Ritchie Torres
U.S. Representative for New York's 15th Congressional District
Ritchie John Torres (born March 12, 1988) is an American politician from New York. A member of the Democratic Party, Torres is the U.S. Representative for New York's 15th congressional district. Previously, Torres served as the New York City Councilmember for the 15th district elected in 2013. Torres was the first openly gay candidate to be elected to legislative office in the Bronx, and the youngest member of the city council. He served as the chair of the Committee on Public Housing, and is a deputy majority leader. As chair of the Oversight and Investigations Committee he focused on taxi medallion predatory loans, and the city's Third Party Transfer Program. In 2016, Torres was a delegate for the Bernie Sanders campaign.
In July 2019, Torres announced his bid for New York's 15th congressional district, to succeed Representative José E. Serrano. The 15th district is one of the most Democratic leaning congressional districts in the country. Torres won the November 2020 general election, and assumed office on January 3, 2021.This makes him and Mondaire Jones the first openly gay Black men elected to Congress. This also made Torres the first openly gay Afro Latino elected to Congress.As such, he is one of the nine co-chairs of the Congressional LGBTQ+ Equality Caucus in the 117th United States Congress.
