2 candidates starve for a cause

Two mayoral candidates say they are joining a hunger strike to call for funding for undocumented workers and others who’ve been excluded from federal relief.

City Comptroller Scott Stringer and former nonprofit executive Dianne Morales announced Wednesday they were refraining from food for 24 hours in solidarity with the workers.

“They’re making a sacrifice to put the city on notice that the people who fought through the pandemic were immigrant workers,” Stringer said at a Wednesday rally outside Judson Memorial Church in Greenwich Village. “I join this hunger strike today.”

Stringer had his latest meal on Tuesday night, according to his campaign.

A coalition of immigrants and supporters organized the hunger strike to pressure Albany to provide $3.5 billion in direct cash assistance to workers who have been left out of federal aid over the past year.

Morales stopped eating for 24 hours on Wednesday morning, according to campaign manager Whitney Hu, who said the candidate couldn’t attend the rally because she was in quarantine after coming into contact with a positive COVID case.

“Our Black and Brown communities, our immigrant neighbors, have carried us through this pandemic,” Hu said at the rally, reading remarks from Morales, one of the most progressive candidates in the packed race.

“The failure to protect these workers was deliberate … and it reflects how the state views some of our most vulnerable New Yorkers as disposable.”