Series: Underground Groundbreakers of Today
Continuing my theme of interviewing New York State Senators who defeated members of the Independent Democratic Conference (IDC), I recently had the pleasure of speaking with Senator Alessandra Biaggi. Biaggi represents the 34th District, which includes parts of the Bronx and Westchester Counties (Pelham and Mount Vernon). Biaggi has the particularly impressive distinction of defeating Jeffrey Klein, the leader of the IDC, despite being outspent 3 to 1. In speaking with her, I could see how she was able to do it: a passion and drive for public service, no matter the cost.
Biaggi, born in a town in her district, Mount Vernon, grew up in a political family. Her grandfather, Mario Biaggi, served as a congressman from New York from 1969-88. In addition to that, Biaggi says politics was always discussed in her home, just as medicine would often be discussed in a family of doctors. To her, being steeped in politics was a normal way of life, and would be a theme that dictated her life. After receiving her bachelor’s degree from New York University and her law degree from the Fordham University School of Law, she saw how much good could be accomplished when people speak up for justice, and was inspired to use her background and her law degree to go into public service.
She soon started working at the New York State Homes and Community Renewal agency as a fellow, despite only making $13 an hour. But she decided the low pay was worth it for the sake of her career path. She later became Assistant General Counsel for Governor Andrew Cuomo’s Office of Storm Recovery, which helped small businesses recover after the devastation of Hurricane Sandy. This was soon followed by trainings for running for office, and eventually joining the 2016 presidential campaign of Hillary Clinton as Deputy National Operations Director. It was the experience of this campaign, and its eventual loss to Donald Trump, that made her realize that she didn’t know or understand politics as well as she thought she did–and in a continued effort to serve and understand the needs of her local community, she began teaching civics classes in living rooms and found that people didn’t know basic information like who their representatives were. She also recognized that while fighting and defeating Trump in 2020 is important, there were plenty of issues and corruption to be addressed in her own party. Even in a state as reliably blue as New York, Biaggi understands that continued community engagement is key.
“In order to change it, I have to be a part of it”
When Biaggi began working in Governor Cuomo’s office, she saw that bills on many important issues, such as women’s and immigration issues, were being stalled in the State Senate because of the corruption of the IDC; what’s worse, it was her senator, Jeffrey Klein, who was the leader of this group who caucused with the Republicans. This was personal to Biaggi–as a lifelong resident of her district, which contains a great deal of diversity in income and demographics, she couldn’t stand by why her own senator literally sold out the interests of her neighbors. As she said, “In order to change it, I have to be a part of it.” The district, particularly the lower-income areas of the Bronx, simply wasn’t getting the resources it needed. So she decided she needed to run against him.
While Biaggi strongly believed in the purpose of her campaign and her ability to use her knowledge and relative privilege to create change, she knew running a campaign against the powerful Bronx politician wouldn’t be easy–but the experience would be the greatest challenge she ever faced. She faced a great deal of resistance from some residents of the district, particularly those in the Bronx, to her opposition of Klein, who is a lifelong resident of the Bronx and is well known in the district, serving it in the Assembly and Senate since 1995–similar to the resistance Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez faced running against the “King of Queens” Joseph Crowley.
Financially, it was also difficult–because she was running the campaign full time and didn’t have a job, she moved back home with her parents, and her fiancé (now husband) paid her bills and student loans. She tells this story not to scare people off from running for office, but to give a sobering reality check to the idea that “everybody should run.” It is true in a sense, but it is also an oversimplification of a decision that is complex personally, emotionally, and especially financially. This was one of the most realistic views on running for office I’ve heard since hearing the story of AOC’s run in Knock Down the House, where we see how she would go knock on doors and hand out campaign flyers after working an overnight shift as a bartender. As humbling an experience as I’m sure it was for Biaggi, it was humbling for me as well to hear her be so candid and forthright about her experience. These are the more private stories we don’t always hear about the experience of running for office. She described it, fittingly, as “like pushing a boulder.”
Despite these many challenges, Biaggi did come out the winner in the September 2018 primary with 53% of the vote. This was seen as a major upset both due to Klein’s position in the party as leader of the IDC as well as due to the stark difference in campaign money spent. She’s now in the beginning of her second term as the 34th District’s Senator, and already has a very important accomplishment to her name, including Erin’s Law, which she sponsored, which requires prevention programs in schools against child sexual abuse. New York became the 37th state to pass the law, which had been stalled in the legislature for 8 years until the Democrats regained the majority. In the first term with the more progressive Democratic Senators including my previous Groundbreaker, Robert Jackson, Biaggi reports that 95% of the issues they were hoping to legislate have been passed. Some of these include the Reproductive Health Act, which takes the important step of codifying the protections of Roe v. Wade into state law and ensures access to safe, legal abortion in New York State; the Child Victims Act, which gives people who were sexually abused as children the opportunity to pursue legal action; and many tenants rights protections.
Biaggi now chairs the Ethics and Internal Governance Committee, which had not held hearings in over a decade with the Republicans in power. The committee has held hearings on issues such as sexual harassment, particularly protecting the more vulnerable such as domestic workers and contractors, who are not protected by law; this is also significant because it has exposed harassment from members of the legislature itself.
All of this has led Biaggi to the conclusion that elections can and do have significant consequences, and that participation and voting is crucial. She plans to continue her focus on harassment, assault, and discrimination this term, among other issues. She also acknowledges that she would not be where she is today without the Groundbreakers, namely women, who led the way for her. She knows she is indebted to them and hopes to pave the way for the next generation of women in politics. To me she is an excellent example of a Groundbreaker: not only has she let the pursuit of public service guide her, but she has never been afraid of any obstacles in her path to doing the right thing for her constituents. As I said to her as we ended our call, I see a bright future ahead for her, whether that is in the Senate or elsewhere, and look forward to what she will do this term and beyond.
