The elections are over. The new session is underway. And a contingent of fresh-faced lawmakers is shaking things up in Washington, D.C. – perhaps none more than New York’s own, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
But she’s not the only New Yorker embarking on a promising congressional career. Three other young Democrats – Anthony Brindisi, Antonio Delgado and Max Rose – helped their party take back the House by flipping seats in swing districts last fall. And let’s not overlook Joseph Morelle, the former Assembly majority leader who succeeded the late Louise Slaughter in a safely Democratic district.
Here’s a rundown of all five new lawmakers that New Yorkers elected to serve in the U.S. House of Representatives.
ANTHONY BRINDISI
Heather Ainsworth/AP/Shutterstock
After knocking out Republican Claudia Tenney in a November nailbiter, Rep. Anthony Brindisi is now set on winning over constituents in his GOP-leaning upstate district. Since being sworn in, the Democratic lawmaker has voted for former Vice President Joe Biden for House speaker instead of political punching bag Nancy Pelosi, advocated for the continuation of health care coverage for people with pre-existing conditions and scheduled his first live town hall meeting in his district this month. (Tenney resisted holding a live town hall with constituents for nine months, and only did so under pressure.) Whether or not Tenney makes it a rematch, watch for Republicans to try to mount a serious challenge in 2020.
Party: Democrat Age: 40 District: 22 Geography: All or part of eight counties in Central New York, the Mohawk Valley and the Southern Tier, including Utica and Binghamton Previous occupation: Assemblyman Predecessor: Claudia Tenney Election results: Brindisi 50.89%, Tenney 49.11% Twitter: @RepBrindisi High tech: Brindisi makes a point of staying up to speed on the latest technological trends. As an assemblyman, he successfully pushed the state Board of Regents to create a career and technical education job training and diploma option for high school students.
Read more: How Anthony Brindisi defied the odds to defeat Claudia Tenney for Congress (Syracuse Post-Standard)
Party: Democrat Age: 41 District: 19 Geography: All or part of 11 counties in the Catskills and the Hudson Valley between Albany and Poughkeepsie Previous occupation: Attorney, Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP Predecessor: John Faso Election results: Delgado 51.36%, Faso 46.15% Twitter:@DelgadoforNY19, @repdelgado The last word: During a contest that had racial overtones, Delgado, who is black, was scrutinized for a past career as “AD the Voice.” “A congressional candidate used to be a rapper,” The New York Times noted. “Will it matter?” It didn’t, and Delgado celebrated by framing his old lyrics – “All the pain and the poverty. Hypocrisy fuels my truth. Ain’t no stopping me. #oneofus” – in his new congressional office.
Read more: “Local politics is nice politics”: Small-town concerns and national implications in New York’s Nineteenth District (The New Yorker)
JOSEPH MORELLE
Courtesy U.S. House of Representatives
Rep. Joseph Morelle has big shoes to fill in Congress in replacing the late Louise Slaughter, the long-serving congresswoman who died last year at the age of 88. Morelle, himself a veteran politician who served for nearly a decade as Democratic Party chairman in Monroe County and in 2015 rose to the No. 2 post in the Assembly, easily won the Democratic primary, then coasted to victory in November. He likely won’t match Slaughter’s more than 30 years in Congress, but if all goes well he could represent this Democratic-leaning district for years to come. Party: Democrat Age: 61 District: 25 Geography: Within Monroe County, including Rochester and much of its surrounding suburbs. Previous occupation: Assembly majority leader Predecessor: Louise Slaughter Election results: Morelle 58.98%, Jim Maxwell 41.02% Twitter: @RepJoeMorelle Traditional pol: Unlike the other four first-term New Yorkers in Congress, Morelle closely fits the traditional profile of a representative. He is in the majority not only as a Democrat, but also as a white man, and he also shares the most common background of House members: public service or politics. Plus, he’s 61, while the the average age of his colleagues is around 58.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez shocked the political establishment last summer when she upset Joseph Crowley, the leader of the Queens Democratic Party and a possible successor to Nancy Pelosi, in the primary election. The virtual unknown became an overnight sensation and has been dominating the news headlines for months thanks to her democratic socialist policy positions, her willingness to buck her own party and a remarkable deftness with social media. Already the youngest woman ever elected to Congress, she has become a national icon – and she’s just getting started in a political career that could make history.
Party: Democrat Age: 29 District: 14 Geography: Parts of Queens and the Bronx Previous occupations: Campaign organizer for Bernie Sanders, waitress, educational director Predecessor: Joseph Crowley Election results: Ocasio-Cortez 78.17%, Anthony Pappas 13.61% Twitter: @RepAOC, @AOC Trump of the left: Is Ocasio-Cortez the answer to President Donald Trump? Both have strong political instincts, came into office as political rookies and have no qualms about forging their own path – even when it might hurt their own party. Their social media savvy alone is enough to draw an analogy, while some observers go even further – including The Wall Street Journal’s Gerard Baker, who called her the “perfect complement” to Trump.
