Jabari Brisport

Jabari is the State Senator for New York’s 25th District and serves as the Chair of the Children and Families Committee. He’s a queer, Black former public school teacher and a third-generation, Caribbean-American resident of Brooklyn. Born in Bed-Stuy and raised in Prospect Heights, Jabari has witnessed firsthand his community’s struggles with rapid gentrification, lack of investment in public schools, and the systemic racism that underlies these issues.

At the time of his election, Senator Brisport was a math teacher at a middle school in Crown Heights and an active member of the United Federation of Teachers (UFT) union. As a public school teacher, he saw how chronic underfunding of our schools has created glaring injustices for New York’s students, and how those injustices are compounded by a lack of access to basic needs like housing and healthcare.

These experiences shaped his determination to fight for a just state budget that provides funding for the infrastructure and services New Yorkers need to survive and thrive, especially in times of crisis. Senator Brisport is a vocal advocate of raising taxes on the rich and of policies that place the needs of working-class people above corporate profits, including a Green New Deal, the New York Health Act, universal access to housing, and the cancelation of rent and mortgage arrears accumulated during the COVID-19 pandemic.