Rebecca Seawright is the first woman to represent the 76th District in the Assembly, where she acts on behalf of the Upper East Side and Roosevelt Island.

In 2014, when the National Organization for Women asked her to run, four men had already declared their candidacy – but Seawright wasn’t intimidated. “I looked at their (campaign finance) filings and collectively they had already raised over half a million dollars,” the assemblywoman says. “But because I had gotten my start in politics doing fundraising for the young women’s political caucus and Ann Richards, who ultimately became the governor of Texas, I knew a thing or two about fundraising.”

Born and raised in Texas, Seawright became interested in politics toward the end of high school, when news spread through her small town about a woman who had been discriminated against by the local court. After war d, she began working in local politics and decided to go to law school.

Seawright’s proudest accomplishments as a legislator include the recent passage of her Equal Rights Amendment bill in the Assembly and the 3D mammography law she wrote, which expands access to breast cancer screenings.

The 2019 Women of New York Government

Rebecca Seawright is the first woman to represent the 76th District in the Assembly, where she acts on behalf of the Upper East Side and Roosevelt Island.