Read more: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s historic win and the future of the Democratic Party (The New Yorker)
MAX ROSE
Christina Saint Louis
Max Rose entered his congressional race with an impressive resume: a degree from Wesleyan University, a master’s degree from the London School of Economics and a Purple Heart for his military service in Afghanistan. But he had to overcome significant hurdles – Staten Island leans Republican, rarely voting for a Democrat for president – to knock out the GOP incumbent, Dan Donovan. After his remarkable upset win, Rose has continued to draw attention to local concerns like the opioid epidemic while straddling the party divide by hosting a bipartisan group of politicians at his swearing-in ceremony, voting against Nancy Pelosi as House speaker and making an early pledge to donate his salary during the shutdown.
Party: Democrat Age: 32 District: 11 Geography: All of Staten Island and parts of southern Brooklyn Previous occupations: U.S. Army, Army National Guard, chief of staff at Brightpoint Health Predecessor: Dan Donovan Election results: Rose 53.02%, Donovan 46.57% Twitter: @MaxRose4NY, @RepMaxRose Unexpected upset: While polls had shown Antonio Delgado and Anthony Brindisi were essentially tied in their races leading up to the November elections, Rose was clearly trailing Donovan – and his eventual 6-point victory was perhaps the most unexpected congressional outcome in New York.
Read more: Tuesday’s lesson for congressional candidates: Run local. Run moderate. (City & State)
This website uses cookies to enhance user experience and to analyze performance and
traffic on our website. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising
and analytics partners. Learn More / Do Not Sell My
Personal Information
Accept Cookies
X
Cookie PreferencesCookie List
Do Not Sell My Personal Information
When you visit our website, we store cookies on your browser to collect
information. The information collected might relate to you, your preferences or your device, and is mostly
used to make the site work as you expect it to and to provide a more personalized web experience. However, you
can choose not to allow certain types of cookies, which may impact your experience of the site and the
services we are able to offer. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our
default settings according to your preference. You cannot opt-out of our First Party Strictly Necessary
Cookies as they are deployed in order to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting the
cookie banner and remembering your settings, to log into your account, to redirect you when you log out,
etc.). For more information about the First and Third Party Cookies used please follow this link.
Allow All Cookies
Manage Consent Preferences
Strictly Necessary Cookies - Always Active
We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to
ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy
choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of
your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts
of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or
Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org
to learn more.
Sale of Personal Data, Targeting & Social Media Cookies
Under the California Consumer Privacy Act, you have the right to opt-out of the
sale of your personal information to third parties. These cookies collect information for analytics and to
personalize your experience with targeted ads. You may exercise your right to opt out of the sale of personal
information by using this toggle switch. If you opt out we will not be able to offer you personalised ads and
will not hand over your personal information to any third parties. Additionally, you may contact our legal
department for further clarification about your rights as a California consumer by using this Exercise My
Rights link
If you have enabled privacy controls on your browser (such as a plugin), we have
to take that as a valid request to opt-out. Therefore we would not be able to track your activity through the
web. This may affect our ability to personalize ads according to your preferences.
Targeting cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They
may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other
sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and
internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.
Social media cookies are set by a range of social media services that we have
added to the site to enable you to share our content with your friends and networks. They are capable of
tracking your browser across other sites and building up a profile of your interests. This may impact the
content and messages you see on other websites you visit. If you do not allow these cookies you may not be
able to use or see these sharing tools.
If you want to opt out of all of our lead reports and lists, please submit a
privacy request at our Do Not Sell page.
Save Settings
Cookie PreferencesCookie List
Cookie List
A cookie is a small piece of data (text file) that a website – when visited by a
user – asks your browser to store on your device in order to remember information about you, such as your
language preference or login information. Those cookies are set by us and called first-party cookies. We also
use third-party cookies – which are cookies from a domain different than the domain of the website you are
visiting – for our advertising and marketing efforts. More specifically, we use cookies and other tracking
technologies for the following purposes:
Strictly Necessary Cookies
We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to
ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy
choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of
your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts
of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or
Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org
to learn more.
Functional Cookies
We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to
ensure the proper functioning of our
website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site
performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You
can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as
intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your
browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org
to learn more.
Performance Cookies
We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to
ensure the proper functioning of our
website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site
performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You
can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as
intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your
browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org
to learn more.
Sale of Personal Data
We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by
determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and
performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such
cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still
see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices,
browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this
website.
Social Media Cookies
We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by
determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and
performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such
cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still
see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices,
browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this
website.
Targeting Cookies
We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by
determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and
performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such
cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still
see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices,
browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this
website.
Please read our Privacy Policy as it has recently been updated. City & State New York uses cookies for analytics and personalization. By continuing to use this site, you agree to our use of cookies.