Assembly Member Karines Reyes, a registered nurse, is a member of the New York State Assembly serving the Bronx. As a public official, she tends to communities that have been hard hit by the COVID-19 pandemic. Since her election in November 2018, Assembly Member Reyes has especially prioritized public health, workers’ rights, immigrants’ rights, women’s rights, reproductive freedom, and child care. She has also championed critical issues relating to the expansion of our democracy by passing the state’s historic early vote-by-mail legislation, allowing eligible New Yorkers to cast ballots from home. Finally, she is a proponent of early childhood literacy, through her efforts to bring the Dolly Parton Imagination Library, which offers free books to preschool children, to New York State.
Currently, Assembly Member Reyes serves as a member of the following New York State Assembly committees: Codes, Health, Higher Education, Housing, Labor, and Social Services. In 2023, Speaker Carl Heastie appointed her Chair of the NYS Assembly & Senate’s Puerto Rican/Hispanic Task Force, which allows her to advocate for the needs of vulnerable New Yorkers. Additionally, she has served as Co-Chair of the Health & Environment Subcommittee of the Black & Latino Legislative Caucus.
Assembly Member Reyes is a leading voice for immigrants’ rights as the sponsor of New York For All, a set of reforms to support all New Yorkers, which has gained statewide backing from advocates and government leaders.