Walter T. Mosley, III (born September 19, 1967) is an American politician who represented the 57th district of the New York State Assembly. He serves the neighborhoods of

Fort Greene Fort Greene is a neighborhood in the northwestern part of the New York City borough of Brooklyn. The neighborhood is bounded by Flushing Avenue and the Brooklyn Navy Yard to the north, Flatbush Avenue Extension and Downtown Brooklyn to the wes ...

, Clinton Hill, Prospect Heights, and parts of Crown Heights and Bedford-Stuyvesant. In 2020, Mosley lost his primary to nurse and political newcomer Phara Souffrant Forrest.

Early life and education

Mosley was born in Brooklyn, New York. His mother is Marilyn Mosley, the president of Progressive Association for Political Action (PAPA) and chief of staff to the Speaker of the House Corey Johnson. His father is Walter T. Mosley, Sr., a retired insurance broker who currently lives in Ohio. He attended Pennsylvania State University, where he obtained his

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

in Criminology. He received his J.D. degree from

Howard University Howard University (Howard) is a Private university, private, University charter#Federal, federally chartered historically black research university in Washington, D.C. It is Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education, classifie ...

in 1998.

Earlier career

Mosley served as a district leader, senior adviser to the Deputy Speaker of New York State Assembly and chief of staff and senior consultant to the New York State Assembly before running to for Assembly.

New York State Assembly

Mosley ran to fill

Hakeem Jeffries Hakeem Sekou Jeffries (; born August 4, 1970) is an American politician and attorney and leader-elect of the Democratic caucus in the U.S. House of Representatives. Jeffries has represented New York's 8th congressional district, anchored in s ...

'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

He was originally a co-sponsor of a

bill Bill(s) may refer to: Common meanings * Banknote, paper cash (especially in the United States) * Bill (law), a proposed law put before a legislature * Invoice, commercial document issued by a seller to a buyer * Bill, a bird or animal's beak Plac ...

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 pow ...

in the East Ramapo School District in

Rockland County Rockland County is the southernmost county on the west side of the Hudson River in the U.S. state of New York. It is part of the New York metropolitan area. It is about from the Bronx at their closest points. The county's population, as of t ...

, an

Orthodox Jewish Orthodox Judaism is the collective term for the traditionalist and theologically conservative branches of contemporary Judaism. Theologically, it is chiefly defined by regarding the Torah, both Written and Oral, as revealed by God to Moses on M ...

-dominated school district that was diverting funds to

yeshiva A yeshiva (; he, ישיבה, , sitting; 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 st ...

s. Mosley took his name off 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

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

absentee ballots An absentee ballot is a vote cast by someone who is unable or unwilling to attend the official polling station to which the voter is normally allocated. Methods include voting at a different location, postal voting, proxy voting and online vot ...

were more significant than usual due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

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

Electoral history

References

External links

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