Persaud Sweeps Special Election To Claim John Sampson’s Vacated Senate Seat

Democratic Assemblywoman Roxanne Persaud trounced her rivals, Republican Jeffrey Ferretti and Conservative candidate Elias Weir, in the race for the 19th Senate District — taking almost 90 percent of the vote in Tuesday’s special election.

The Senate seat was vacated this year by John Sampson, who was convicted of obstruction of justice and lying to federal agents as part of a corruption investigation.

Persaud entered the Assembly last year, when she also beat Ferretti, to take over the seat left open by Alan Maisel, who stepped down to successfully run for the City Council.

Since entering the the state legislature, Persaud has become a member of the Higher Education, Real Property Taxation and Libraries and Technology committees, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reports. She has sponsored a number of bills related to housing, healthcare, criminal justice reform, and education — including a piece of legislation that would make tuition free for New York residents at the state’s public colleges, according to Ballotpedia. That bill is pending in the Assembly’s Ways and Means Committee.

A former community organizer, Persaud is the first female to represent the 59th Assembly District. She entered the state legislature with the support of the Brooklyn’s powerful Thomas Jefferson Democratic Club, in which she is a member, according to Kings County Politics. The political club also backed Persaud in her run for State Senate.

Her new senate district covers parts of Sheepshead Bay, Mill Basin, Bergen Beach, Canarsie, and East New York.

Meanwhile, in another important southern Brooklyn election, Democrat Pamela Harris won the race for the 46th Assembly District, beating her Republican opponent Lucretia Regina-Potter, and becoming the first African-American to represent the majority-white district, which spans from Coney Island to Bay Ridge.