Donna Lupardo is a Staten Island native who came to Binghamton for graduate school and has represented the Binghamton area in the state Assembly since 2005. A Democrat who has chaired the Agriculture Committee since 2019, she is retiring when her 11th term ends this year, leaving an open seat on the Nov. 3, 2026 ballot.
So who is Donna Lupardo, what did she pass, and why is she leaving? The record runs through New York’s hemp pilot program and hemp regulation laws, school water testing, a parking garage bill that was vetoed, a 2013 vote against the SAFE Act, two decades of farm legislation, and a fight over her chosen successor.
Quick Facts
- Party
- Democratic (also on the Working Families line)
- Hometown
- Endwell, N.Y. (originally Staten Island)
- Date of Birth
- Not listed in official biographies reviewed
- Current Position
- New York State Assemblymember, 123rd District; Chair, Agriculture Committee
- Background
- Binghamton University lecturer; mental health educator; Broome County legislator
- In Office Since
- January 2005 (retiring at the end of 2026)
EARLY LIFE AND FAMILY
Lupardo grew up on Staten Island and graduated from Curtis High School and Wagner College, according to her Assembly biography and Ballotpedia. She moved to the Southern Tier at 22 for graduate school at Binghamton University, where she earned a master’s degree in philosophy in 1984 and later lectured in the School of Education for 10 years.
She also directed education for the Mental Health Association of the Southern Tier and worked as Broome County government’s wellness and safety coordinator. She lives in Endwell with her husband, Scott Peters, a Cornell University professor. PagPol could not confirm her date of birth, her parents, or whether she has children in an official source.
LOCAL OFFICE AND FIRST RACES, 1999 TO 2004
Lupardo served one term on the Broome County Legislature in 1999 and 2000, according to her Assembly office. In 2002 she ran for the Assembly against Republican incumbent Robert Warner and lost. In 2004 she ran again and unseated him, becoming, her biography says, “the first woman to represent Broome County in the State Legislature.”
“I was the first woman elected to the Assembly from this area, which brought in a new dynamic,” she later told Binghamton University’s student newspaper, Pipe Dream. She ran on the Democratic and Working Families lines in 2004, according to state election records, but PagPol could not retrieve vote totals for her 2002 or 2004 races.
THE EARLY ASSEMBLY YEARS, 2005 TO 2012
Lupardo took office in January 2005. That summer Gov. George Pataki signed a work zone safety law she championed, suspending licenses after repeated speeding convictions in highway work zones. “Every day construction workers in highway work zones put their lives in the hands of motorists,” she said, according to EHS Today.
She won reelection without opposition in 2008 with 33,877 votes and beat Republican Arthur Garrison 21,116 to 15,922 in 2010, according to Ballotpedia. After redistricting moved her to the renumbered 123rd District, she beat Republican Julie Lewis in 2012, 30,255 to 18,558, with about 62 percent of the vote.
THE COMMITTEE CHAIR, 2013 TO 2018
On Jan. 15, 2013, Lupardo broke with most Democrats and voted against the SAFE Act gun law, which passed the Assembly 104 to 43, according to the Assembly roll call. PagPol could not find a public explanation for that vote. That year she became chair of the Children and Families Committee. In December 2014 her industrial hemp pilot program became Chapter 524 of 2014.
She won reelection unopposed in 2014. In September 2016 her bill requiring schools to test drinking water for lead, carried in the Senate by Republican Tom O’Mara, became Chapter 296. That November she beat Republican Dorollo Nixon Jr. 32,613 to 19,073.
Weeks later Gov. Andrew Cuomo vetoed her parking garage inspection bill, according to the Senate bill page. O’Mara’s office tied it to a 2015 partial garage collapse in Johnson City, and in January 2017 the state agreed to write regulations instead. She became Aging chair in 2017 and won almost 99 percent in 2018 without a Republican opponent.
