Michael Gianaris

Michael Gianaris (born April 23, 1970) is an American politician and attorney from Queens, New York. He represented District 36 in the New York State Assembly from 2001 to 2010, and he has represented District 12 in the New York State Senate since 2011. A Democrat, Gianaris was appointed as Deputy Majority Leader of the New York State Senate in 2019.

Early life and education
Gianaris was born in Astoria and is the son of Greek immigrants Nicholas and Magdalene Gianaris. He graduated from New York City (NYC) public schools P.S. 84, Junior High School 141 and Long Island City High School. He received a B.A. summa cum laude in economics and political science from Fordham University and earned a J.D. degree from Harvard Law School.

Career
Gianaris has served as Associate Counsel to the Committee on Consumer Affairs and Protection, Governmental Operations, Veterans Affairs, and Agriculture and Markets of the Assembly, and also served as an aide to former Queens Congressman Thomas J. Manton, an aide to former Governor Mario Cuomo's Queens County Regional Representative, and as a member of Queens Community Planning Board 1 and Legal Counsel to the United Community Civic Association.

New York State Assembly
In 2000, Gianaris was elected to the New York State Assembly in District 36. He is a Democrat.

In September 2007, he was named one of City Hall's "40 under 40".

New York State Senate
In 2010, Senator George Onorato decided not to seek re-election, and Gianaris was nominated to replace him. Gianaris easily prevailed in the District 12 election.

In 2019, following Senate Democrats' ascent to the majority, Gianaris was named Deputy Majority Leader of the Senate.

According to The Guardian, Gianaris was principally responsible for scuttling a proposal to locate Amazon's HQ2 in New York City. Gianaris has been noted for his support for antitrust enforcement, having introduced the "21st Century Antitrust Act" in the New York State Legislature and written in support of the federal American Innovation and Choice Online Act proposal.

Other campaigns
Gianaris ran for Attorney General of New York in 2018, but ended his campaign in May 2018 and endorsed fellow Democrat Letitia James.

Education
In May 2024, Gianaris and Andrew Hevesi secured $70 million for school safety equipment in religious and independent schools in the 2024-2025 state budget, they initially lobbied for $90 million but negotiated to $70 million. Gianaris cited this as their commitment to advocating for additional resources to schools amidst concerns about increases in anti semitic attacks from the Israel-Palestine tensions.

Voting rights
In 2018, he introduced legislation to automatically register eligible voters otherwise interacting with state government.

In September 2023, governor Kathy Hochul signed his senate bill to expand early mail-in voting for all New Yorkers. Republican groups, including republican congresswoman Elise Stefanik, attempted to challenge this expansion but a state appellate rejected it and affirmed the law.

Gun control
In the 2023-2024 legislative session, Gianaris sponsored a bill to prohibit openly carrying a rifle or shotgun. Gianaris consponsored other bills such as S4818 which establishes a 10-day waiting period to buy a firearm.

Congestion pricing
Gianaris alongside Zohran Mamdani lobbied for $90 million in additional bus funding before congestion pricing took place to split half of it to fund more fare-free bus lines and the other half for increasing bus reliability. In response to governor Kathy Hochul reversal on her support and implementation of congestion pricing, Gianaris opposed a payroll tax that was floated to replace the funding not generated by congestion pricing. He stated their reaction of her reversal "This whole thing was just dropped on us just yesterday and to expect us to have serious, substantive, deliberative discussion on such an important issue in 24 hours is unrealistic" and that "We put the burden on New York City to bail out the MTA just last year with this exact tax and I don’t think many of us who represent the city support doing it again".

Policing reform
Gianaris has supported bail reform and the elimination of cash bail. In response to the Murder of Ahmaud Arbery, Gianaris called for the repeal of Citizen's arrest law in New York as a local prosecutor initially declined to bring charges because they thought the killer of Arbery was acting in accordance with Citizen's arrest law in Georgia.

COVID-19
During COVID-19, Gianaris fought for $1 billion for a small business recovery grant program in the 2021-2022 state budget.

Personal life
Gianaris is married and resides in Astoria.