Mary Beth Walsh spent more than 15 years representing children in Family Court before she ran for the Assembly in 2016, taking over Jim Tedisco’s seat after he moved to the State Senate. Ten years later she is the Assembly Republicans’ Minority Leader Pro Tempore, a title her office calls the second highest ranking post in the minority conference. She has won every general election since 2016 by double digits.
So who is Mary Beth Walsh, what has she actually passed from the minority side, and why do Democrats keep tying her to Donald Trump? The record runs through a Ballston town board that state auditors faulted, a law extending support for adults with developmental disabilities, a kratom crackdown, and a 2026 challenge from a Clifton Park town board member.
Quick Facts
- Party
- Republican (also on the Conservative line)
- Hometown
- Burnt Hills, Town of Ballston, N.Y.
- Date of Birth
- Not listed in official biographies reviewed
- Current Position
- New York State Assembly, 112th District; Assembly Minority Leader Pro Tempore
- Background
- Attorney; former Ballston town councilwoman and assistant Saratoga County attorney
- In Office Since
- 2017
EARLY LIFE AND FAMILY
Walsh lives in Burnt Hills, in the Town of Ballston, and keeps a law practice in Ballston Spa, according to her Assembly biography. She has practiced law for more than 30 years. Her husband, James E. Walsh, administered the oath for her fifth term at Saratoga County Supreme Court in Ballston Spa, according to a January 2025 release.
Her oldest son is on the autism spectrum, she told WAMC during her first campaign, and support for people with special needs after they leave school became one of her early issues. PagPol could not confirm her date of birth, birthplace, or education in official sources. The Daily Gazette reported she was 50 when she was first elected in 2016.
The Milton Avenue business district in Ballston Spa, where Walsh keeps her law practice. (Photo: Tyler A. McNeil, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons)
FROM FAMILY COURT TO THE BALLSTON TOWN BOARD
Before the Assembly, Walsh worked as an assistant Saratoga County attorney and spent more than 15 years almost exclusively representing children in Family Court, according to her biography and the Daily Gazette. She also served on the Saratoga County Industrial Development Agency and, according to WAMC, the Saratoga County Water Authority.
She served two terms on the Ballston Town Board, from 2006 through 2013, according to the Gazette. That tenure overlaps with a state audit that later found serious problems in the town’s water fund, covered below. PagPol found no evidence the audit named her or any individual board member, and the findings concerned town operations rather than her personal conduct.
ELECTION RESULTS
When Tedisco left for the Senate in 2016, Walsh won a Republican primary over James Fischer, 3,476 to 2,828, according to Ballotpedia tallies. That November she beat Democrat Michael Godlewski, a deputy Schenectady County attorney from Glenville, 41,267 to 25,399, or about 62 percent. She ran unopposed in 2018 and received 43,666 votes.
State results compiled in PagPol’s Data Spine show her beating Democrat Joe Seeman 46,189 to 33,750 in 2020, Andrew McAdoo 35,654 to 24,141 in 2022, and Seeman again 44,288 to 30,956 in 2024. Her winning margin has stayed between about 15 and 19 points in every contested race since 2020. PagPol could not find turnout figures for her district.
Walsh's winning margin in votes
Vote margins in Walsh's general elections. She ran unopposed in 2018. 2016 from Ballotpedia; 2018 to 2024 from state results compiled in the PagPol Data Spine.
THE DISTRICT AND THE PARTY MATH
The 112th District spans parts of Saratoga, Schenectady, and Fulton counties, according to her Assembly page. It includes the towns of Ballston, Broadalbin, Charlton, Clifton Park, Galway, Glenville, Halfmoon, Milton, Perth, and Providence, plus the villages of Ballston Spa and Broadalbin, according to her office. Glenville is the district’s only Schenectady County town.
Republicans had the enrollment edge when she first ran, 38,256 to 26,059 under the old lines, according to the Gazette. PagPol could not find current enrollment for the redrawn district. In the Assembly as a whole, Democrats hold 103 of 150 seats, a supermajority of more than two thirds, according to NY1. Walsh leads from the 47 member Republican minority.
LEADERSHIP AND COMMITTEES
Walsh became Minority Leader Pro Tempore in 2025, succeeding the retiring Andy Goodell, after serving as Assistant Minority Leader Pro Tempore from 2020, according to her biography and WAMC. The job puts her in charge of the minority’s work on the floor. She sits on the Judiciary and Ways and Means committees.
That leadership role helps explain a low bill count. She is prime sponsor of 23 bills in the 2025 to 2026 session, according to Assembly sponsor records compiled in PagPol’s Data Spine, fewer than any other Capital Region member PagPol compared. Democratic Assemblymember Carrie Woerner, a frequent partner, has 173.
Bills prime sponsored, 2025-26 session, Capital Region Assembly members
Mary Beth WalshOther Capital Region members
Bills each member introduced as prime sponsor in the 2025-26 session, from Assembly sponsor records compiled in the PagPol Data Spine. Walsh holds the minority's second highest leadership post, and the count does not show whether a bill advanced.
WHAT SHE HAS ACTUALLY PASSED
Her clearest win is A.868-B, which lets parents of adult children with developmental disabilities seek child support until age 26. It passed the Assembly unanimously and became Chapter 437 of 2021, with Woerner as co-prime sponsor and Democratic Sen. John Mannion carrying the Senate version, according to Walsh’s office. Parent advocate Jill Murphy Calderon backed it.
