DONATE

Who is Garrett?

I grew up in Central Islip — moving at age 6 from Queens. I was raised by a single mom, and I got my first job at 14. After graduating from CI, I went on to Stony Brook and Dowling, riding the Suffolk County Transit bus two hours each way to make it to college. Trying to get my degrees amidst the Great Recession, I worked jobs at Radioshack, an auto parts store, a hardware store, King Kullen, Staples, and a gaming store. I took out loans and took on debt – because I knew what a degree could mean for my trajectory in life.

After Dowling, I eventually made a career serving some of the most vulnerable Long Islanders – those with developmental disabilities, using my education degree and experience in the classroom to improve the care and services they receive. I met my wife, Irina, at Stony Brook, and after years of renting, we were able to buy a home together in East Islip. Now, we’re public school parents raising two beautiful children here. But I’m worried. 

The opportunities I was able to take advantage of are closing off for our young people. Long Island keeps getting more and more expensive, and I worry my kids will never be able to afford a home here. It’s not easy for any of us now – groceries and everything else keep going up in price, we’re nickel and dimed at every turn, and it feels like we’re being pushed out. We’re in a dual crisis – a crisis of our democracy where our freedoms and rights are under attack, and a cost-of-living crisis that threatens to price us all out of our home. 

Andrew Garbarino is just making it worse. He and his DC buddies are trading our healthcare, our jobs, and our schools for billionaire tax breaks. An oligarchy is gaining power in America, and our Congressman can’t even wake up to vote. We’ve been through worse – and we can fight our way out of this, for a better Long Island. We can do it together. That’s why I’m running for Congress.

Top Priorities

Andrew Garbarino has fallen asleep on the job and helped make life more expensive for everyday Long Islanders. I've spent my entire career helping those who need it most – first in the classroom, and now serving Long Islanders with developmental disabilities. As your Congressman, you will always know where I stand. I won’t dodge tough votes and I won’t give bullshit politician answers to tough questions. My focus will be on you, your freedom, and your ability to afford a good life at home on Long Island. 

What follows are some of my top priorities – but this campaign is just getting started. In the coming months, we will add to this page as I hear from Long Islanders across the district.

  • It’s not easy raising a family on Long Island. Everything is expensive. I grew up in a single parent home in Central Islip, and at times, my mom had to work three jobs to make ends meet. Andrew Garbarino does not know what it is like to worry about making ends meet. We need a new Congressman who will fight for families to be able to stay on Long Island. I support:

    • Medicare for All. Too many Americans are going bankrupt from medical emergencies every year. In 2025 alone, Andrew Garbarino was the deciding vote to throw millions of Americans off of Medicaid and refused to negotiate to prevent a massive price hike on Affordable Care Act healthcare plans. I support moving toward a Medicare for All system that guarantees coverage to all Americans at low or no out-of-pocket cost.

    • Universal childcare. Any Long Island family with kids can tell you that childcare costs are out of control. If it was not for our friends and family stepping up to help with our kids, I know childcare costs would have put our financial stability in serious jeopardy. I support a universal childcare policy that guarantees families don’t have to overspend on this basic need. 

    • Making housing affordable. Too many young families are leaving New York because of the cost of housing. Meanwhile, Andrew Garbarino has done nothing to check Donald Trump’s tariffs on housing materials and components – wood, timber, furniture, even the literal kitchen sink– that will increase prices more and further the housing affordability crisis. I oppose these new taxes and I support federal investment in incentivizing and building more housing supply with the goal of reigning in costs for renters and homeowners.

  • I was born in a free country and I plan to die in one. Under this administration, we are seeing the destruction of the freedoms that have defined the idea of America since its inception. Paired with a class of oligarchical elites consolidating control over the economy, social media, and mainstream news organizations, we are at a crossroads as a country. We need to come together around a shared national project to stop the tyranny and corruption of the political and economic elite, and rebuild a free country that works for all of us. I support:

    • An end to political corruption. Our political system has become wholly corrupted by the Citizens United decision that allowed unlimited spending in political campaigns. We need to end the system of legalized political corruption by changing our campaign finance laws. We need to ban Members of Congress, as well as the president and vice president, from trading stocks – a blatant conflict of interest. We need to stop the president from selling influence to the White House through a cryptocurrency scam that he and his family personally profits from on a scale of over one billion dollars. 

    • Defending personal freedom from the elites. I believe in a simple principle: elites in ivory towers should not be able to control what you say and how you live. I will not rest until abortion is again legal everywhere in the United States. I will defend free speech wherever it is attacked – whether it be attempts to restrict your speech, the cajoling of our universities, or book bans. Access to diverse ideas, perspectives, and information must not be shut down to serve the interests of the few, at the cost of us all. 

    • Breaking up monopolies and taxing the billionaires. Too much power is in the hands of too few people. Theodore Roosevelt had this figured out a hundred years ago, he was right then and still right about it now. When a small group of billionaires own huge sectors of the economy, social media companies, and the news media companies, America becomes less free. They should not be able to control our algorithms, jack up prices unfairly, and turn their hoards of wealth into outsized political power. To restore a free and fair society, we need to strongly enforce antitrust laws to break up monopolies, and we need to tax excessive wealth that’s being used to buy our political system.

  • It is not enough to make life more affordable, we must also build an economy that creates opportunities for people to work good jobs that pay well. Everyone should be able to build a good life on Long Island. I started working when I was 14 and had to work many different jobs to get through the Great Recession and help put myself through school at Stony Brook and Dowling before I was able to make a career out of my work supporting people with developmental disabilities. Long Islanders should be able to pursue whatever line of work they choose and make enough money to support a family here. To make that happen, I support:

    • Pro-worker policies. I will always defend the right of workers to organize a union. Congress should make it easier, not harder for people to come together with their co-workers to win better working conditions. I also support at least twelve weeks of universal paid leave for medical, caregiving, or parental needs. You should not be forced to choose between keeping your job and taking care of yourself and your family.

    • Investing in public education. I had to piece together several jobs and student loans in order to get myself through college.Every day, a 20 minute drive took me two hours on the Suffolk County Transit bus from Central Islip to Stony Brook, because I knew the value of receiving an education. We need to invest more in public education at all levels — pre-K, K-12, colleges, and trade schools — so that everyone gets the same opportunities and can choose a fulfilling career path. This also means removing financial barriers by making public colleges and trade schools tuition-free and canceling all student loan debt. 

    • Investing in research, technology, infrastructure, and industries of the future. Federal cuts to investment in manufacturing, research, infrastructure, and technology are incredibly shortsighted and harmful to Long Island’s long-term economic prospects. As a country, we can not afford to fall behind the rest of the world in innovation and key industries like clean energy and semiconductor manufacturing. In Congress, I will be a strong supporter of investments in Long Island’s infrastructure and economy. 

    On Long Island, union labor built our communities, from our infrastructure and schools to our energy systems, telecommunications networks, and skilled trades workforce. I believe strong unions are essential to sustaining our middle class, protecting family-supporting careers, and keeping Long Island affordable for working people.

    I am fully committed to investing in worker power, protecting the right to organize, and strengthening the labor movement. I will support policies that protect collective bargaining rights, defend prevailing wage standards, expand access to apprenticeship and workforce training programs, and ensure workers have a real voice in the economic future of our region.

    Long Island works because working people make it work. I am proud to stand with unions and organized labor in the fight for fair wages, safe workplaces, strong benefits, and dignity on the job.

Sign Up