Letitia James got her start in elected office under tragic circumstances. Brooklyn City Councilman James Davis, who’d defeated her in a 2001 primary, was assassinated in City Hall two years later. James won the race to replace him, the first candidate to win office in New York running only on the Working Families Party line.

It was the first of many barriers she would break.

What You Need To Know

  • In 2003, Letitia James was elected to the City Council after James Davis was assassinated at City Hall by a political rival

  • She was elected public advocate in 2013 after winning a crowded primary and subsequent runoff

  • In 2018, James became the first female and first Black state attorney general following the resignation of Eric Schneiderman

In 2013, after finishing first in a crowded primary for public advocate and then winning a subsequent runoff, James became the first Black woman to win citywide office. She would try to make the most of the watchdog role, introducing legislation and filing lawsuits, though many were quickly dismissed. 

Then in 2018, the resignation of Eric Schneiderman created another opening, and with the backing of the Democratic establishment, she became the first female and first Black state attorney general.

A lifelong Brooklynite, James has always had a knack for the dramatic: at a 2011 Council City hearing on the city’s botched response to a snowstorm, she produced a set of tire chains and stood up while questioning the city’s sanitation commissioner.

“These allegedly you had on the tow trucks,” she said. “They’re made of aluminum. And they broke.”

Critics have seen some moves as overly theatrical, as when she brought a homeless girl who’d been the subject of media coverage to her 2014 inauguration. And she made the legally fraught decision to single out Donald Trump as a target even before becoming attorney general. 

But high-profile cases like those against Trump, the NRA, and social-media giants Google and Facebook have won headlines — as did the report that ultimately brought down Andrew Cuomo.

“Governor Andrew Cuomo sexually harassed multiple women and in doing so, violated federal and state law,” she said at a news conference announcing the report’s findings.

But James has also shown restraint at the right times, playing coy about her plans to run for governor even as speculation grew.

She made sly reference to the race during a recent address to the Association for a Better New York.

“So Eric Adams was here last, and he is the Democratic nominee. And here I am, Letitia James. And so,” she said, throwing up her hands, “who knows.”