
 
        
         
		BY ROBBIE SEQUEIRA 
 State Sen. Luis Sepúlveda, the District  
 32 incumbent who faces a diffi cult  
 reelection primary this summer, is hoping  
 for a better 2022. 
 Last January, the three-term senator  
 was stripped of committee assignments  
 after being charged in January 2021 for  
 a domestic assault for choking his estranged  
 wife, Elizabeth Sepúlveda. But  
 she refused to testify leading prosecutors  
 to drop the case in October, according  
 to the Offi ce of the Bronx District Attorney. 
 However, with the backing of the  
 Bronx Democratic Party and potential  
 reinstatement as chair of the powerful  
 state Senate Committee on Crime Victims, 
  Crime and Correction, Sepúlveda  
 is hoping that voters instead focus on  
 his record as a lawmaker and community  
 leader. 
 The party’s democratic leadership  
 declined to speak with the Bronx Times  
 about backing Sepúlveda this election  
 cycle. 
 “The  Jan.  incident  is  closed,”  
 Sepúlveda, 57, told the Bronx Times. “I  
 am focusing on my family and the work  
 I need to do for my constituents. I am  
 hopeful that people will focus on my progressive  
 record and the work my staff  
 and I do for the community, especially  
 during this pandemic.” 
 But for voters of New York’s 32nd  
 Senate District — the south and central  
 Bronx locale that includes the neighborhoods  
 of Parkchester, Soundview, Mott  
 Haven and Hunts Point, among others  
 — that’s easier said than done. 
 “I don’t believe in second chances for  
 someone who assaults a person, much  
 less their wife,” said Angelica Ramirez,  
 a Parkchester native. “If you’re going  
 to represent my district, my neighborhood, 
  I need to know you’re a good person.” 
 If  voters  aren’t  as  forgiving  of  
 Sepúlveda’s professional and personal  
 nadir as his party is — the Progressive  
 has denied any wrongdoing and his legal  
 consul states that he’s exonerated — it  
 could provide an opportunity for Sepúlveda’s  
 Democratic primary challenger Ian Harris,  
 a Methodist pastor entering into the political  
 arena for the first time as a progressive grassroots  
 leader. 
 “I believe that voters should use their voice  
 — afforded to them in the form of a ballot —  
 to speak to the issues that they face. I’d imagine  
 that they want to elect someone who will  
 position themselves to be a conduit between  
 the resources and the community that they  
 serve,” said Harris, who announced his candidacy  
 last year. “There have been some tremendous  
 accomplishments from past and current  
 elected officials and some moments that  
 haven’t been as great. The conversations that  
 I’ve had with my neighbors have informed me  
 that they want more of the former and less of  
 the latter. ” 
 Sepúlveda and Harris, 35, have walked two  
 divergent paths to get to the same goal: Improving  
 quality of life for a district that has some of  
 the worst graduation rates in the state and the  
 highest rates of homelessness in sections like  
 Soundview. 
 Sepúlveda, who received a reported $57,337  
 in campaign contributions in 2021, according  
 to campaign finance tracker Follow the  
 Money NYC, champions himself as a community 
 based senator who gave out more than  
 200,000 face masks and hundreds of gallons  
 of hand sanitizers during the peaks of the COVID 
 19 pandemic and believes he can do more  
 to improve the district’s education, health and  
 economic development if granted a fourth  
 term. 
 “During my entire political career, I have  
 never taken reelection for granted,” Sepúlveda,  
 a former member of the state Assembly who  
 also made an unsuccessful bid for Bronx beep  
 in last year’s Democratic primary. “While  
 many of my colleagues get 10-20 constituent visits  
 per week, my office services well over 30-50  
 constituents per day. Those numbers are high  
 because we have a high needs community.” 
 Harris, who uses his experience as a 15- 
 year software tech to solve problems, wants to  
 center food insecurity — an issue that plagues  
 various sections of the Bronx — at the heart of  
 his campaign. 
 “I know what it’s like to be hungry. Being  
 “working poor” is real — having employment  
 that doesn’t allow you to satisfy all your financial  
 obligations — is something that I can speak  
 to and allows me to understand, firsthand, the  
 importance of earning a livable wage,” Harris  
 said. “Whether it was sleeping on subways,  
 friends’ couches, and/or showering at my gym,  
 these experiences guide my efforts in ensuring  
 that the looming eviction crisis does not add to  
 the crippling impact families have felt from the  
 pandemic. ” 
 Both Progressives in the race don’t differ  
 on much when it comes to policies. Both believe  
 housing is a human right, both want streets to be  
 safe without surrendering constituent’s rights  
 to police and both have done substantive, on-theground  
 work in the district. 
 Sepúlveda, along with area providers Urban  
 Health Plan, BronxDocs and Essen Health, created  
 an in-house program that increased vaccination  
 efforts in one of the borough’s least-vaccinated  
 areas, the South Bronx. He said that effort  
 allowed 2,750 residents to get inoculated. Harris  
 facilitated food distributions and connected community  
 food programs — who have seen their  
 ability to support their neighbors shrink considerably  
 after the USDA discontinued the “Farmers  
 to Families” program — to the Nourish Act,  
 one of his efforts to combat food instability in his  
 borough. 
 “Lip service does nothing when people need  
 results.  It  is my  belief  that  I’m  a  resultsdriven  
 individual. I’d love to convey the  
 promise that character will translate to  
 the state Senate. However, I’d rather not  
 spend too much time articulating that —  
 as it takes away from putting in the actual  
 work.” 
 For a diverse district that includes  
 Bronxites spanning places like Bangladesh, 
  West Africa, Dominican Republic,  
 Mexico, Puerto Rico, what ultimately  
 will tip the scales come June? The incumbent  
 hopes voters will judge his threeterm  
 tenure in the Senate with fairness,  
 despite hiccups that plagued him in 2021. 
 “Many elected offi cials have grown  
 overconfi dent and it has cost them,”  
 Sepúlveda said. “If I were not to be reelected, 
  it would not be because of hard  
 work or overconfi dence.” 
 Members of the state Senate are  
 elected to two-year terms and command  
 an annual salary of $110,000 a  
 year, plus per diem. 
 COMMUNITY 
 CHIROPRATIC 
  
  
  
  
 BRONX TIMES REPORTER, J 14     JAN. 21-27, 2022 BTR 
 “If I were not to be reelected, it would not be because of hard work or overconfi dence,” said  
 three-term state Sen. Luis Sepúlveda.  Photo | Michael M. Santiago Getty Images 
 Faith, forgiveness on the ballot  
 in state Senate primary 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
 of Throggs Neck 
 Kenneth P. Gonoud D.C.