State Senator - District 32
Luis R. Sepulveda
Has represented Senate District 32 since April 2018 and chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Issues Luis is raising
Immigration and driver's licenses
Sponsored a 2023 law letting the motor vehicles commissioner enter driver's license reciprocity agreements with other states, countries, provinces and territories. His Senate biography says he was lead sponsor of the Jose Peralta DREAM Act and the Green Light bill, which expanded undocumented immigrants' access to higher education and driver's licenses.
Criminal justice and courts
Sponsored a 2025 law giving immunity from prosecution to certain people engaged in prostitution who report, or help investigate or prosecute, a crime they suffered or witnessed. Also sponsored a bill aligning the prison definition of serious mental illness with the mental hygiene law, which passed both houses and was vetoed in 2024, and a bill barring judges from forbidding a parent's gender transition in custody cases, passed by the Senate in 2026.
Housing, tenants and homelessness
Sponsored a 2025 law requiring landlords to notify adjoining units and post notices in common areas about bed bug infestations, and voted for a 2025 law on landlords' use of algorithmic pricing to set rents. Sponsors a bill, passed by the Senate in 2026, to provide qualified homeless people with state non-driver identification cards.
Health care
Voted for the Medical Aid in Dying Act, which passed the Senate 35-27 in June 2025 and became law in February 2026, and for the 2024-25 health and mental hygiene budget bill.
State budget, taxes and business
Voted for the 2026-27 budget bill signed in May 2026 and the 2024-25 education, labor, housing and family assistance budget bill. Sponsored a 2023 law allowing certain tax deductions tied to selling, producing or distributing cannabis, and the COVID-19 Livery Vehicle Recovery Act, signed in 2024.
Background
He previously served three terms in the Assembly for District 87 and has worked as an attorney at Community Law Practice and as an adjunct professor at Mercy College.
- Chair of the New York State Senate Committee on Judiciary
- State senator for District 32 since April 30, 2018, after winning an April 24, 2018 special election with 90.4% of the vote (2,808 votes)
- Re-elected in 2018 with 94.9%, in 2020 with 95.3%, in 2022 with 83.2% and on Nov. 5, 2024 with 79.0% (45,549 votes) against Bernadette E. Stroud; won the June 23, 2020 Democratic primary with 54.7% against Pamela Stewart-Martinez and John Perez
- Assembly member for District 87 from 2013 to 2018, serving three terms
- His Senate biography says that as an Assembly member he sponsored bills to create a board to review civilian deaths and near-deaths involving police officers and to require videotaping of all encounters between uniformed officers and people in the community
- Attorney at Community Law Practice and adjunct professor at Mercy College
- Bachelor's degree from Hofstra University and law degree from Hofstra's Maurice A. Deane School of Law
- Granted Dominican citizenship in 2022 by decree of Dominican Republic President Luis Rodolfo Abinader Corona, the first New York State senator to receive it
- His Senate biography says he worked with Mayor Bill de Blasio in 2014 to secure funding for universal pre-kindergarten in New York City
- Ran in the 2021 Democratic primary for Bronx borough president and was eliminated in the second round, with 10.3% of the vote
- Arrested on Jan. 12, 2021 on a charge of criminal obstruction of breathing after an incident in which he and his wife each said the other had assaulted them; Andrea Stewart-Cousins announced he would be removed as chair of the Crime Victims, Crime and Correction Committee and stripped of all committee assignments. The Bronx District Attorney's office dropped all charges on Oct. 4, 2021, citing an inability to meet the burden of proof and his wife's wish not to testify.
Support
No endorsements beyond the Democratic nomination were found as of Oct. 1, 2026.
Money
$100K
raised
Top donors: Jose Altamirano, Neal Polan, Alfredo Angueira