Rep.-elect Mondaire Jones (D-N.Y.-17)

Date of birth: May 18, 1987
Residence: South Nyack, N.Y.
Occupation: attorney
Education: B.A., Stanford University; J.D., Harvard Law School
Family: single

Mondaire Jones is adding to the progressive ranks of the House Democratic Caucus and will become one of the first openly gay Black members of Congress.

Jones initially filed a primary challenge last year against Rep. Nita Lowey (D), the House Appropriations Committee chairwoman who has represented the suburban New York City-area district since 1989. Lowey later announced her retirement from Congress, which subsequently launched a crowded Democratic primary to replace her.

Jones, a former Justice Department staffer during the Obama administration, says in his campaign biography that watching the GOP blockade of judicial nominations “showed him what can happen when Democrats in Congress allow Republicans to block progress instead of fighting tooth-and-nail for the American people.” Jones later went on to become an attorney in Westchester County’s Law Department.

Jones was endorsed by progressive Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), as well as fellow New Yorker Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D), for his support of policies such as the Green New Deal, “Medicare for All” and tuition-free public college.

-Cristina Marcos