Adriano Espaillat

Adriano de Jesús Espaillat Rodríguez (born September 27, 1954) is a Dominican-American politician.

Espaillat was born on September 27, 1954, in Santiago, Dominican Republic, to Melba (née Rodríguez) and Ulises Espaillat.

He and his family moved to the United States in 1964.

After overstaying a tourist visa, the Espaillats became lawful permanent residents (Green Card holders) in 1965.

Espaillat grew up in Washington Heights.

He graduated from Bishop Dubois High School in 1974 and earned his B.S. degree in political science at Queens College, City University of New York in 1978.

Espaillat lives in Inwood, Manhattan.

He is a member of Phi Beta Sigma fraternity.

Espaillat married Martha Madera in 1979.

He has two children and is a grandfather.

He is a Yankees fan.

Espaillat is a Catholic, but disagrees with the Church on certain issues.

Espaillat served as the Manhattan Court Services Coordinator for the New York City Criminal Justice Agency, a nonprofit organization that provides indigent legal services and works to reduce unnecessary pretrial detention and post-sentence incarceration costs.

As a state-certified conflict resolution mediator and volunteer with the Washington Heights Inwood Conflict Resolutions and Mediation Center, Espaillat helped resolve hundreds of conflicts.

He later worked as director of the Washington Heights Victims Services Community Office, an organization offering counseling and other services to families of victims of homicides and other crimes.

Espaillat also served on Governor Mario Cuomo's Dominican-American Advisory Board from 1991 to 1993.

From 1994 to 1996, Espaillat served as the director of Project Right Start, a national initiative funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to combat substance abuse by educating the parents of preschool children.

He was elected in 1996, defeating 16-year incumbent John Brian Murtaugh in the Democratic primary.

Espaillat chaired the Black, Puerto Rican, Hispanic & Asian Legislative Caucus, and committees on small business and children & families.

In the Assembly, Espaillat was a vocal advocate for tenants, consumers, veterans, immigrants and local businesses.

He passed laws encouraging the construction and preservation of affordable housing, giving low-income day care workers the right to organize and obtain health care, and sponsored measures to improve hospital translation services.

Espaillat served in the New York State Assembly from 1997 to 2010.

Espaillat took legal action against power utility Con Edison after equipment failures led to a two-day blackout in Upper Manhattan in July 1999 that caused financial damage to restaurants, bodegas and other small businesses.

Con Edison subsequently agreed to invest an additional $100 million in Upper Manhattan electrical infrastructure at no cost to ratepayers and was required to refund customers billed for expenses related to the blackout.

After a wave of assaults and murders against livery cab drivers in 2000 that left over 10 dead, Espaillat passed legislation strengthening penalties for violent crimes against livery drivers and enabled their families to receive New York State Crime Victims Board funding.

Livery cabs work in less affluent neighborhoods of New York that typically lack access to yellow cabs.

He also established a higher education scholarship fund for relatives of the victims of American Airlines Flight 587, which crashed on November 12, 2001.

Despite national Republican and conservative criticism, Espaillat strongly supported efforts in 2007 to allow Undocumented immigrants to obtain driver's licenses.

He challenged then-Representative Charles Rangel in the Democratic primaries in 2012 and 2014, eventually winning the Democratic nomination in 2016 after Rangel announced his retirement.

Espaillat represents one of the most Democratic districts in the country, with a Cook Partisan Voting Index of D+38.

Before his election to the New York State Assembly, Espaillat was an active voice on Manhattan Community Board 12, and president of the 34th Precinct Community Council.

He is the U.S. representative for NY's 13th congressional district and the first Dominican American and first formerly Undocumented immigrant to serve in Congress.

He previously served in the New York State Senate and the New York State Assembly.

Espaillat was a ranking member of the New York Senate Housing, Construction and Community Development Committee and chaired the Senate Latino Caucus.

He represented the neighborhoods of Marble Hill, Inwood, Washington Heights, Hamilton Heights, Manhattanville, Morningside Heights, East Harlem and the Upper West Side in Manhattan.

Espaillat is a Democrat.

Espaillat has claimed that Dominican president Ulises Espaillat was his great-grandfather; however, according to Dominican genealogist Edwin Espinal Hernández, a fellow of the Dominican Institute of Genealogy, Espaillat is not a descendant of former President Ulises Espaillat nor is related by him by blood, according to his research Adriano Espaillat is second-great-grandson of the military hero Pedro Ignacio Espaillat, who is descended from black African former slaves of Francisco Espaillat, an 18th-century French slaveholder and governor of the Dominican province of Cibao during the Spanish colony.

His father is namesake of 19th-century liberal Dominican president Ulises Espaillat.

However, Espaillat is —via his mother— the great-grandson of former Dominican Senate President Mario Fermín Cabral y Báez through an illegitimate daughter, which makes him a descendant of controversial 19th-century Dominican President Buenaventura Báez.

He is related via his father to several historical Dominican figures, including senators, congressmen, presidents (such as Antonio Guzmán and Danilo Medina) and military officers of the Dominican Republic.