State Assembly Member - District 42
Rodneyse Bichotte
Democratic Assembly member for the 42nd District since Jan. 1, 2015, and the Assembly's Majority Whip; she chairs its Subcommittee on Oversight of Minority and Women-Owned Business Enterprises.
Issues Rodneyse is raising
Housing and tenant protections
Prime-sponsors bills to bar landlords from using an algorithmic device to set residential rents and to create a tenants' bill of rights, and has co-sponsored rent reform laws.
Health care and maternal care
Sponsored the Jonah Bichotte Cowan Law, which sets hospital treatment requirements for mothers who arrive with concerns about pre-term labor. Prime-sponsors bills to create a Safe Staffing for Hospital Care Act, let nurses and doctors licensed in Puerto Rico practice in New York, and give a tax credit after a stillbirth.
Public safety and policing
Sponsored Carlos' Law, which raised penalties for corporate criminal liability in an employee's death or serious injury to fines of up to $500,000, and introduced Sedrick's Law requiring the MTA to keep cameras on train platforms. Prime-sponsors a bill barring police from bias-based profiling.
Minority- and women-owned business contracting
Sponsored three 2022 laws on the state's minority- and women-owned business program: one against fraud and abuse in the program, one letting businesses use its development and lending funds to refinance existing debts, and one doubling to $1 million the discretionary spending threshold for state contracts without competitive bidding.
Immigration
Prime-sponsors a bill barring police and peace officers from asking crime victims and witnesses about their immigration status, and co-sponsored the DREAM Act.
Background
Based in Flatbush
Born and raised in Flatbush as the daughter of Haitian immigrants, she is the first Haitian American woman elected in New York City and earlier worked as a public school math teacher, telecommunications engineer and investment banker.
- Member of the New York State Assembly for District 42, covering Ditmas Park, Flatbush, East Flatbush and Midwood in Brooklyn, since Jan. 1, 2015
- Assembly Majority Whip
- Chair of the Assembly Subcommittee on Oversight of Minority and Women-Owned Business Enterprises
- Member of the Assembly committees on Housing, Education, Governmental Operations, Health, Higher Education, and Ways and Means
- Her Assembly page lists her on Gov. Kathy Hochul's Domestic Violence Advisory Council and on New York City Mayor Eric Adams' task force on minority- and women-owned businesses
- Elected District Leader in 2010
- Former Habitat for Humanity board member; in 2011 worked on building homes in Léogâne, Haiti
- Worked as a public school math teacher, an engineer in the telecommunications industry and an investment banker structuring corporate finance deals
- MBA, Northwestern University; MS, Illinois Institute of Technology; BS, SUNY Buffalo; BS and BT, Buffalo State College; law degree (JD), Brooklyn Law School, 2024
- Won the seat in the Nov. 4, 2014 general election with 90.3% of the vote; most recently re-elected on Nov. 5, 2024 with 98.7%
- Advanced from the Democratic primary without appearing on the ballot after the June 23, 2026 primary was canceled
- Assembly records give her name as Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn
Support
No endorsements beyond the Democratic nomination were found as of Sept. 30, 2026.
Money
$147K
raised
Top donors: Cheryl McKissack Daniel, Narjis Razvi, Lesly Kernisant
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