DELGADO, Antonio

DELGADO, Antonio, a Representative from New York; born in Schenectady, Schenectady County, N.Y., January 28, 1977; graduated from Notre Dame-Bishop Gibbons High School, Schenectady, N.Y., 1995; B.A., Colgate University, Hamilton, N.Y., 1999; Rhodes Scholar, M.A., Oxford University, Oxford, England, 2001; J.D., Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass., 2005; musician; lawyer, private practice; elected as a Democrat to the One Hundred Sixteenth and to the succeeding Congress until his resignation on May 25, 2022 (January 3, 2019-May 25, 2022); lieutenant governor of New York, 2022-present.

View Record in the Biographical Directory of the U.S. Congress

In 2018, Antonio Delgado left behind a lucrative law career to challenge an incumbent Member of the U.S. House of Representatives, becoming the first Black and Hispanic Congressman to represent a district in Upstate New York. In Congress, Delgado focused on improving infrastructure and employment opportunities in economically depressed rural areas. “Working families like the one that I come from, have been left behind,” he declared.¹

Antonio Delgado was born in Schenectady, New York, on January 28, 1977, to Thelma and Anthony Delgado. Delgado’s parents divorced when he was two, and he was raised by his mother, a secretary for General Electric and the New York civil service department, and his stepfather, William Hill, a business manager. Delgado graduated from Notre Dame-Bishop Gibbons High School, a Catholic school in Schenectady, and earned a bachelor’s degree from nearby Colgate University in 1999. Upon graduation, he was awarded a prestigious Rhodes Scholarship, and spent two years studying at Oxford University in the United Kingdom, graduating with a master’s degree in 2001. He also earned a law degree from Harvard Law School in 2005. At Harvard, he met Lacey Schwartz, a documentary filmmaker whom he married in 2011; they have two children: Maxwell and Coltrane. After law school, Delgado moved to Los Angeles, where he launched a music production company and pursued a career in hip-hop. In 2011, he moved to New Jersey to work at Akin Gump, a large New York City law firm.²

Delgado was driven to politics after the election of President Donald J. Trump in 2016. In 2017, he moved with his family to Rhinebeck in Upstate New York and soon launched an exploratory committee to challenge incumbent Republican Representative John J. Faso in the 2018 election. The district included much of the Hudson River Valley, spanning west to the Catskill Mountains. It was 85 percent White and evenly divided politically. President Barack Obama carried the district in 2012 while Trump prevailed in 2016. In the crowded Democratic primary, Delgado faced six other candidates, none of whom had held elected office. Delgado was an adept fundraiser and won the primary with a 22 percent plurality and a four-point lead over the runner-up. In the general election, Delgado faced off against Faso, a first-term Representative and formerly the Republican leader in the New York state assembly. The National Republican Congressional Committee released advertisements scrutinizing Delgado’s music career and song lyrics in an attempt to sway voter opinion against him. Delgado, who stressed healthcare as the most important campaign issue, criticized Faso’s vote to repeal the Affordable Care Act and advocated for a public option, which would allow Americans to choose between state-run and private health insurance plans. He also pledged to bring jobs back to the district after a recent exodus of large companies. In November, Delgado won with 51 percent of the vote. He won re-election in 2020 with 52 percent of the vote.³

During his two terms in the House, Delgado served in the Congressional Black Caucus, as well as on three committees: Agriculture; Small Business; and Transportation and Infrastructure. In the 117th Congress (2021–2023), he wielded the gavel as chair of the Agriculture Committee’s Subcommittee on Commodity Exchanges, Energy, and Credit, which oversees agricultural markets and the development of rural infrastructure, including renewable energy sources and broadband internet.⁴

As a member of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, Delgado introduced legislation to bolster funding for public transportation in rural areas. He worked to improve safety standards for passenger vehicles after a limousine crash in his district killed 20 people in 2018. His bill, the End the Limo Loophole Act, was incorporated into the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which became law in 2021. The legislation defines vehicles that can carry nine or more passengers as commercial vehicles and strengthens inspection requirements for passenger-carrying commercial vehicles.⁵

From his seat on the Agriculture Committee, Delgado focused on the development of infrastructure in rural America and on assisting the small family farms in his district. His bill, the Family Farmer Relief Act, eased the debt limits and eligibility requirements for small farmers filing for Chapter 12 bankruptcy, allowing them to reorganize their debt more easily. It was signed into law in August 2019. As chair of the Subcommittee on Commodity Exchanges, Energy, and Credit, he introduced bills to study the availability of broadband internet in rural communities by requiring data collection on internet speeds and the geographic areas serviced by internet providers.⁶

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Delgado sought to help small businesses facing economic hardship. His Small Business Repayment Relief Act waived Small Business Administration loan payments for six months. It became law as part of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act. Delgado’s Small Business Relief Accessibility Act was included as part of the 2021 American Rescue Plan. It established a pilot program to help small businesses learn about and access available SBA relief options.⁷

In the spring of 2022, the House passed Delgado’s One Stop Shop for Small Business Compliance Act, which directed the Small Business Administration to create and maintain a central website listing all small business compliance guides and resources to assist business owners in meeting federal standards and regulations. A month later, the House approved his VA Peer Support Enhancement for MST Survivors Act, which aimed to provide all claimants of sexual trauma in the military with a peer support specialist trained as a victims advocate.⁸

On May 3, 2022, New York Governor Kathy Hochul selected Delgado as her new lieutenant governor following the resignation of Brian Benjamin. Hochul praised her new running mate as a “battle-tested campaigner.” Delgado resigned from the House on May 25, 2022, and was sworn in as lieutenant governor of New York later that day. Delgado won re-election to a full term as lieutenant governor on Hochul’s ticket in November 2022.⁹

Committee Assignments

Committee & Subcommittee Chair