NYACK, NY – AP (Associated Press) Declares Rockland’s Mondaire Jones Winner in NY-17 Congressional District. Jones makes history as the nation’s first openly gay, black member of Congress.

Jones released the following statement:

“After more than a year of building a people-powered, grassroots campaign with thousands of supporters, I am incredibly proud to be elected to represent the community that raised me. Growing up poor, Black, and gay, I never imagined that someone like me could make it to the halls of Congress.

“But this victory is not about me. It’s a victory for young people, who deserve a planet we can inhabit. It’s for the hard-working single moms like mine, who held multiple jobs just to provide for our family. It’s for the janitors like my late grandfather, and the housecleaners like my grandmother, who deserve an economy that works for them. It’s for our immigrant brothers and sisters, contributing members of our society and the engine of our economy, who should not have to live in the shadows. It’s for the hundreds of thousands of young, queer kids from across Westchester and Rockland and throughout America, many of whom have written to me to say that seeing an out candidate run and win gives them the confidence to embrace who they are to live authentic lives. And it’s for the great people of New York’s 17th Congressional District, who defied conventional wisdom and rallied behind a people’s champion, and for a future that works for everyone.

VIDEO: Mondaire Jones early voting at Orangetown Town Hall 

“And that is a future worth fighting for. It’s a future where everyone is paid a living wage for their labor, and no one goes hungry or homeless because they can’t afford to live. It’s a future where everyone — and I mean everyone — has quality health care, regardless of employment status. It’s a future where we have saved the planet from climate catastrophe and ensured a livable planet for our children and their children. It’s a future where a quality public education is a right guaranteed to all. And it’s a future where racial justice is, once and for all, obtained for communities of color throughout this nation.”

Jones is 32-year-old Spring Valley High School graduate. He later graduated from Stanford University and Harvard Law School. Mondaire worked as a litigator in the Westchester County Law Department and former Department of Justice staffer during the Obama Administration.