Assemblywoman Jenifer Rajkumar (D-38) officially announced she is running to become the 46th Comptroller of New York City in 2025. If elected, the Assemblywoman will become the first woman of color elected to the post in the 225-year history of the post’s existence.
Upon announcing her campaign, Rajkumar said: “Every win I have ever had has been against all odds. I live for this; public service is my passion.”
Jenifer’s mom was born in a mud hut in India. Her parents immigrated to the United States with just $300 and a suitcase. To honor the promise of a country that gave her family so much opportunity, Jenifer decided to dedicate her life to public service. An ivy league educated attorney, she graduated from Stanford Law School and the University of Pennsylvania. She later spent evenings teaching as a Professor at CUNY’s Lehman College in the Bronx to help sculpt the young minds of the City.
Speaking of the Comptroller role, Rajkumar said: “Traditionally, the Comptroller is a man in an office crunching numbers, but I will make it so much more. I am on the ground with the people in every corner of this City hearing firsthand how government is and isn’t working for them. Together, we will implement ‘the people’s audits’ of City government. Government inefficiency costs lives, and we will fix it. Ours is the largest municipal budget in the world, and I have the experience, passion, and energy to make sure that every New Yorker is getting what they pay for.”
Speaking of the Comptroller’s role as a fiduciary to New York City’s 5 public pension funds, totaling nearly $270 billion in assets, Rajkumar said: “As Comptroller, I will first and foremost be the guardian of the hard earned retirement money of our city workers, firefighters, teachers and police officers. I will be laser focused on maximizing pension returns and performance. New Yorkers who worked hard their whole lives deserve a healthy pension and a Comptroller with the passion, dedication, and experience to guard their money.”
A record breaking State Legislator, Rajkumar made history as the first South Asian American woman ever elected to a New York State public office in 2020, ousting an 11 year incumbent and winning by the largest margin of any insurgent that year. In less than 4 years, she passed landmark legislation– including the SMOKEOUT Act enabling New York City to close down over 800 illegal smokeshops already, the historic bill establishing Diwali as a School Holiday in New York City after a 20 year struggle by the community, and a nationally recognized bill giving domestic workers the full protections of New York State’s Human Rights Law.
Her other legislative wins include several pieces of legislation to make government work faster and better– including passing her bill to speed up the City’s procurement process to build capital projects more quickly, legislation making our Courts work more efficiently, and a bill to support crime victims.
A Stanford Law educated attorney who studied accounting, law and economics, Rajkumar has a record of taking on multinational corporations. She has already saved millions of taxpayer dollars in her career. Collaborating with the U.S. Department of Justice, she held multinational corporations accountable for defrauding and overcharging the federal government. Her resulting wins saved millions in taxpayer dollars and preserved the integrity of our medicare and medicaid programs. She was also notably part of the legal team of Velez v. Novartis, a class action on behalf of 5,000 women workers labeled by the U.N. as one of the top 10 cases advancing women’s rights.
Rajkumar said, “My experience as a lawyer equips me well to be the Chief Auditor of the City of New York who will dig in to the performance of our city agencies. As a former labor attorney, I know how to effectively execute the Comptroller’s role of protecting workers by enforcing wage violations on public works projects. As a lawyer I know how to settle legal claims against the City and oversee City contracts, two other critical functions of the Comptroller.”
The Governor of New York Andrew Cuomo appointed Jenifer as the Director of Immigration Affairs & Special Counsel for New York State in 2017. In this role, Jenifer built and led the Liberty Defense Project, a historic, first-in-the-nation $31 million dollar state-led project. In this capacity, she created a successful governmental program from scratch, oversaw government contracts with nonprofits, and allocated taxpayer dollars for maximum impact.
The Assemblywoman has been known as “ominpresent” throughout the 5 boroughs, often appearing by the side of her ally Mayor Eric Adams who has described her as “a beast” and “a close friend.” Showing up across the City in her signature red dresses, she is a fixture of public service known as the Lady in Red.
About her strong partnership with the Mayor, Assemblywoman Rajkumar stated: “True change happens by collaboration. The way to make historic change that will outlive us for generations to come is through partnerships across government. It is a joy working with my colleagues at all levels of government from the Mayor to the Governor to the state legislature to the city council. The greatest moments in government- the historic moments that we live for- happen by working together. Together, we will take our City to the next level.”
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