Biaggi leaves Ben Franklin Club to start her own

Over the last year or so, it just become clear that my values are not aligned with the leadership of the club, which is fine," Biaggi told The Riverdale Press. "So I'm going to start my own club."

It's the early stages, and it's going to take time to be thoughtful about what it looks like and about what the goals are, and what a modern political club is," Biaggi said. "But it's really important that our political infrastructure is reflective of the future."

I think of the Democratic Party as inclusive," Biaggi said. "It's diverse. It's compassionate. It's all of the things that we all think about when we're campaigning, and that we live through when we're governing. But there isn't really a place for people to kind of congregate, and that's important."

How we treat each other really matters in a very big way," Biaggi said. "I think that the old way of being, like 'the political boss,' that's not a reality that the majority of people are embracing. And it's not a reality that I'm going to embrace ever. I don't believe that's what democracy is."