Espaillat is a Democrat. 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.[3]
Early life and education
Espaillat was born on September 27, 1954, in Santiago, Dominican Republic,[4][5] to Melba (née Rodríguez) and Ulises Espaillat. His father was named after 19th-century liberal Dominican president Ulises Espaillat.
Espaillat has claimed that Dominican president Ulises Espaillat was his great-grandfather;[6][7] 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.[8] 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.[8]
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.[8]
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.[9]
Espaillat married Martha Madera in 1979.[10] He has two children and is a grandfather.[11] He is a Yankees fan.[12]
Espaillat is a Catholic, but disagrees with the Church on certain issues.[13]
Earlier career
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.[14]
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. 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.[14]
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. Espaillat also served on Governor Mario Cuomo's Dominican-American Advisory Board from 1991 to 1993.[14]
New York State Assembly
Espaillat served in the New York State Assembly from 1997 to 2010. 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. He also established a higher education scholarship fund for relatives of the victims of American Airlines Flight 587, which crashed on November 12, 2001.[15] Despite national Republican and conservative criticism, Espaillat strongly supported efforts in 2007 to allow undocumented immigrants to obtain driver's licenses.[16]
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.[17]
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.[18] 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.[19]
New York State Senate
Office on Columbus Avenue
Elections
2010
Espaillat ran for state senate in 2010 after incumbent Eric Schneiderman announced his campaign for New York Attorney General. Espaillat received more than 50% of the vote in a four-way Democratic party. In 2012, Espaillat defeated then-Assemblyman Guillermo Linares 62% - 38% in the Democratic primary.[20]
2014
After losing to Charles Rangel in the Democratic primary for Congress, Espaillat announced candidacy for reelection to his state senate seat, facing former City Councilman Robert Jackson.[21] He was reelected with 50.3% of the vote to Jackson's 42.7%.[22]
Tenure
Adriano Espaillat in 2014.
In 2011, Espaillat led the fight to safeguard and strengthen rent regulation for over 1 million affordable housing apartments that was set to expire that year.[23] While tenant protections had been weakened in the past, the agreement reached that year made it more difficult to convert affordable housing to market rate and created a new Tenant Protection Unit within the state's housing agency.
Espaillat also passed legislation increasing enforcement against businesses that sell alcohol to minors and authored the Notary Public Advertising Act, to crack down on public notaries who prey on vulnerable immigrants by offering fraudulent legal services.[24] He voted in favor of marriage equality legislation in 2011.[25]
State Senate committee assignments
Housing, Construction & Community Development (Ranking Member)
In 2012, Espaillat ran in the Democratic primary for New York's 13th congressional district, in a crowded field that included 42-year incumbent Charles Rangel. The seat had long been a majority-black district, but redistricting after the 2010 census made it a 55% Hispanic-majority district.[26]
In the Democratic primary—the real contest in this heavily Democratic district—Rangel beat Espaillat, 44% to 42%, a margin of less than 1,000 votes. Espaillat placed first in the Bronx section of the district and parts of Upper Manhattan.[27]
The election was marked by reports that Spanish-speaking voters were either turned away at the polls or forced to use affidavit ballots.[28] The New York City Board of Elections was also sharply criticized for its poor handling of the election and subsequent legal proceedings.[29]
In November 2015, Espaillat announced he would give up his state senate seat to run for Congress again. He was running for an open seat; Rangel had announced in 2014 that he would not seek a 22nd term in 2016.[30] In the Democratic primary, he narrowly defeated his nearest challenger, state assemblyman Keith L. T. Wright, with 36% of the vote. This made him an overwhelming favorite in the general election, which he won with 89% of the vote.
When Espaillat took office on January 3, 2017, he became only the third person to represent what is now the 13th in 72 years. Adam Clayton Powell Jr. held the district from 1945 to 1971; Rangel had won the seat after defeating Powell in the 1970 primary. The district had been numbered as the 22nd district from 1945 to 1953, the 16th from 1953 to 1963, the 18th from 1963 to 1973, the 19th from 1973 to 1983, the 16th from 1983 to 1993, the 15th from 1993 to 2013, and has been the 13th since 2013.
Espaillat serves as a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee, the Committee on Education and the Workforce, and the Committee on Small Business. He is a member of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC) and was appointed chair of the CHC Task Force for Transportation, Infrastructure and Housing.
Prior to 2017, no one had attempted to be in both the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. In the 2016 House elections, after Espaillat defeated Rangel in the Democratic primary. Espaillat signaled that he wanted to join the CBC as well as the CHC, but it was reported that he was rebuffed, and it was insinuated that the cause was bad blood over his attempted primary challenges of Rangel in previous cycles.[32]
Espaillat has been critical of Brazil's president Jair Bolsonaro. In March 2019 he and 29 other Democratic lawmakers wrote Secretary of State Mike Pompeo a letter that read in part, "Since the election of far-right candidate Jair Bolsonaro as president, we have been particularly alarmed by the threat Bolsonaro's agenda poses to the LGBTQ+ community and other minority communities, women, labor activists, and political dissidents in Brazil."[33][34]
In January 2023, Espaillat introduced a resolution (H.Res.28) condemning the Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey as well as committing to advancing reproductive justice and judicial reform.
On February 1, 2023, Espaillat was named Ranking Member of the Legislative Branch Subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee.
In February 2023, Espaillat introduced a bill (H.R 1124) which would abolish the death penalty under Federal law.
Since being elected to Congress, Espaillat has sought to build a network of Dominican elected officials in and around his district, frequently dubbed "The Squadriano" (a portmanteau of Adriano and The Squad).[35]
Espaillat is a member of the Vote Blue Coalition, a progressive group and federal PAC created to support Democrats in New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania through voter outreach and mobilization efforts.[36]
Espaillat visited an immigration detention facility in Carrizo Springs, Texas, vowing that the U.S. needs to do a better job of connecting migrant children detained at the southern border with their families.[45] The first former undocumented immigrant in Congress, Espaillat claimed he overstayed a tourist visa in the 1960s and is a staunch supporter of the American Dream and Promise Act.[46]
Israel
Espaillat supports Israel's right to defend itself. In 2019, Espaillat supported the Israel Anti-Boycott Act, an effort that called for criminal penalties of up to $1 million for companies that support the Boycott, Divest and Sanctions Movement against Israel.[47] In August 2019, he released a statement condemning Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s decision to deny Representatives Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar entry into Israel.[48] In 2023, he voted to provide Israel with support following 2023 Hamas attack on Israel.[49][50]
Syria
In 2023, Espaillat was among 56 Democrats to vote in favor of H.Con.Res. 21 which directed President Joe Biden to remove U.S. troops from Syria within 180 days.[51][52]
^Eligon, John (18 June 2012). "Running for the House on Pride in His Roots, and Pure Energy". The New York Times. Retrieved 9 November 2016. Mr. Espaillat says he is a descendant of one of the Dominican Republic's most notable political figures — Ulises Francisco Espaillat, who held the presidency for about five months in 1876.
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