About Ryder
I’m a lifelong downtown Manhattanite, born at St. Vincent’s Hospital and raised steps from Washington Square, who has spent my life working to expand economic opportunity, strengthen democracy, and help this city I love live up to its promise.
My Jewish ancestors came to New York to live freely. My gay forbears stomped these streets in drag to live authentically. My mother brought me to protests and the polls so I could learn, early on, to live in service of our values.
Growing up playing basketball at Tony Dapolito, seeing movies at the Angelika, eating at Veniero’s and Veselka, and leading the youth group at the Village Temple, I absorbed everything this community had to offer. When I came home after college, I moved to West 11th Street. When I started a business to help low-wage workers and nonprofits earn more, I headquartered it on Varick Street. After managing a competitive congressional race upstate to fight back against Donald Trump’s first-term agenda, I returned home and joined Manhattan’s Community Board 2—and started taking on the urgent challenges facing our communities.
Skyrocketing rents, visible social disorder, and climate emergencies put our families, elders, and kids at risk. The Trump administration is sending ICE onto our streets and stripping rights from women, LGBTQ+ folks, and anyone who disagrees with him. Lower Manhattan’s neighborhoods are some of the best on earth, and our greatest strength is the diversity and dynamism of our neighbors. We need leaders who work every day to preserve what makes them great while ensuring those benefits are available to all.
That’s what I’ve been delivering—and what I’ll pursue in Albany. The nonprofit I founded has built a community of over 4,000 New Yorkers newly engaged in local politics to create affordable homes, fund public transit, and tackle climate change. Together, we’ve helped protect congestion pricing, advance landmark affordable housing measures, and elect leaders like Zohran Mamdani and Mark Levine by organizing, persuading, and turning civic energy into results.
Today, New York’s challenges are urgent—but this district’s communities are up to the task. We’re working for homes working families can afford, standing with immigrant neighbors against ICE overreach, marching in defense of the country we love, and supporting the small businesses that make the big city feel like a small town.