Fordham University Alumnus Jonathan Soto is currently running for the 82nd State Assembly district of New York on a Democratic platform. Soto graduated from Fordham College at Rose Hill in 2009 after attending the night school.
Michael Benedetto has been the assemblyman of the 82nd district for almost 20 years. Soto first challenged him in 2022, gaining 36% of the vote.
“Now we’re running again because he supported the devastating budget cuts that the mayor inflicted on public schools, which I think people are aware of at a time when we see mass illiteracy,” said Soto. “[Benedetto] takes money from real estate lobby and luxury developers, he doesn’t support important tenants protections like good cause evictions, which is something I’m fighting for along with a large group of tenant organizations, and Benedetto is out of step with the needs [of] the community.”
One of the main attributes of Soto’s platform is funding and improving public schooling in the Bronx, especially in regards to literacy rates, since the Bronx has the lowest of the five boroughs.
“It’s a domain of the public sphere that we should fight for, and not allow it to be defunded or be privatized,” said Soto. “The special education system in the Bronx is devastatingly broken, we have the highest amount of need for children with special needs accommodations yet the lowest referral rates.”
Soto attended Brooklyn Law School after graduating from Fordham and has worked in the mayor’s office at the municipal level, most recently, he was a political organizer for Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s (AOC) run for Congress.
“She’s my congresswoman, and even though I am running in the East Bronx, which people say is more sleepy and conservative, AOC winning was inspiring for me, and that inspired me to support the movement that she’s in,” said Soto. “I was endorsed by the congresswoman last time and expect to be endorsed again.”
Soto has also been endorsed by the Fordham chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America, who recently held a postcard writing event.
“What I like about Soto is his support for morally decent causes — TOPA, a ceasefire, ending mayoral control of school funding,” said William Lee, FCLC ’27. “Benedetto has been in that office since before I was born; and in all that time, he’s barely done anything. In fact, his recent support for Adams has, if anything, worsened childcare policy in NYS and NYC.”
The Fordham Ram reached out to the Fordham College Republicans and Fordham Political Union for a comment and did not receive a response.
The 82nd district includes City Island, a coastal area that has been affected by pollution and high flood risk.
“We need public power and green 100% publicly funded energy and it needs to be built by Bronx residents for Bronx residents,” said Soto. “My background is in law and urban planning so I have an urban planning perspective on how we should think about mitigation in places like City Island, which is a coastal area where we have oyster reefs and pollution to deal with.”
Soto hopes to unite the Bronx into an intergenerational, multiracial, working-class community in order to overcome the alienation that residents may feel politically. Currently, his campaign is doing monthly community events and community service, such as providing free tutoring services.
“The door to door is important, that’s where we have dialogue with our neighbors and where we break the atomized individualist culture and engagement,” said Soto. “We share our name and platform, and connect people to resources and ask them to share our vision.”
Soto credits Fordham with the beginning of his political inklings: “I took a lot of philosophy and world religion courses, and being able to mix that with the Bronx progressive faith community that I connected with here at Fordham was instrumental for my development and my political consciousness.”
The election will take place on June 25 and Soto has high hopes for the upcoming year.
“What we’re trying to let people know is that we have leaders in the Bronx and there is a lot of power in here. The Bronx shall lead the way for the city, for the state and for the movement,” said Soto.