THE AGRICULTURE CHAIR, 2019 TO 2025
When Democrats took full control of Albany in 2019, Lupardo became chair of the Agriculture Committee. She voted for the Reproductive Health Act, which passed 95 to 49, for the April budget bill containing the bail changes, for the Green Light law, and for the CLCPA climate law, which passed 111 to 35, according to Assembly roll calls.
In December 2019 her bill regulating hemp and CBD products became Chapter 614. “Given the enormous consumer interest in hemp extracts like CBD, we need to develop labeling standards the public can rely on,” she said, according to WSKG. In 2020 she won unopposed with 41,403 votes, according to certified 2020 results.
The Broome County Courthouse in Binghamton. Lupardo calls herself the first woman to represent Broome County in the state Legislature. (Photo: Doug Kerr, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons)
In March 2021 state Republican Chair Nick Langworthy accused her and other Democrats of slow-walking Cuomo’s impeachment. “If the GOP Chair is looking to point fingers, he’s barking up the wrong tree,” she replied. She voted to legalize cannabis that month, and in August, after the attorney general’s report, said Cuomo “should resign.” Eight of her farm bills became law that year.
In July 2022 she voted for the Concealed Carry Improvement Act, which passed 90 to 52. That November she beat Republican Sophia Resciniti 22,416 to 18,127, her narrowest margin among races with available totals, according to certified 2022 results. In December she missed the vote raising legislators’ pay to $142,000 while on a family vacation abroad, saying afterward she would have voted no.
In 2023 she voted for the Equal Rights Amendment and the Clean Slate Act. In 2024 five more of her farm bills became law, and she beat Republican Lisa O’Keefe 32,441 to 22,149, according to certified 2024 results. In March 2025 her cannabis showcase permit bill became Chapter 112, and in April she voted for the Medical Aid in Dying Act.
WHY SHE IS LEAVING
On Jan. 8, 2026, Lupardo announced she would not seek a 12th term. “Serving in the Assembly has been an incredible honor, but the time has come for a new chapter in my life,” she said, according to Spectrum News. She cited a personal wish to slow down.
“All of my friends are retired and they’ve been begging me to slow down a little bit,” she told Spectrum. PagPol found no scandal, investigation, or ethics complaint connected to her exit. In February she endorsed attorney Dan Norton, who won the June Democratic primary with 60 percent over former City Council member Dan Livingston.
THE DISTRICT AND THE PARTY MATH
The 123rd District lies entirely in Broome County and covers Binghamton and the towns of Union and Vestal, including Endicott and Johnson City. PagPol could not find official enrollment for the district. Broome County has 43,398 active enrolled Democrats and 42,562 Republicans, according to 2026 state figures in PagPol’s Data Spine, a gap of fewer than 1,000 voters.
Republicans hope to flip the seat for the first time in 21 years. Assembly Democrats won 103 of 150 seats in 2024, more than two-thirds, and also control the Senate and governor’s office. For another departing Democrat’s record, see PagPol’s profile of Bill Magnarelli.
The carousel in West Endicott Park. The Village of Endicott, in the Town of Union, is part of the 123rd Assembly District. (Photo: Kfbill08, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)
COMMITTEE ASSIGNMENTS
Lupardo chairs the Agriculture Committee and sits on Economic Development, Higher Education, Rules, and Transportation, according to her Assembly biography. She previously chaired Children and Families and Aging. She co-chairs the Legislative Aviation Caucus and once chaired the bipartisan Legislative Women’s Caucus.
In the 2025 to 2026 session she is the prime sponsor of 36 bills and a co-sponsor of 358, according to PagPol’s Data Spine, fewer prime bills than fellow Democrats Anna Kelles and Marianne Buttenschon. Her final Agriculture Committee report calls New York “the leading agricultural state in the Northeast.”
Bills sponsored in 2025 and 2026, Southern Tier and Central New York Assembly members
LupardoOther Democratic membersRepublican members
Bills each member introduced as prime sponsor in the 2025 and 2026 legislative session. Lupardo co-sponsored 358 bills over the same period. For another retiring upstate Democrat’s record, see PagPol’s profile of Marianne Buttenschon. Source: New York State Assembly data, compiled in PagPol’s Data Spine.
