![\"State](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/michael-gianaris-re-election-202601.webp.jpeg\")
\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
State Sen. Michael Gianaris has decided against running for re-election this year, ending his run of a quarter of a century representing western Queens in Albany. <\/p>\n
Courtesy of NYS Senate<\/p>\n
State Sen. Michael Gianaris<\/a> announced Monday that he would not seek re-election in 2026 after representing western Queens in Albany for more than 25 years. He first won a seat in the state Assembly in 2000 before moving to the upper chamber after winning his Senate seat in 2010.<\/p>\n Born and raised by Greek immigrant parents in Astoria<\/a>, Gianaris said his decision was based on spending more time with his own family and embracing his new role as a father.<\/p>\n \u201cChildren grow in the blink of an eye, and mine are no exception,\u201d the deputy majority leader said. \u201cThe fact is working in my district, leading the majority\u2019s efforts on the floor of the Senate, and steering our conference\u2019s campaign arm are intensely time consuming tasks, but so is being a husband and a father and I cherish my time with my family as much as any political success I have experienced and after a quarter century as a legislator, I simply do not want to miss another moment.\u201d<\/p>\n When he was first elected to the Senate his conference had just lost the majority and the Democratic Senate campaign committee was more than $3 million in debt. Gianaris helped lead the fight against the Independent Democratic Conference, known as the IDC, breakaway democrats who caucused with the Republican Senators in a power-sharing arrangement. Gianaris recruited candidates to run against IDC members until the Democrats regained the Senate majority in 2019.<\/p>\n \u2018\u201cWe embarked on an unprecedented and unrelenting rush of legislative achievements unlikely to be repeated, celebrated advancements on issues such as voting rights, tenant protections, immigrant safeguards, reproductive rights, the environment, criminal law reforms, animal rights and support for the working people to name just a few,\u201d Gianaris said.<\/p>\n Critics said the criminal justice reforms went too far and handcuffed New York prosecutors. He also shared blame for Amazon canceling its plans<\/a> to build a headquarters on the Long Island City<\/a> waterfront on Feb. 14, 2019, which became known locally as the \u201cValentine\u2019s Day Massacre.\u201d Gianaris still maintains that the 25,000 full-time jobs Amazon promised in return for $3 billion in subsidies would never have materialized.<\/p>\n \u201cPublic service is a tremendous and often thankless sacrifice, even more so in today\u2019s divisive climate. I honor all those who dedicate their lives to making things better for their neighbors,\u201d Gianaris said. \u201cI tried my best to do that during my decades in public life, and I\u2019m proud of the contributions, large and small, I was able to make.\u201d<\/p>\n Former Assemblymember Brian Barnwell told QNS he has no plans to run for Gianaris\u2019 seat representing his hometown Woodside and parts of Sunnyside, Long Island City, Astoria, Elmhurst, Maspeth and Ridgewood.<\/p>\n Barnwell\u2019s successor, Assembly Member Steven Raga, is mulling a run for Gianaris\u2019 seat. \u201cSenator Gianaris has been a tireless advocate for working families in Queens, helping to strengthen tenant protections, champion affordable housing, and delivering key legislative wins for Western Queens,\u201d Raga said in a statement. \u201cHis leadership as Deputy Majority Leader and his commitment to public service has left an enduring mark on our state and on the communities he has represented. As this moment marks a transition in his political career, it also opens the door for new leadership and new voices to step forward. I am exploring a campaign for this seat and speaking with neighbors and local leaders as I consider how I can best serve our communities.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"State Sen. Michael Gianaris has decided against running for re-election this year, ending his run of a quarter…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":129716,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[310,40774,9,24,63,122,124,123,55794,856,55795],"class_list":{"0":"post-129715","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-queens","8":"tag-daily-newsletter","9":"tag-michael-gianaris","10":"tag-new-york","11":"tag-new-york-city","12":"tag-nyc","13":"tag-queens","14":"tag-queens-headlines","15":"tag-queens-news","16":"tag-re-election","17":"tag-state-senate","18":"tag-state-sen-michael-gianaris"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129715","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=129715"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129715\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/129716"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=129715"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=129715"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=129715"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n![\"Gianaris](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/michael-gianaris-re-election-202602.webp.jpeg\")
Gianaris was criticized by then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo for his opposition to Amazon\u2019s plan to build its HQ2 in the Long Island City waterfront in 2019. QNS file photo\n<\/p>\n
\n![\"Assemblymember](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/michael-gianaris-re-election-202603.webp.jpeg\")
Assemblymember Steven Raga said he is mulling a campaign for Gianaris\u2019 Senate seat. Courtesy of Raga\u2019s office\n<\/p>\n