I’m Shakur T. Joseph, a Bronx-born organizer, school leader, and public servant running for New York State Assembly to build a government that serves its people, not systems that profit from our struggles.
Growing up in the Bronx, I navigated many of the same challenges our community still faces today. I saw how the criminal legal system destroyed families, cut off opportunity, and created lifelong harm for young people and their families. I saw neighborhoods neglected by our government and landlords, with infested, cold, and at times unlivable conditions. I saw students trying to learn in schools with limited resources, underpaid teachers, fewer connections, and less access to opportunity.
Like many people around me, I had to push through those conditions myself. I began working at 14 to help contribute to my family, navigating life with my seven brothers and my mother after our father passed away. From a young age, I learned what it meant to carry responsibility early, balancing college, three part-time jobs, paying rent, living on my own, and navigating many of the same challenges my mother faced.
Those experiences shaped how I see the world and why I believe government should make life easier for people, not harder.
For the past 15 years, I’ve worked in education and nonprofit leadership, focused on strengthening schools, supporting families, and doing my part to keep young people out of the criminal legal system while supporting suicide prevention and homelessness. My work has centered on helping people navigate systems that were not built for them.
Everything I do comes back to a simple belief: people deserve a fair shot at a quality life. That belief is why my campaign is focused on:
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Capping rent in low-income neighborhoods.
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Creating free universal 2K-4K programs and colleges.
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Eliminating credit checks from rental applications.
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Building new, community-owned, and operated local businesses.
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and Ending the abusive grip the justice system has on our communities.
These are not abstract issues to me. They are realities families in the Bronx face every day, and we are building a campaign that is fighting to do exactly that.
I’m running for State Assembly because our district deserves leadership that listens, shows up, and fights for the people who call this community home. Together, we can build a Bronx where people feel safe, brick by brick, block by block, and voice by voice.
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