Meet Candidate Josh Taveras

A Dominican-American With A Dream!

I’m Josh Taveras — and I’m running for State Senate because I believe our communities deserve leadership that understands struggle, resilience, and the promise of a better future.

I was born and raised in Copiague, the son of Dominican immigrants who came to this country chasing opportunity. English wasn’t spoken in our home growing up, so as a kid, I often translated bills, doctor’s visits, and school meetings for my parents. Like so many first-generation families on Long Island, we worked hard, and we struggled.

When I was 16 years old, my father passed away in a tragic boating accident. My mother has been battling Huntington’s disease, a terminal illness, since I was 7 years old. Because of that, I grew up under informal kinship care with my aunt, navigating financial hardship, grief, and instability at a young age. There were times we relied on food stamps to get by. There were moments when the future felt uncertain.

But what never wavered was my belief in education, service, and community.

Despite everything, I graduated high school at the top of my class and went on to earn my degree in Political Science from Stony Brook University. I originally studied engineering because I’ve always been someone who wants to understand how systems work from the ground up. But I realized that the system I most wanted to fix wasn’t mechanical.

It was political.

I became politically active in high school, attending protests, organizing, and advocating for issues that shaped my life: affordable housing, gun violence prevention, LGBTQ+ equality, immigrant rights, climate justice, and protecting working families.

As a proud gay Latino man, I know what it feels like to grow up different and to fight for your place in the world. That experience taught me empathy. It taught me courage. And it taught me that representation matters.

Today, I work as a Dual Store Manager overseeing two retail locations in New York — including one of the highest-volume stores in the region. I’ve helped grow teams, manage large budgets, and turn struggling operations into successful ones. Leadership isn’t just a title to me — it’s about accountability, results, and lifting people up.

When I’m not working or organizing, you’ll probably find me cooking, watching a show I’ve already seen 30 times, spending time with family, or diving deep into policy research. I genuinely love understanding how laws shape everyday life and how we can make them better.

I’m running for State Senate because I know what it’s like to feel overlooked. I know what it’s like to grow up without political connections, without wealth, without a safety net, and still believe that government can work for regular people.

If elected, I will be a State Senator who listens first. Who shows up. Who fights for working families, renters, small business owners, immigrants, young people, seniors, and anyone who feels like Albany doesn’t see them.

I don’t come from a political dynasty or corporate boardrooms.

I come from Copiague. From food stamps. From grief. From resilience.

And I’m running to make sure every child growing up in our district knows that their story matters, and that their future can be bigger than their circumstances.

This is our moment to build something new.

A new future. Our dream.

— Josh Taveras