Shelley Mayer won a 2018 special election that helped decide who controlled the State Senate, and she has spent most of the years since running its Education Committee. She wrote the 2019 law that cut the required link between teacher ratings and state tests, and the 2024 law that rebuilt teacher evaluations. In August 2026 Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins also put her in charge of the Senate Democrats’ campaign arm.
So who is Shelley Mayer, what has she actually passed, and why do Republicans keep running against her on crime? The record runs through two signed teacher evaluation laws, a nonprofit payment bill that Gov. Kathy Hochul vetoed twice, a utility bill stuck in the Assembly, and a 2026 race against Eastchester hardware store owner Thomas Fix Jr.
Quick Facts
- Party
- Democratic (also on the Working Families line)
- Hometown
- Yonkers, N.Y.
- Date of Birth
- Not listed in official biographies reviewed
- Current Position
- New York State Senate, 37th District; Chair, Senate Education Committee
- Background
- Former assistant state attorney general; former chief counsel to Senate Democrats
- In Office Since
- 2018 (Senate); Assembly, 2012 to 2018
EARLY LIFE AND FAMILY
Mayer was born and raised in Yonkers and lives in her childhood home there with her husband, Lee Smith, according to her Senate biography. They have three adult children and five grandchildren. “I feel like I’ve been in Yonkers all of my life,” she told Columbia News in 2012. She earned a bachelor’s degree from UCLA in 1975 and a law degree from SUNY Buffalo in 1979.
Her civic résumé runs through Yonkers institutions, including the city’s Democratic committee, the NAACP, the YWCA, and the public library board, according to Columbia News. PagPol could not confirm her exact date of birth in official sources. The Rye Record reported she was 72 at the time of her 2024 reelection.
Mayer in the State Senate in February 2024. She has chaired the Senate Education Committee since 2019. (Photo: NY Senate Photo, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons)
A LAWYER BEFORE A LEGISLATOR
Mayer spent 12 years as an assistant attorney general under Robert Abrams, from 1982 to 1994, according to her Senate biography. She worked on reproductive health litigation and in the Civil Rights Bureau, led the Westchester regional office, and became a senior adviser to the attorney general. Columbia News reported she also prosecuted age discrimination cases and tenant and consumer violations.
She later handled government affairs for the hospital system Continuum Health Partners. From 2007 to 2011 she was chief counsel to the State Senate Democrats, according to Ballotpedia, a job that later became the center of her toughest campaign. She then worked at Columbia Law School’s program for state attorneys general before entering the Assembly in 2012.
ELECTION RESULTS
Mayer won a March 2012 Assembly special election in Yonkers over Republican Donnamarie Nolan and was unopposed that November with 28,648 votes, according to Ballotpedia. In a 2014 primary she beat Michael Sweeney 2,705 to 690. In April 2018 she won the Senate seat George Latimer left to become county executive, beating Republican Julie Killian with about 57 percent with most districts reporting, according to the Rye Record.
Since then her margins have stayed above 20 points. She beat Republican Liviu Saimovici 90,124 to 54,026 in 2020, Frank Murtha 67,130 to 42,767 in 2022, and Tricia Lindsay 90,881 to 56,284 in 2024, according to Ballotpedia. That 2024 race drew 147,224 votes. PagPol could not find a certified total for her 2012 special election.
2024 winning margins, Hudson Valley State Senate districts
MayerDemocratic senatorsRepublican senators
Margin in percentage points between the winner and the runner-up in the November 2024 general election. Districts 38 and 39 lie outside Westchester but border it. Sources: certified results compiled by Ballotpedia; the Bronx portion of District 36 checked against New York City Board of Elections records.
THE DISTRICT AND THE PARTY MATH
The 37th District covers northeast Yonkers, Eastchester, Scarsdale, White Plains, North Castle, Pound Ridge, and the Sound Shore communities, according to her Senate biography. The Westchester Board of Elections counted 98,698 active Democrats, 45,246 Republicans, and 58,436 voters with no party in February 2026. That makes it the largest Senate district by active enrollment among those in Westchester, counting only Westchester voters.
