Walter T. Mosley III is an American politician and civil servant from the state of New York. A Democrat, Mosley represented New York's 57th State Assembly district from 2013 to 2021; the district included the Brooklyn neighborhoods of Fort Greene, Clinton Hill, Prospect Heights, as well as portions of Crown Heights and Bedford-Stuyvesant. In 2020, Mosley lost a Democratic primary to Phara Souffrant Forrest. Mosley has served as the New York Secretary of State since 2024.

Education

Mosley attended

Pennsylvania State University The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State or PSU) is a Public university, public Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related Land-grant university, land-grant research university with campuses and facilities throughout Pennsyl ...

, where he obtained his

bachelor's degree A bachelor's degree (from Medieval Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six years ...

criminology Criminology (from Latin , 'accusation', and Ancient Greek , ''-logia'', from λόγος ''logos'', 'word, reason') is the interdisciplinary study of crime and deviant behaviour. Criminology is a multidisciplinary field in both the behaviou ...

. He received his J.D. degree from

Howard University Howard University is a private, historically black, federally chartered research university in Washington, D.C., United States. It is classified among "R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity" and accredited by the Mid ...

in 1998.

New York State Assembly

Mosley ran to fill

Hakeem Jeffries Hakeem Sekou Jeffries ( ; born August 4, 1970) is an American politician and attorney who has served as Party leaders of the United States House of Representatives, House minority leader and House Democratic Caucus#Leaders of the House Democrati ...

's Assembly seat in the 57th district in 2012 when Jeffries ran for Congress. Mosley won the Democratic primary with 62.8% of the vote, beating out Olanike T. Alabi and Martine Guerrier. He handily defeated Republican challenger Francis J. Voyticky, who Hakeem Jeffries had beaten in 2010, in the general election with 97.6% of the vote. Mosley ran unopposed in 2014, 2016, and 2018, running on both the Democratic and Working Families Party lines in 2016 and 2018.

East Ramapo School District bill

Mosley was originally a co-sponsor of a bill to place a monitor with

veto power A veto is a legal power to unilaterally stop an official action. In the most typical case, a president or monarch vetoes a bill to stop it from becoming law. In many countries, veto powers are established in the country's constitution. Veto p ...

in the East Ramapo School District in Rockland County, an

Orthodox Jewish Orthodox Judaism is a collective term for the traditionalist branches of contemporary Judaism. Theologically, it is chiefly defined by regarding the Torah, both Written and Oral, as literally revealed by God on Mount Sinai and faithfully tra ...

-dominated school district that was diverting funds to

yeshiva A yeshiva (; ; pl. , or ) is a traditional Jewish educational institution focused on the study of Rabbinic literature, primarily the Talmud and halacha (Jewish law), while Torah and Jewish philosophy are studied in parallel. The stu ...

s. Mosley took his name off of the bill after meeting with both sides, saying that the discussion about the bill has anti-Semitic overtones. He refused to meet with the sponsor of the bill, a 71-year-old former East Ramapo schoolteacher, and ultimately did not vote on the bill.

2020 Democratic primary defeat

In the Democratic primary on June 23, 2020, Mosley faced Phara Souffrant Forrest; Forrest was his first primary challenger since 2012. While Mosley led Forrest by 588 votes on election night,

absentee ballots Absentee or The Absentee may refer to: * Absentee (band), a British band * The Absentee, a novel by Maria Edgeworth, published in 1812 in ''Tales of Fashionable Life'' * ''The Absentee'' (1915 film), a 1915 American silent film directed by Christy ...

were more significant than usual due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. On July 22, 2020, once absentee ballots had been counted, Forrest was declared the winner of the primary by over 2,500 votes.

Secretary of State

Mosley was nominated to the position of Secretary of State by Gov.

Kathy Hochul Kathleen Hochul ( ; ; born August 27, 1958) is an American politician and lawyer who has served since 2021 as the 57th governor of New York. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, she is New York's List of female ...

, and was confirmed by the New York State Senate on May 22, 2024.

Electoral history

References

External links

Official website
, - {{DEFAULTSORT:Mosley, Walter 1967 births 20th-century African-American politicians 21st-century African-American politicians African-American state legislators in New York (state) American people of Bahamian descent Democratic Party members of the New York State Assembly Howard University School of Law alumni Living people Pennsylvania State University alumni Politicians from Brooklyn Working Families Party politicians 21st-century members of the New York State Legislature