Rachel May

Democratic Party

New York State Senate District 48

Tenure

2023 - Present

Term ends

2027

Years in position

2

Predecessor

Patricia Ritchie

Prior offices

New York State Senate District 53

Successor:Joseph Griffo

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Compensation

Base salary

$142,000/year

Elections and appointments

Last elected

November 5, 2024

Education

Bachelor's

Princeton University, 1978

Graduate

State University of New York, 2003

Ph.D

Stanford University, 1990

Personal

Profession

Higher education

Contact

Official website

Official Facebook

Official X

Official Instagram

Official YouTube

Campaign Facebook

Personal Facebook

Personal LinkedIn

Rachel May (Democratic Party) is a member of theNew York State Senate, representingDistrict 48. She assumed office on January 1, 2023. Her current term ends on January 1, 2027.

May (Democratic Party, Working Families Party) ran for re-election to theNew York State Senate to representDistrict 48. She won in the general election onNovember 5, 2024.

Biography

Rachel May lives inSyracuse, New York. May earned a B.A. in Slavic languages from Princeton University in 1978, an M.Litt in modern languages from the University of Oxford in 1981, a Ph.D. in Slavic languages from Stanford University in 1990, and an M.P.S. in environmental science from the State University of New York (SUNY) in 2003. Her career experience includes working as an associate professor of Russian at Macalester College and as the director of the office of environment and society at Syracuse University.^[1][2]

Committee assignments

2025-2026

May was assigned to the following committees:

• Energy and Telecommunications Committee
• Housing, Construction and Community Development Committee
• Cities 2 Committee
• Consumer Protection Committee,Chair
• Senate Environmental Conservation Committee
• Senate Higher Education Committee
• Investigations and Government Operations Committee

2021-2022

May was assigned to the following committees:

• Senate Aging Committee,Chair
• Senate Agriculture Committee
• Senate Banks Committee
• Cities 2 Committee
• Elections Committee
• Senate Environmental Conservation Committee
• Senate Health Committee

2019-2020

May was assigned to the following committees:

• Senate Agriculture Committee
• Senate Aging Committee,Chair
• Cultural Affairs, Tourism, Parks and Recreation Committee
• Elections Committee
• Senate Environmental Conservation Committee
• Senate Higher Education Committee

Sponsored legislation

The following table lists bills this person sponsored as a legislator, according toBillTrack50 and sorted by action history. Bills are sorted by the date of their last action. The following list may not be comprehensive. To see all bills this legislator sponsored, click on the legislator's name in the title of the table.

Elections

2024

See also: New York State Senate elections, 2024

General election

General election for New York State Senate District 48

IncumbentRachel May defeatedCaleb Slater in the general election for New York State Senate District 48 on November 5, 2024.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Rachel May (D / Working Families Party)	58.4	78,782
		Caleb Slater (R)	41.5	55,980
		Other/Write-in votes	0.1	144

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	Incumbents arebolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 134,906
= candidate completed theBallotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Democratic primary election

The Democratic primary election was canceled. IncumbentRachel May advanced from the Democratic primary for New York State Senate District 48.

Republican primary election

Republican primary for New York State Senate District 48

Caleb Slater defeatedFanny Villarreal in the Republican primary for New York State Senate District 48 on June 25, 2024.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Caleb Slater	55.7	2,636
	Submit photo	Fanny Villarreal	43.4	2,055
		Other/Write-in votes	0.8	39

---

	There were noincumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 4,730
= candidate completed theBallotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you,complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
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Working Families Party primary election

The Working Families Party primary election was canceled. IncumbentRachel May advanced from the Working Families Party primary for New York State Senate District 48.

Campaign finance

Endorsements

2022

See also: New York State Senate elections, 2022

General election

General election for New York State Senate District 48

IncumbentRachel May defeatedJulie Abbott andJustin Coretti in the general election for New York State Senate District 48 on November 8, 2022.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Rachel May (D / Working Families Party)	50.3	50,668
	Submit photo	Julie Abbott (R)	42.5	42,894
	Submit photo	Justin Coretti (Conservative Party)	7.2	7,217
		Other/Write-in votes	0.0	43

---

	Incumbents arebolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 100,822
= candidate completed theBallotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you,complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data?Contact our sales team.

Democratic primary election

The Democratic primary election was canceled. IncumbentRachel May advanced from the Democratic primary for New York State Senate District 48.

Republican primary election

The Republican primary election was canceled.Julie Abbott advanced from the Republican primary for New York State Senate District 48.

Conservative Party primary election

Conservative Party primary for New York State Senate District 48

Justin Coretti defeatedJulie Abbott in the Conservative Party primary for New York State Senate District 48 on August 23, 2022.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔	Submit photo	Justin Coretti	50.6	279
	Submit photo	Julie Abbott	48.1	265
		Other/Write-in votes	1.3	7

---

	There were noincumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 551
= candidate completed theBallotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you,complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data?Contact our sales team.

