The anti-IDC state senators: Where are they now?

When renegade Democrats formed the state Senate Independent Democratic Conference in 2011 after Republicans gained control of the state Senate, they caucused with their GOP counterparts after a falling out with Democratic Minority Leader John Sampson. Democrats then gained a slim majority in 2014, but the IDC continued to side with Republicans, enabling the GOP to maintain control of the Senate. Six members of the IDC lost their primary elections to challengers in 2018. Two former IDC members held on to their seats in subsequent years. Most of the anti-IDC senators are still in Albany – and two are running to be mayor of New York City.

Jessica Ramos

Jose Peralta was in the state Senate for seven years before joining the IDC in 2017. A year later, he lost to Ramos in the Democratic primary. She has been reelected three times since then. The outspoken progressive developed a reputation for not mincing her words, sometimes surprising people with her candor. She launched her mayoral campaign in September, though she failed to gain much traction and controversially decided to endorse front-runner Andrew Cuomo.

Zellnor Myrie

Zellnor Myrie won 54% of the vote to defeat then-IDC member Jesse Hamilton in the 2018 Democratic primary. Like Ramos, he has also been reelected to the Senate three times. Myrie and his wife sued the NYPD after being pepper-sprayed at a Black Lives Matter protest at the Barclays Center in 2020. They later settled with the city. Myrie announced his candidacy for mayor three months after Ramos.

Leroy Comrie

Leroy Comrie’s political career began when he was elected to the New York City Council in 2001 in a six-way race in Southeast Queens. Today, he represents some of the same neighborhoods in the state Senate’s 14th District. Comrie defeated Malcolm Smith in a landslide in 2014 after Smith joined the IDC. Smith was kicked out of the conference after he was arrested on bribery charges in April 2013. Voters in the district reelected Comrie five times.

John Liu

Like Comrie, John Liu first entered elected office in the New York City Council, followed by a stint as New York City comptroller. After a failed 2013 mayoral campaign, Liu ran against IDC member Tony Avella but failed to unseat him. He then defeated Avella in a rematch four years later. Liu has held the seat ever since.

Robert Jackson

Marisol Alcantara was one of six members of the IDC who went down in primary elections in 2018. Robert Jackson has represented the 31st Senate District ever since, covering Upper Manhattan and the west Bronx. Jackson also previously served in the New York City Council. He became the first Muslim state senator in New York. In 2022, he fought off a strong primary challenge after redistricting altered the district’s boundaries.

Rachel May

For much of his time in the state Senate, David Valesky didn’t face a significant reelection challenge. Rachel May put an end to that in 2018. The administrator at Syracuse University has been reelected three times to represent the 48th District, covering parts of Onondaga and Cayuga counties. May faced criticism in 2022 when she posed with a banner that compared climate change to the 9/11 attacks at a rally for progressive climate laws. May apologized for the incident. In the state Senate, she fought to protect school libraries and classrooms against book bans.

Alessandra Biaggi

The granddaughter of former Rep. Mario Biaggi represented the 34th District for one term. Alessandra Biaggi beat former IDC member Jeff Klein in a 2018 primary to represent the eastern Bronx and part of southeast Westchester County. In 2022, she challenged then-Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney in a primary, but she ended up with just one-third of the vote. After leaving politics, Biaggi attended Harvard Divinity School.