Dan Donovan

Daniel Michael Donovan Jr. (born November 6, 1956) is an American attorney, former prosecutor and politician.

Donovan was born into a working-class Roman Catholic family in Staten Island, New York, in 1956.

His Irish-American father, Daniel Michael Donovan, was a longshoreman and lifelong Democrat; his Polish-American mother, Katherine Bolewicz Donovan, was a garment worker.

He was raised in the Tompkinsville section of the borough.

He attended Monsignor Farrell High School, an all-boys Catholic school, graduating in 1974.

He went on to study criminal justice at St. John's University.

After graduating from there he attended Fordham University School of Law, earning his juris doctor in 1988.

In 1989, Donovan became an Assistant District Attorney in the office of Robert M. Morgenthau.

He served in the office of the New York County District Attorney under Morgenthau until 1996.

Later that year Donovan became chief of staff to then Staten Island Borough President Guy V. Molinari.

He remained in that position until 2002, when he was sworn in as Deputy Borough President of Staten Island; he had been appointed by his immediate predecessor and the then-new Borough President James Molinaro.

Donovan is Roman Catholic.

In 2003, 20-year incumbent Democrat William L. Murphy decided not to seek reelection.

Donovan announced his intention to run to succeed him.

In the election he faced Chief Assistant District Attorney David Lehr and won with over 53% of the vote.

A key part of his platform was to start the county's first witness protection program; his office led the city's prosecutors with the highest felony conviction rate in many of the years since he took office.

Donovan served as District Attorney of Richmond County from 2004 to 2015.

He was first elected to Congress in a special election following the resignation of Michael Grimm.

The district includes all of Staten Island, as well as portions of southwest Brooklyn.

Donovan was reelected in 2007 with over 68% of the vote, defeating local Democratic attorney Michael Ryan despite a last-minute endorsement of his rival by longtime friend and mentor Staten Island Borough President James Molinaro; Molinaro was angered that Donovan had referred his grandson's case to a special prosecutor.

Donovan's tenure as DA has seen several high-profile cases, including the second conviction of Andre Rand, long suspected in a string of kidnappings on Staten Island.

In 2010, famed rapper Method Man pleaded guilty to attempted tax evasion and was forced to pay about $106,000 in restitution and penalties.

On May 17, 2010, Donovan, a registered Republican, announced his candidacy for the New York Attorney General, becoming the front-runner for his party's nomination.

Bob Antonacci, Onondaga County Comptroller, also ran for the nomination.

Antonacci stepped aside and endorsed Donovan after earning 40% of the vote at the 2010 Republican State Convention.

With 60% of the delegates at the convention and no primary opponent, Donovan became the presumptive nominee.

One week earlier, Donovan received the endorsement of the Conservative Party of New York, but he was defeated on November 2 by Democrat Eric Schneiderman.

Donovan was selected as the Republican candidate for New York's 11th congressional district after the resignation of Michael Grimm.

Donovan became the focus of a national controversy surrounding the death of Eric Garner in 2014, when a Richmond County, New York grand jury declined to indict Daniel Pantaleo, the officer whose chokehold the medical examiner determined was instrumental in Garner's death, on any charges.

The medical examiner had ruled Garner's death a homicide.

After considering the medical examiner's findings that Garner was killed by "compression of neck (choke hold), compression of chest and prone positioning during physical restraint by police", Donovan's office declared, "it is appropriate to present evidence regarding circumstances of his death to a Richmond County Grand Jury."

Donovan asked the grand jury to consider whether there was "probable cause" for manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide, but did not bring reckless endangerment charges.

After two months, the grand jury returned no indictment.

Donovan's office strenuously opposed releasing the trial proceedings, citing New York confidentiality laws, despite being pressured by activists and lawmakers to release them.

A member of the Republican Party, he served as the U.S. representative for New York's 11th congressional district from 2015 to 2019.

He defeated Democratic City Councilman Vincent J. Gentile and Green Party candidate James Lane in the May 5, 2015 special election and was sworn into office on May 12, 2015.

In 2016, Donovan faced Democrat Richard Reichard in his first reelection bid.

He was reelected with 56.8% of the vote.

Donovan was defeated for reelection in 2018 by Democrat Max Rose.

In 2018, Grimm challenged Donovan in the Republican primary.