Welcome newly elected New York State Senator Alessandra Biaggi to the Immigration MIC podcast!

🔵Alessandra calls it the “honor of a lifetime” to represent New York’s District 34 and is looking to represent young women everywhere.

🔴Her Italian roots in the U.S. go back four generations, her great-grandparents coming through Ellis Island and her grandparents’ humble influences on her.

⚫️She tells us the story of the discrimination her great grandparents experienced at the Democratic club in East Harlem how she uses their story to connect with other people that experience racism/ discrimination.

🔵The ultimate underdog: Alessandra talks about all of the roadblocks she faced, from having ADHD, to transferring colleges, to being rejected from every law school to making $13 an hour as a legal fellow.

🔴 Her luck changing when she went to work for the Governor’s Office of Storm Recovery - reflecting on the importance of “failing up”, and being honest about her feelings of hopelessness through defeat, and how exercise and meditation helped her.

⚫️At 29 she was the Deputy National Operations Director for Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign; she tells us how she learned “grace under fire”, how it taught her about infrastructure for her own campaign, and wanting to break barriers for people to work in future campaigns.

🔵She talks about the “tragedy” that was the 2016 elections, she is known for releasing a toolkit for engagement to increase civic participation right after.

🔴Her decision to run for office; progressive legislation wasn’t being passed because of 8 senators (IDC), and called the campaign the “hardest experience of my entire life”, also being outspent by 11:1 by her opponent.

⚫️As a senator, she has used her vote this past month for voting reform, the Reproductive Health Act, the NY DREAM Act, and the Child Victims Act (which she shared her personal story being a survivor when voting)