Democrats hold 41 of the Senate’s 63 seats, one short of a two-thirds supermajority, according to News12. Democrats also control the Assembly and the governor’s office. Mayer’s own 2018 win mattered more than most. It gave Democrats a nominal majority, though Sen. Simcha Felder kept the Republicans in control by continuing to caucus with them, according to WAMC.
Registered voters by party in Westchester State Senate districts
Active voter enrollment, February 2026. Each bar is one district.
DemocratsRepublicansNo party
Active enrolled voters who live in Westchester County, by State Senate district, as of Feb. 20, 2026. This chart shows voter registration, not campaign money. Mayer represents District 37. Districts 34, 36, and 40 also include voters outside the county, who are not counted here. Minor party voters are not shown. Source: Westchester County Board of Elections.
COMMITTEES AND LEADERSHIP
Mayer chairs the Senate Education Committee, a post she has held since 2019, and the Ethics and Internal Governance Committee, according to her Senate biography. She also serves on Elections, Finance, Judiciary, Labor, and Rules. She co-chairs the Legislative Ethics Commission, and in September 2026 she was named co-chair of the legislature’s redistricting task force, known as LATFOR, according to her campaign.
In August 2026 Stewart-Cousins named her chair of the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee, replacing Sen. Michael Gianaris, according to City & State. “I am a person who has been deeply involved in Democratic politics for my whole life,” she told the outlet. Her goal is the 42nd seat that would restore the supermajority.
WHAT SHE HAS ACTUALLY PASSED
Her first major Senate law was S1262 of 2019, which ended the requirement that state test scores count in teacher evaluations. It passed the Senate 60 to 0 on Jan. 23, 2019, and became Chapter 27 of 2019, according to the Senate bill page. Assemblyman Michael Benedetto carried the Assembly version. “Our teachers and students are more than their test scores,” Mayer said that day.
In 2024 she sponsored S9054, which moved teacher and principal evaluations into local bargaining and dropped the mandatory use of test scores. The Senate passed it 61 to 0 and it became Chapter 143 of 2024, according to her office’s release. The state teachers union NYSUT, the PTA, and the school boards association backed it, as did Republican co-sponsors Dean Murray, Steven Rhoads, and Bill Weber.
Her S9018A, carried in the Assembly by Carrie Woerner, requires every school board and BOCES to seat a nonvoting student member. It passed 48 to 13 and became Chapter 311 of 2024, according to the Senate bill record. Other bills have stalled. S1896, which would hold utilities to the profit rates set by regulators, passed the Senate 53 to 9 in February 2026 but sits in an Assembly committee.
The Kensico Dam and plaza in Valhalla, a county park in the heart of Westchester. (Photo: GaoKyle, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons)
HER VOTING RECORD
Mayer votes with the Democratic conference on the defining votes of the last decade. She voted for the 2019 climate law, the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act, which passed the Senate 41 to 21, according to the Senate vote record. She voted for the 2022 Concealed Carry Improvement Act, written after the Supreme Court’s Bruen decision, which passed 43 to 20 with every no vote from a Republican.
PagPol could not find her individual vote on the 2019 budget bill that contained bail reform. She has defended the law as amended. At a 2024 League of Women Voters forum she said it had been changed three times “in direct response to issues raised by law enforcement and municipalities,” according to The Recorder. The New York League of Conservation Voters gives her a 97 percent lifetime score.
WHY SHE RAN AND WHAT SHE BELIEVES
Mayer ran for the Senate in 2018 promising that Republicans would no longer block action on guns and abortion rights. Of Killian, she said, “She can have her views but she will not be heard,” according to the Rye Record. She has described her top priority as making sure “every child in New York is provided with an excellent education, regardless of ZIP code,” according to Patch.
She calls herself “a person with progressive values and a moderate tone who is very responsive,” according to the Rye Record. In a 2024 debate she said, “I’m proud to make decisions based on fact, not fiction; on science, not fantasy; on realistic goals, not fear mongering.” Her 2026 priorities are full school funding, utility accountability, and workers’ rights.
