political independents in 2025, a record high in their polling. That is not a fringe movement. That is millions of Americans looking at the two-party food fight and quietly backing away from the buffet. Pew Research Center found that eight in ten Americans say Republican and Democratic voters cannot even agree on basic facts, not just policies. Pew also reported that Americans largely express negative feelings toward both parties, with 75% saying the Democratic Party makes them feel frustrated and 64% saying the same about the Republican Party.

That should worry us. Not because disagreement is bad. Disagreement is healthy. Democracy needs disagreement, but when disagreement turns into contempt, when party becomes identity, when neighbors stop seeing neighbors and start seeing enemies, we lose something precious. Honestly, I am running for office now, specifically for a nonpartisan position, because our contry has become way to divided, and I believe I am the type of leader who brings people together.

In the military, I worked with people from every kind of background, culture, religion, race, region, and political belief this country can produce. And believe me, America can produce a wide variety of loud opinions in a very small room. We did not always agree. Sometimes we disagreed loudly, creatively, and with language that would make a sailor blush. But when there was a mission, when people were depending on us, we worked together. We had to. Nobody asked whether the person next to them voted the same way before trusting them to do the job. I have army brothers who are conservative and others who are liberal and I trust them with my and my family’s life. 

People are bigger than their labels. Shared purpose matters more than perfect agreement. Someone who sees the world differently may still be the person you count on. That is the true measure of a healthy community.

That is the kind of politics I believe in. Not a politics without values. Not a politics where we pretend every idea is equally good. Some ideas are bad, but we can hold strong beliefs without turning each other into caricatures.

Our communities do not need more one-word people. We need whole people. People willing to listen. People willing to argue honestly. People willing to change their minds when the facts demand it. People willing to sit across the table from someone they disagree with and say, “We both live here. The problem is still in front of us. Let’s get to work.”

Because in the end, a party label will not fix a road, house a family, comfort a veteran, support a small business, or keep a kid safe.

That is your job. That is my job. That’s what communities do together, and we owe it to each other to remember that.

Thank you,
Sean Davis

sean@RogueCell.org if you want to talk more about it.