NYU Law alumni elected to public office in 2026 midterms

Among the winners in congressional and state races on November 3 were six NYU Law alumni. Phil Weiser ’94 was elected governor of Colorado, and three alumni won seats in the US House of Representatives: House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries ’97 was reelected in New York’s 8th Congressional District; Laura Gillen ’00 was reelected in New York’s 4th Congressional District; and Scott Peters ’84 was reelected in California’s 50th Congressional District.

In addition, two Law School alumni will join the New York State Assembly, representing districts in New York City. Eli Northrup ’11 was elected in the 69th Assembly District and David Siffert ’09, an NYU Law adjunct professor, will represent the 66th Assembly District.

• Phil Weiser has served as Colorado’s attorney general since 2019. Before that, Weiser was dean of the University of Colorado Law School. In the Obama administration, he served as deputy assistant attorney general in the Antitrust Division of the US Department of Justice and as senior advisor for technology and innovation at the White House National Economic Council. Weiser clerked for Justices Byron White and Ruth Bader Ginsburg of the US Supreme Court.
   
• Hakeem Jeffries has represented New York’s 8th Congressional District, which covers much of Brooklyn, since 2013. He has led House Democrats since 2023, when he became the first Black person to lead a party in either chamber of Congress. Before his election to Congress, Jeffries served three terms in the New York State Assembly. He practiced as a litigation associate at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison and later served as counsel at Viacom and CBS.
   
• Laura Gillen was first elected to Congress in 2024, representing New York’s 4th Congressional District on Long Island’s South Shore. In 2017, she was elected supervisor of the Town of Hempstead. Gillen began her legal career as a litigator in New York City and later practiced law in Rockville Centre.
   
• Scott Peters has served in Congress since 2013, first as the representative from California’s 52nd Congressional District and, since 2023, from the 50th, both in the San Diego area. After working as an economist at the US Environmental Protection Agency, he practiced as an environmental lawyer for 15 years before his election to the San Diego City Council in 2000, where he became the city’s first council president.
   
• Eli Northrup, a former Hays Fellow at NYU Law, is legal director of the criminal defense practice at the Bronx Defenders. A longtime public defender and policy advocate, he played a key role in the effort to legalize adult-use cannabis in New York State and serves on the board of the New York State Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.
   
• David Siffert, a civil rights lawyer, is an adjunct professor of clinical law at NYU Law, where they teach a state legislative externship that pairs students with legislators to draft and introduce bills. Siffert previously served as legal director of the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project, leading its litigation and legislative work. They will be the first openly nonbinary member of the New York State Legislature.