Kenny Agosto, district director to New York State Senator Jamaal T. Bailey, announced that he is running for the 15th city council district seat in the Bronx. Though not yet formally listed as a candidate on the City’s campaign finance board website, Agosto announced that he is joining the race in which there are already six candidates who have officially filed to run.

 

They are Ischia Bravo, Elisa Crespo, Oswald Feliz, Latchmi D. Gopal, John E. Sanchez, and Julian S. Sepulveda. One of the candidates will replace the incumbent, Councilman Ritchie Torres, who it is assumed will win his race to get elected to Congress in New York’s 15th, heavily democratic, congressional district in November.

 

Agosto is planning a socially distant, masked kickoff rally and voter registration event on Sunday, Sept. 27, at 3 p.m. in front of the St. Barnabas Hospital emergency room driveway entrance, located at 4422 Third Ave, East 183rd Street in the Belmont section of the Bronx.

 

At the rally, Agosto and the Committee of Friends of Kenny Agosto For The Bronx will be registering people to vote for this year’s general and presidential election which takes place on Tuesday, Nov. 3 from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m.

 

They will also be tabling and giving the public nutritional information, and talking about issues such as criminal justice reform, domestic violence prevention, the environment, food insecurity, homelessness, jobs, schools, small businesses (mom and pop stores), tenants’ rights, and LGBTQIA+ and gender non-conforming (GNC) rights.

 

According to his biography, Kenneth G. “Kenny” Agosto was born in Fordham Hospital (closed in 1976) in the Belmont section of The Bronx to Afro-Latino parents. Raised in Bronx public housing, and educated in Bronx public schools, Agosto went on to attend St. Thomas University in Miami, Florida, where he served as the first Puerto Rican elected student government president. He earned his B.A. in political science.

 

He returned to The Bronx to work with people with disabilities, where he worked for several years in the mental health field. He became a community organizer for people with disabilities, seniors, veterans, the LGBTQIA+ and GNC community as well as with survivors of abuse.

 

According to his campaign, in 1994, Agosto first got involved in his community through the Bronx Young Democrats, and in 2000, he was appointed the youngest vice chair of the Bronx democratic party. He served on Bronx Community Board 11, the 49th precinct community council, as well as on several nonprofit boards including Highbridge Advisory Council, Claremont Neighborhood Centers, and Stonewall / 504 Democratic Clubs of NYC.

 

Agosto also served as chairperson of the board of We Stay / Nos Quedamos, an organization dedicated to building and preserving affordable and environmentally green housing in the Bronx. In 2003, he started working in government in the New York State Assembly, and later in the New York State Senate, serving twice as special assistant, and twice as chief of staff in the New York State legislature.

 

Agosto also served as executive director of the New York State Senate Puerto Rican / Hispanic Task Force. His work at the senate level covered affordable housing, the repealing of vacancy decontrol, the Gender Expression Non-Discrimination Act (GENDA), banning LGBTQIA+ conversion therapy, bail reform, right to counsel, right to a speedy trial, the law relating to the disclosure of police misconduct files, and open, early and automatic discovery law in New York.

 

Agosto is currently working to release aging and non-violent people from prison, legalizing cannabis, halting solitary confinement, decriminalizing sex work, closing Rikers Island, and police reform. In 2006, he was elected Democratic district leader of the 80th assembly district, becoming the first openly gay, elected official in the Bronx.

 

He co-founded the Liberty Democratic Association in 2014, a progressive democratic club dedicated to working families, the disabled, the rights of the LGBTQIA+ community, affordable housing, and other progressive causes geared to assist the residents of the Bronx and the district. The same year, Agosto was elected State committeeman where he served as a member of the New York State democratic committee’s progressive caucus, chairing the first criminal justice reform committee, which focuses on reducing mass incarceration and correcting police brutality.

 

Agosto also joined the executive board of Discovery 4 Justice, which organizes and agitates for criminal justice reform in New York. As an out leader in the LGBTQIA+ and GNC community for many years, Agosto is a longtime activist for gay and trans rights. Agosto marched for police reform and public safety in the wake of the Black Lives Matter and Trans Lives Matter movements.

 

He was an early, vocal proponent for marriage equality in New York State, marched on Albany with thousands of New Yorkers, lobbied legislators, and held rallies and press conferences across the Bronx to bring it to fruition. On June 24, 2011, marriage equality was passed in New York State, and on June 27, 2015, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled marriage equality the law of the land.

 

Currently, Agosto serves as district director to New York State Senator Jamaal T. Bailey, and is co-founder of the Bronx Park East Community Association, a group dedicated to beautifying local neighborhoods while curbing street gun violence.

 

He is a graduate of the NYPD civilian police academy, and lives with his family in the Bronx Park East / Allerton section of the Bronx.