Jesse Hamilton is an American lawyer and politician in

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. A member of the

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, he represented the New York State Senate's 20th District, including parts of the

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

neighborhoods of Crown Heights, Brownsville and

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from 2015 to 2018. Hamilton is a former member of the

Independent Democratic Conference The Independent Democratic Conference (IDC) was a group of members of the New York State Senate from the Democratic Party who were elected as Democrats but formed a coalition to give the Republicans the majority in the chamber, and attempted to ...

(IDC), a group of Democratic senators who allied themselves with Senate Republicans. Hamilton is the Secretary of the Brooklyn Democratic Party, the official organization of the

for

. He was defeated in the September 2018 Democratic primary election by lawyer Zellnor Myrie.

Early life

Hamilton was born and raised in the South Bronx. He later moved to Crown Heights, and served on the

school board A board of education, school committee or school board is the board of directors or board of trustees of a school, local school district or an equivalent institution. The elected council determines the educational policy in a small regional are ...

, as president of his block association and as president of the Rosa Parks Independent Democratic Club. He was the Democratic District Leader in the 43rd Assembly District for nearly a decade. He also served as counsel for then-Senator

Eric Adams Eric Leroy Adams (born September 1, 1960) is an American politician and retired police captain serving as the 110th mayor of New York City since January 1, 2022. Adams was an officer in the New York City Transit Police and then the New York ...

of District 20.

Career

In November 2013, Adams was elected to the office of Brooklyn Borough president, leaving District 20's State Senate seat vacant. On September 9, 2014, Hamilton won the

primary election to represent

District 20 A district is a type of administrative division that, in some countries, is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or county, counties, several municipality, municipa ...

. There was no Republican Party opponent, Hamilton won the November 2014 general election without opposition. On Monday, November 7, 2016, Hamilton announced that he would join the

, a group of Democratic senators who caucused with the Senate Republican Conference, allowing the Republicans to control the chamber. In January 2017, after joining the IDC, Hamilton was named Chair of the Senate Standing Committee on Banking - which ''

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'' notes earned him a $5,500 raise. In 2017, Hamilton played a key role in passage of legislation to raise the age of juvenile jurisdiction for 16- and 17-year-olds, ensuring that they will not be treated as adults under the criminal justice system for misdemeanors and many felonies. The legislation also removes 16- and 17-year-olds from Rikers Island by April 1, 2018, to the extent practicable, and by no later than October 1, 2018. The IDC-backed legislation was criticized as a "watered down" version of legislation proposed by Democrats, and because "it still pushes the majority of juveniles through the criminal justice system. "As of 2017, there were 150 minors in Rikers Island. Hamilton has advocated for an end to broken windows policing and has proposed legislation to decriminalize fare evasion on subways, buses and railroads, which would make fare evasion a civil penalty instead of a criminal penalty. In 2017, Hamilton and Assemblyman Felix Ortiz passed legislation named "Briana's Law", after 11-year-old Briana Ojeda, that requires New York City police officers and state troopers to be retrained in CPR every two years. The legislation was introduced after the death of Briana Ojeda when she suffered a severe asthma attack. A police officer stopped her mother driving the wrong way on a one-way street but the police officer did not know how to perform CPR to save Briana's life. Hamilton and his IDC colleagues rejoined the Senate Democratic Conference in April 2018. Subsequently, the Republican conference stripped Hamilton of his position as Chair of the Banks Committee. In the September 13, 2018 Democratic primary, Hamilton was defeated by lawyer Zellnor Myrie. Hamilton's loss was attributed to long-simmering anger with the former members of the IDC. Due to New York State's electoral fusion laws allowing candidates to run on multiple ballot lines in an election, Hamilton still appeared in the November 6, 2018, general election as the third-party candidate for the Independence Party of New York and the

Women's Equality Party The Women's Equality Party (WEP) is a feminist political party set up in the United Kingdom in 2015. The idea was conceived by Catherine Mayer and Sandi Toksvig at the Women of the World Festival, when they concluded that there was a need ...

. Myrie won the general election. In the 2020 elections, Hamilton ran against incumbent Diana Richardson in the Democratic primary for the

New York Assembly The New York State Assembly is the lower house of the New York State Legislature, with the New York State Senate being the upper house. There are 150 seats in the Assembly. Assembly members serve two-year terms without term limits. The Assembl ...

's 43rd district. Hamilton lost to Richardson in a landslide.

References

External links

Ballotpedia: Jesse Hamilton
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hamilton, Jesse Living people New York (state) Democrats People from Crown Heights, Brooklyn People from the Bronx 21st-century American politicians Politicians from Brooklyn Independent Democratic Conference 1964 births