State Senator - District 31
Robert Jackson
Has represented Senate District 31 since January 2019 and chairs the Senate Committee on Civil Service and Pensions.
Issues Robert is raising
State budget and taxes
Supports taxing the rich. Voted for the 2026-27 budget bill implementing the state fiscal plan and for the 2024-25 education, labor, housing and family assistance budget bill. Voted against a 2025 law granting Yeshivas Nachlas Sofrim retroactive property tax-exempt status, and was one of five senators voting against a 2023 bill on the state's thoroughbred breeding and development fund.
School funding and student safety
Supports fully funding public education and expanding opportunities for young people. Sponsors a bill, passed by the Senate in May 2026, adding the intentional use of artificial intelligence to mimic or alter a person's likeness or voice without consent to the definition of cyberbullying in the state's school anti-bullying law.
Tenants and housing
Supports protecting tenants and expanding access to housing. Sponsors a bill barring landlords from charging tenants fees for paying rent online, which passed both houses in 2026, and one requiring inspections of certain non-fireproof buildings, which passed the Senate. Voted for the 2025 law on landlords' use of algorithmic pricing to set rents.
Immigration enforcement
Supports protecting immigrants from Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Workers, wages and pensions
Sponsored a law, signed in September 2026, extending from 25 to 35 years the eligibility period for certain retirement benefits tied to World Trade Center rescue, recovery and clean-up work, and a 2025 law counting certain off-site custom fabrication as public work for prevailing-wage pay. Sponsored a bill setting minimum staffing for 911 emergency medical services in cities of over one million people, which the governor vetoed.
Background
Based in Washington Heights
He previously served 12 years on the New York City Council, chairing its Education Committee, and worked 23 years in the labor movement, starting at the State Department of Labor.
- Chair of the New York State Senate Committee on Civil Service and Pensions
- Member of the Senate committees on Education, Health, Higher Education, Housing, Construction and Community Development, Labor, and New York City Education, and of the Select Majority Task Force on Minority and Women-Owned Business Enterprises
- State senator for District 31 since Jan. 1, 2019; won the 2018 Democratic primary against incumbent Marisol Alcántara after losing primary bids for the seat in 2014 and 2016
- Won the general election for the seat with 88.8% of the vote in 2018, 88.4% in 2020, 85.1% in 2022 against Donald Skinner, and 99.3% on Nov. 5, 2024
- Won the June 23, 2026 Democratic primary against Nayma Silver-Matos with 71.9% of the vote (18,882 votes); the Working Families Party primary for the seat was canceled
- Elected to the New York City Council from Northern Manhattan in 2001 and re-elected twice, serving 12 years; chaired its Education and Contracts committees and co-chaired the Black, Latino, and Asian Caucus
- His Senate biography says he sponsored the Small Business Jobs Survival Act and a New York City law on minority- and women-owned businesses while on the City Council
- His Senate biography says that as a Community School Board president he launched the Campaign for Fiscal Equity school funding lawsuit against the state and walked 150 miles to Albany, and that the case ended in a court judgment awarding $16 billion for New York City public schools; NY1 named him New Yorker of the Year after the decision
- Worked 23 years in the labor movement, beginning at the New York State Department of Labor and later with the Public Employees Federation
- Elected District Leader in 2015 and helped found the Uptown Community Democrats club
- Grew up in Northern Manhattan with eight siblings and attended P.S. 186 and Benjamin Franklin High School; graduated from the State University of New York at New Paltz; has lived with his family in Washington Heights since 1975
Support
Zohran Mamdani
Mayor
Landon Dais
State Assembly Member
Althea Stevens
City Council Member
32BJ SEIU
Local 32BJ of the Service Employees International Union
American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME)
Labor union (AFSCME)
Money
$120K
raised
Top donors: Cwa District One Pac, Public Employees Federation, ASC PAC