Working Families Party primary election

The Working Families Party primary election was canceled. IncumbentRachel May advanced from the Working Families Party primary for New York State Senate District 48.

2020

See also: New York State Senate elections, 2020

General election

General election for New York State Senate District 53

IncumbentRachel May defeatedSam Rodgers andRussell Penner in the general election for New York State Senate District 53 on November 3, 2020.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Rachel May (D / Working Families Party)	54.8	66,643
		Sam Rodgers (R / Conservative Party / Independence Party / Serve America Movement Party)	44.2	53,734
		Russell Penner (L)	1.0	1,246
		Other/Write-in votes	0.0	52

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	Incumbents arebolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 121,675
= candidate completed theBallotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you,complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data?Contact our sales team.

Democratic primary election

The Democratic primary election was canceled. IncumbentRachel May advanced from the Democratic primary for New York State Senate District 53.

Republican primary election

The Republican primary election was canceled.Sam Rodgers advanced from the Republican primary for New York State Senate District 53.

Conservative Party primary election

The Conservative Party primary election was canceled.Sam Rodgers advanced from the Conservative Party primary for New York State Senate District 53.

Independence Party primary election

The Independence Party primary election was canceled.Sam Rodgers advanced from the Independence Party primary for New York State Senate District 53.

Libertarian primary election

The Libertarian primary election was canceled.Russell Penner advanced from the Libertarian primary for New York State Senate District 53.

Withdrawn or disqualified candidates

• Mark Braiman (L)

Serve America Movement Party primary election

The Serve America Movement Party primary election was canceled.Sam Rodgers advanced from the Serve America Movement Party primary for New York State Senate District 53.

Working Families Party primary election

The Working Families Party primary election was canceled. IncumbentRachel May advanced from the Working Families Party primary for New York State Senate District 53.

2018

See also:New York State Senate elections, 2018

May also ran in the 2018 election as aWorking Families Party candidate.

General election

General election for New York State Senate District 53

Rachel May defeatedJanet Berl Burman and incumbentDavid Valesky in the general election for New York State Senate District 53 on November 6, 2018.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Rachel May (D)	51.2	48,076
	Submit photo	Janet Berl Burman (R)	36.9	34,648
		David Valesky (Independence Party)	11.7	11,018
		Other/Write-in votes	0.1	68

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	Incumbents arebolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 93,810 (100.00% precincts reporting)
= candidate completed theBallotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you,complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data?Contact our sales team.

Democratic primary election

Democratic primary for New York State Senate District 53

Rachel May defeated incumbentDavid Valesky in the Democratic primary for New York State Senate District 53 on September 13, 2018.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Rachel May	51.8	8,553
		David Valesky	48.2	7,943

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	Incumbents arebolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 16,496
= candidate completed theBallotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you,complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data?Contact our sales team.

Republican primary election

The Republican primary election was canceled.Janet Berl Burman advanced from the Republican primary for New York State Senate District 53.

Independence Party primary election

The Independence Party primary election was canceled. IncumbentDavid Valesky advanced from the Independence Party primary for New York State Senate District 53.

Campaign themes

2024

Ballotpedia survey responses

See also:Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection

Rachel May did not completeBallotpedia's 2024 Candidate Connection survey.

2022

Rachel May did not completeBallotpedia's 2022 Candidate Connection survey.

2020

Rachel May did not completeBallotpedia's 2020 Candidate Connection survey.

Campaign finance summary

Note: The finance data shown here comes from the disclosures required of candidates and parties. Depending on the election or state, this may represent only a portion of all the funds spent on their behalf.Satellite spending groups may or may not have expended funds related to the candidate or politician on whose page you are reading this disclaimer. Campaign finance data from elections may be incomplete. For elections to federal offices, complete data can be found at theFEC website. Clickhere for more on federal campaign finance law andhere for more on state campaign finance law.

Scorecards

See also:State legislative scorecards andState legislative scorecards in New York

Ascorecard evaluates a legislator’s voting record. Its purpose is to inform voters about the legislator’s political positions. Because scorecards have varying purposes and methodologies, each report should be considered on its own merits. For example, an advocacy group’s scorecard may assess a legislator’s voting record on one issue while a state newspaper’s scorecard may evaluate the voting record in its entirety.

Ballotpedia is in the process of developing an encyclopedic list of published scorecards. Some states have a limited number of available scorecards or scorecards produced only by select groups. It is Ballotpedia’s goal to incorporate all available scorecards regardless of ideology or number.

Click here for an overview of legislative scorecards in all 50 states.  To contribute to the list of New York scorecards, email suggestions toeditor@ballotpedia.org.

2024

2023

2022

2021

2020

2019

2018

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