Marisol Alcantara is an American politician in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. A member of the

Democratic Party Democratic Party most often refers to: *Democratic Party (United States) Democratic Party and similar terms may also refer to: Active parties Africa *Botswana Democratic Party *Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea *Gabonese Democratic Party *Demo ...

, she represented the New York State Senate's 31st District from 2017 to 2018. Alcantara 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 c ...

(IDC), a group of Democratic senators who allied themselves with Senate Republicans.

Life and career

Alcantara was born in the

Dominican Republic The Dominican Republic ( ; es, República Dominicana, ) is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles archipelago of the Caribbean region. It occupies the eastern five-eighths of the island, which it shares wit ...

and emigrated to New York City at the age of twelve. She has resided in

Upper Manhattan Upper Manhattan is the most northern region of the New York City borough of Manhattan. Its southern boundary has been variously defined, but some of the most common usages are 96th Street, the northern boundary of Central Park ( 110th Street), ...

ever since. She graduated from

Manhattan College Manhattan College is a private, Catholic, liberal arts university in the Bronx, New York City. Originally established in 1853 by the Brothers of the Christian Schools (De La Salle Christian Brothers) as an academy for day students, it was la ...

with a degree in government and politics, as well as the CUNY Murphy Institute of Labor, where she earned her master's degree. A Coro fellow, Alcantara has spent her career working on pro-immigration initiatives as well as with labor organizations. She has helped organize with

SEIU 32BJ Service Employees International Union, Local 32BJ (often shortened to SEIU 32BJ, 32BJ SEIU or just 32BJ), is a branch of Service Employees International Union headquartered in New York City which mainly represents building workers (maintenance, cu ...

, as well as with the New York State Nurses Association. In politics, Alcantara has held the position of a Democratic District Leader and served as the campaign manager for Ydanis Rodriguez in his first campaign for the

New York City Council The New York City Council is the lawmaking body of New York City. It has 51 members from 51 council districts throughout the five Borough (New York City), boroughs. The council serves as a check against the Mayor of New York City, mayor in a may ...

New York State Senate

In 2016, state Senator

Adriano Espaillat Adriano de Jesús Espaillat Rodríguez (; born September 27, 1954) is a Dominican-American politician. He is the U.S. representative for and the first Dominican American and first formerly undocumented immigrant to ever serve in Congress. He pre ...

ran for

U.S. House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the Senate being the upper chamber. Together they ...

in the race to replace retiring long-serving Congressman

Charlie Rangel Charles Bernard Rangel (, ; born June 11, 1930) is an American politician who was a U.S. representative for districts in New York from 1971 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the second-longest serving incumbent member of the H ...

Harlem Harlem is a neighborhood in Upper Manhattan, New York City. It is bounded roughly by the Hudson River on the west; the Harlem River and 155th Street (Manhattan), 155th Street on the north; Fifth Avenue on the east; and 110th Street (Manhattan), ...

. Upon winning that election, Espaillat's state Senate seat became open. While Alcantara did not declare her candidacy until after Espaillat won his Congressional primary in June 2016, she entered the race to succeed him when it became clear no other notable Dominican candidate would emerge. Facing Bloomberg administration alumnus Micah Lasher and former

member Robert Jackson, Alcantara narrowly won the September 2016 Democratic primary with a plurality of 31% of the vote; the race was considered one of the elections to watch in the 2016 state primaries, and emerged as one of the closest that cycle. Alcantara easily won the general election in the heavily Democratic district with over 85% of the vote. Upon winning her seat, Alcantara announced that she would join the

, a group of state senate Democrats that allied with the senate Republicans, allowing Republicans to control the chamber. This did not come as a surprise, as she owed Independent Democratic Leader

Jeffrey D. Klein Jeffrey David Klein (born July 10, 1960) is an American politician and a member of the Democratic Party. He represented the New York State Senate's 34th District, serving parts of Bronx and Westchester Counties from 2005 to 2018. Klein also s ...

for his assistance in her primary election campaign. After joining the majority coalition, the freshman Senator was named Chair of the Labor Committee. According to ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', Alcantara "condemned" a bill by Democrats designed to stop deportations in

New York State New York, officially the State of New York, is a state in the Northeastern United States. It is often called New York State to distinguish it from its largest city, New York City. With a total area of , New York is the 27th-largest U.S. stat ...

. Alcantara proposed a bill that raised the limit for discretionary contracts for minorities and women from $20,000 to $150,000 that passed. In April 2018, Alcantara and her IDC colleagues rejoined the Senate Democratic Conference. Subsequently, the Republican conference stripped Alcantara of her position as Chair of the Labor Committee. In the September 2018 Democratic primary election, Alcantara was challenged again by Jackson (who also won the backing of the

Working Families Party The Working Families Party (WFP) is a minor political party in the United States, founded in New York in 1998. There are active chapters in California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, Nev ...

) as well as by Thomas Leon and Tirso Santiago Pina. This time, Jackson won the four-way primary in a landslide with 56% of the vote to Alcantara's 38%. Alcantara's defeat was attributed to long-simmering anger with the former members of the IDC. As part of New York State's

electoral fusion Electoral fusion is an arrangement where two or more political parties on a ballot list the same candidate, pooling the votes for that candidate. It is distinct from the process of electoral alliances in that the political parties remain separat ...

laws allowing candidates to run on multiple ballot lines in one election, Alcantara still appeared in the November 6, 2018, general election as the third-party

Independence Party of New York The Independence Party is a political party in the U.S. state of New York. The party was founded in 1991 by Dr. Gordon Black, Tom Golisano, and Laureen Oliver from Rochester, New York, and acquired ballot status in 1994. They lost their ballot ...

candidate; however, Alcantara conceded to Jackson and pledged to work with him.

References

External links

Ballotpedia: Marisol Alcantara
{{DEFAULTSORT:Alcantara, Marisol American politicians of Dominican Republic descent Living people Politicians from Manhattan Democratic Party New York (state) state senators Year of birth missing (living people) Independent Democratic Conference Dominican Republic emigrants to the United States Hispanic and Latino American state legislators in New York (state) Hispanic and Latino American women in politics 21st-century American women politicians