Diana Richardson


Diana Richardson is an American politician who is a member of the New York Assembly. She was elected on the Working Families Party line in a 2015 special election to replace Karim Camara in the 43rd district, which comprises the Crown Heights and Prospect Lefferts Gardens neighborhoods of Brooklyn.

Early life and education

Richardson was born in Brooklyn, to Caribbean immigrant parents from Aruba, and raised in Crown Heights.
Richardson has an undergraduate degree in public administration from Medgar Evers College, and a Master of Public Administration from Baruch College, both campuses of the City University of New York.

Career

Richardson was a Brooklyn Community Board 9 member when the Crown Heights Tenant Union, an advocacy organization for tenants that organizes, educations, and helps residents in housing court cases, convinced her to run for an open New York Assembly seat on an anti-gentrification platform.
She won the May 2015 special election, on the Working Families Party ballot line, the first to do so in the state legislature. She also won the general election the following November, on both the Democratic Party line as well as the WFP.
In 2016, Richardson was arrested for hitting her 12-year-old son with a broomstick and charged with assault, endangering the welfare of a child, criminal possession of a weapon and menacing.
In 2020, Richardson was pepper-sprayed by the New York City Police Department while marching at a demonstration over the death of George Floyd. Richardson faced a primary challenge in the 2020 elections from Jesse Hamilton.