CAMPAIGN FINANCE
Mayer had raised just over $600,000 in donations and public matching funds by late September 2024, according to the Rye Record. Lindsay had raised more than $155,000 by late August, roughly 85 percent of it public money. In a single October 2024 distribution, the Public Campaign Finance Board approved $8,483 for Mayer and $3,930 for Lindsay.
In 2026 the board’s payments show a sharp contrast with nearby races. Between July and early October, Sen. Pete Harckham received $375,000 and his Republican challenger Sergio Esposito about $290,959, according to the board’s July distribution report and later reports. Neither Mayer nor Fix received any public funds in those reports. PagPol could not retrieve either candidate’s 2026 private fundraising totals from the state Board of Elections.
Public matching funds paid July to early October 2026, Hudson Valley State Senate candidates
MayerOther candidatesRepublicans
General election public matching funds approved in state Public Campaign Finance Board distributions from July 30 through Oct. 5, 2026. The Oct. 13 distribution is not included. Source: New York State Public Campaign Finance Board.
CONTROVERSIES AND CRITICISM
Her time as Senate Democrats’ counsel became the main attack in 2018. Killian and Republicans accused her of mishandling sexual harassment complaints by Senate staff. “She’s no champion of women,” Killian said, according to CBS New York. Mayer said the Senate “had a ridiculous policy,” and her campaign said discipline of staff outside her office rested with the Secretary of the Senate.
Later opponents focused on crime and party loyalty. Lindsay called her “a radical who is not honest” in 2024 and blamed “the soft-on-crime laws that my opponent has voted for and put in place,” according to the Rye Record and The Recorder. In 2020 Saimovici said she “voted with the Democratic Party every time and with special interest groups,” according to Patch.
Some critics come from her own side or from education groups. When her 2019 testing bill passed, Educators for Excellence warned it could “double the amount of testing,” according to Chalkbeat. Hochul vetoed her nonprofit payment bill in 2024 and 2025. In the second veto, the governor said it “raises serious legal and fiscal concerns and increases the risk of fraud and abuse of state funds.”
CLAIMS VERSUS THE RECORD
On education, her record matches her claims. Both of her signed evaluation laws passed without a single no vote in the Senate, and the 2024 law drew Republican co-sponsors. Her claim to fight for nonprofits is weaker on results. With Assemblymember Amy Paulin, she passed contracting reform three sessions in a row, but the first two versions were vetoed and PagPol could not confirm whether Hochul has acted on the 2026 bills.
Her utility record follows the same pattern. She says she is holding utilities accountable, and S1896 has passed the Senate twice with co-sponsors including Sen. Pat Fahy. The Assembly has not taken it up. Her “moderate tone” is real in style, but on recorded roll calls such as the climate and gun laws she has voted with her conference.
Yonkers City Hall. Yonkers is Mayer’s hometown and the largest city in her district. (Photo: Beyond My Ken, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons)
WESTCHESTER AND STATE AUDITS
The state comptroller has flagged budget risks in the largest city in her district. A July 2025 Yonkers budget review found its $1.55 billion budget relied on $114.4 million in one-time money, including fund balance and property sales. It also found retirement costs were likely underestimated by up to $5.3 million and planned borrowing of up to $15 million for tax settlements.
The county’s finances look stronger. Westchester earned the comptroller’s best possible fiscal stress score, 0.0, for fiscal years 2022 through 2024, according to a county announcement. The Yonkers findings concern city officials, not Mayer, but $809.2 million of that city budget goes to its public schools, and school funding is the core business of the Education Committee she chairs.
LOOKING AHEAD
Mayer faces Fix, a Republican and Conservative who lost to Paulin in the 88th Assembly District in 2024, on Nov. 3, 2026. Fix has said “we need to roll back” as much of the state climate law as possible, according to the League of Women Voters’ VOTE411 guide. For more local coverage, visit PagPol’s Westchester County page or subscribe to the Westchester County newsletter.