WHY SHE RAN AND WHAT SHE BELIEVES
Lupardo frames her career around the region’s recovery. “My whole focus really has been helping the community recover its economy and build a new story,” she told WSKG in 2024. “But we’re faced with a tale of two cities, in a way,” she said of the area’s poverty.
She has backed farmland protection, Nourish NY, Farm to School, and hemp and cannabis as farm crops. She supported enshrining abortion rights in the state constitution. “We know this place needs all the help and all the hope that we can give it, and a lot of good is coming,” she said after her 2022 win.
CAMPAIGN FINANCE
PagPol could not retrieve her committee’s full fundraising, spending, or cash on hand from the state Board of Elections. WSKG reported in 2024 that she had raised nearly $140,000 since the start of 2023, compared with nearly $120,000 for O’Keefe. She is not a candidate this year and receives no public matching funds.
The race for her seat has drawn heavy public money. Through Oct. 13, the state’s program had approved $350,000 for Norton, $186,041 for Livingston in the primary, and $131,706 for Republican Lynn Parker, according to PagPol’s tally of the state’s matching funds reports.
2026 public matching funds approved through Oct. 13 in the race for the 123rd District
Democratic nomineePrimary candidateRepublican nominee
Public matching funds approved for candidates seeking Lupardo’s open seat in the 2026 cycle through Oct. 13. Livingston’s money was for the June primary, which Norton won. Source: New York State Public Campaign Finance Board.
CONTROVERSIES AND CRITICISM
PagPol found no ethics complaints, lawsuits, or investigations involving Lupardo. Republicans attacked her long tenure. “My kids are leaving. They’re leaving New York state. Our lifer politicians have failed them,” Resciniti said in 2022. “So we’ve been going in the wrong direction,” O’Keefe said in 2024, citing poverty and population loss.
Her early endorsement of Norton drew criticism from within her party. Livingston said Democratic voters deserved to weigh in and would finally have options, “including working-class people, advocates, and yes, even the credentialed class of legislative insiders,” according to WBNG. Langworthy’s 2021 impeachment charge was aimed at Democrats broadly.
CLAIMS VERSUS THE RECORD
Her hemp claim holds: she sponsored the 2014 pilot program and the 2019 regulation law, plus later amendments. Her school water testing law is on the books. But her official biography lists parking garage inspection standards among bills “signed into law,” when Cuomo vetoed that bill in 2016 and the state agreed afterward to write regulations instead.
An aerial view of the Binghamton University campus in Vestal, where Lupardo earned her master’s degree and later lectured for 10 years. (Photo: Binghamton University, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)
Her gun record is mixed: she voted against the SAFE Act in 2013 but for the 2022 concealed carry law. She says she would have opposed the 2022 pay raise, though she did not vote. For another Assembly member’s farm and economic record, see PagPol’s profile of Carrie Woerner.
STATE COMPTROLLER AUDITS IN THE DISTRICT
A June 2026 comptroller audit of the Town of Union, its fiscal transparency review, found the town comptroller never prepared or filed the town’s 2024 annual financial report and did not reconcile key bank accounts. Town officials generally agreed with its nine recommendations. The town has about 56,000 residents and about $20 million in general and highway appropriations.
A 2018 audit traced Broome County’s fiscal stress to an unassigned general fund balance that fell from $10.1 million in 2013 to $255,000 in 2016. A 2015 audit of Johnson City’s justice court found $1.1 million in unpaid parking tickets dating back decades. The Binghamton City School District scored 20.0 for 2025, with no stress designation.
LOOKING AHEAD
Norton faces Parker, a Vestal Republican on the Republican and Conservative lines, and Heather Micha on an independent line on Nov. 3, 2026. PagPol found no public polling. “But I’m not going away, that’s for sure,” Lupardo said. For more, visit PagPol’s Broome County page or subscribe to the Broome County newsletter.
