On a blustery October evening, in a park in Soundview, Alessandra Biaggi stood ready to canvas inside a residential building. She wore pink jeans and a leather jacket. With minimal makeup and long brown hair, she looked more like an activist than a woman running for New York State Senate for the 34th District.

“Many industries, including the political sphere, have created a story about how women

should look without women really having an input,” she said. The 32-year-old political

newcomer is ready to take control of her own narrative and be true to herself.

Early in her campaign, Biaggi grew frustrated by questions about her choice of shoes or lipstick color. “I have so many important things to tell everyone! And you’re focusing on this?” she said. Biaggi managed to steer the focus away from her looks during the primary.

Though Biaggi won her primary, she still hasn’t stopped campaigning. During the primary, she would start her days at 6 a.m. Biaggi could be found at train stations and bus stops talking to constituents. Then she’d head to meetings and rallies — nonstop before crashing into bed at midnight. “I keep my energy going because I have a lot of anger,” she laughed. “It’s dangerous to make me angry because I will definitely channel it into action, no matter what.”

Her campaign hustle led to one of the largest upsets in New York’s Democratic

Primaries in recent memory: Biaggi beat Jeff Klein, a powerful lawmaker who led the now dissolved Independent Democratic Conference, by nine percentage points.

Though to many it seems like Biaggi made a sudden splash on the political scene, politics

is in her blood. Her grandfather, Mario Biaggi, was a New York Congressman from 1969 to

Growing up, the adults around her always asked her to not only identify the problem, but also come up with a solution. “I could never really get out alive without talking about politics at the dinner table,” she said. “[A]nd so because of that I did not feel uncomfortable getting involved in politics.”

Before becoming a politician, Biaggi worked as the deputy national operations director for Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election. “When we lost that election, I thought to myself, “What is my role in (the political sphere)?”

She then joined Governor Cuomo’s administration in his Counsel’s office focusing on women’s issues and public health. But during her time there, she became frustrated with the lack of progress on the many bills that never got out of committee.

So, as her family taught her as a child, she began to look for a solution. She looked at her representatives, and saw Klein as the reason certain bills she wanted to see passed had stalled. “I figured that nothing would ever change if we have the same type of leadership,” she said.

During the primary cycle, Klein’s $3 million war chest outspent her 10 to 1.

With the Bronx heavily Democratic, Biaggi’s Republican rival, Richard Ribustello, will have a hard time beating Biaggi, virtually sealing Biaggi’s fate as the winner. For his part, Ribustello did not return a request for an interview.

Biaggi said that she hopes to be a leader in the State Senate and to work with people of

all political perspectives. “I hope that people perceive me as someone who is fierce,” she said.