In 2025 she co-sponsored two kratom bills that became law. A.5852-A, carried by Democrat Phil Steck, requires labels and warnings and passed the Senate 59 to 0, becoming Chapter 655 of 2025, according to Senate records. A companion bill with Democrat John McDonald, A.2340-A, sets a purchase age of 21. “For too long, kratom has been sold without oversight, age limits, or clear warnings,” Walsh said in the governor’s release.
BILLS THAT STALLED
Her solo bills have fared worse. A.945, known as Jacobe’s Law, would require schools to make a good faith effort to notify parents after a verified bullying incident. It is named for Jacobe Taras, a 13 year old who died in 2015, and was held in the Education Committee in May 2025, according to Senate records. An earlier version was voted down in that committee in April 2023.
A.3946, which would require age verification for pornography websites with penalties up to $50,000 a day, was held in the Consumer Affairs Committee in May 2025, despite Woerner signing on as a co-sponsor, according to Senate records. A.2713, dissolving the Jenkins Park District in her home town of Ballston, sits in the Local Governments Committee.
The Glenville Municipal Center. Glenville is the only Schenectady County town in Walsh's 112th District. (Photo: Tyler A. McNeil, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons)
HER VOTING RECORD
On the Assembly’s most contested vote of 2025, she voted no. The Medical Aid in Dying Act passed 81 to 67 in April 2025, according to WRVO, and a vote list published by the Diocese of Albany records Walsh as a no. Gov. Kathy Hochul signed an amended version in February 2026, according to Spectrum News.
She voted against the 2019 Farmworkers Fair Labor Practices Act, according to her own release, and against the Assembly’s $233 billion one house budget in 2023. She says she opposed the 2019 bail changes on the floor. “It is in the best interest of public safety that these dangerous catch-and-release policies be revised immediately,” she said in a 2022 release. She did vote for the final two budget bills in 2017.
WHY SHE RUNS AND WHAT SHE BELIEVES
In her first race she said voters were “sick and tired of politics-as-usual,” according to WAMC, and promised ethics reform and more help for families of children with special needs. By 2019 she was framing herself as a fiscal conservative. “New York has a spending problem and its time we work to cut waste and prioritize what really matters,” she said in a 2019 release.
She pairs that message with a claim to pragmatism. “Because the bottom line for me is that if you don’t really care who gets the credit, you can get a lot done,” she told WAMC in 2020. In March 2026 she argued against new spending: “we cannot spend our way out of an affordability crisis,” she said in a budget release.
CAMPAIGN FINANCE
Walsh takes part in the state’s public matching fund program. In 2024 the Public Campaign Finance Board approved $171,910 for her committee across five reports, from July through December, while Seeman’s committee received $175,000 across the reports where it appeared. Those totals are PagPol’s sums of individual board reports and may not include every distribution.
In 2026 the board approved $90,848.12, $66,755, and $9,999 for Walsh’s committee in its June, July, and August reports, about $167,602 in all, and $61,495 for challenger Mario Fantini’s committee in August. PagPol could not retrieve her private fundraising totals or donor breakdown from the state Board of Elections.
Public matching funds approved July 30, 2024, Capital Region races
WalshOther candidates
Public matching funds approved in the state Public Campaign Finance Board's July 30, 2024 report. Across five 2024 reports, PagPol counted $171,910 for Walsh and $175,000 for Seeman.
CONTROVERSIES AND CRITICISM
The most documented problem from her local tenure is a 2013 state audit of the Town of Ballston water fund covering 2010 and 2011, while she sat on the town board. The State Comptroller found the fund balance was overstated by at least $271,264, that one district had a $209,317 deficit instead of a reported surplus, and that the town failed to charge about $22,500 in fees.
Her Democratic opponents have focused on national politics. “She could reject Trump, but by being silent, she’s complicit,” Seeman said in 2024, according to the Daily Gazette. Walsh called one of his remarks misogynistic and called him “really unhinged.” In 2020 Seeman said, “My opponent is loyal to Trump, Putin, and the billionaires,” according to WAMC.
CLAIMS VERSUS THE RECORD
Walsh presents herself as a bridge builder. “I am a reasonable voice in a legislature increasingly dominated by people who are like my opponent,” she told the Gazette in 2024. The record partly supports that: each law PagPol found with her name on it, the 2021 support law and the two kratom laws, was co-led with a Democrat. Her own prime sponsored bills on bullying and age verification remain stuck in committee.
Her public safety message has been consistent. “People don’t feel safe,” she told WAMC as she took her leadership post in January 2025, and she says she opposed the 2019 bail law from the start. PagPol found no ethics complaints or lawsuits involving her, and no state audit of any office she held other than the Ballston review.
LOOKING AHEAD
Walsh faces Democrat Mario Fantini, who also has the Working Families line and sits on the Clifton Park Town Board through 2028, on Nov. 3, 2026. She succeeded Sen. Jim Tedisco in the Assembly and often works with Assemblymember Carrie Woerner. For more, visit PagPol’s Saratoga County page or subscribe to the Schenectady County newsletter.
