Christian Amato
Christian Amato (Democratic Party) ran for election to the New York State Senate to represent District 34. He lost in the Democratic primary on August 23, 2022.
Amato completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2022. Click here to read the survey answers.
Biography
Amato was born in The Bronx, New York. He earned a bachelor's degree from the State University of New York, Plattsburgh in 2011. His career experience includes working as a strategic consultant.[1]
Elections
2022
See also: New York State Senate elections, 2022
General election
General election for New York State Senate District 34
Nathalia Fernandez defeated Samantha Zherka in the general election for New York State Senate District 34 on November 8, 2022.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Nathalia Fernandez (D) | 65.2 | 34,378 |
 | Samantha Zherka (R / Conservative Party)  | 34.8 | 18,335 | |
| Other/Write-in votes | 0.0 | 18 | ||
| Total votes: 52,731 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
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Democratic primary election
Democratic primary for New York State Senate District 34
Nathalia Fernandez defeated Christian Amato and John Perez in the Democratic primary for New York State Senate District 34 on August 23, 2022.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Nathalia Fernandez | 63.0 | 4,209 |
 | Christian Amato | 27.0 | 1,805 | |
| John Perez | 8.7 | 580 | ||
| Other/Write-in votes | 1.3 | 84 | ||
| Total votes: 6,678 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Withdrawn or disqualified candidates
Republican primary election
The Republican primary election was canceled. Samantha Zherka advanced from the Republican primary for New York State Senate District 34.
Withdrawn or disqualified candidates
- Dianna Miranda (R)
- Jose Zapata (R)
Conservative Party primary election
The Conservative Party primary election was canceled. Samantha Zherka advanced from the Conservative Party primary for New York State Senate District 34.
Endorsements
To view Amato's endorsements in the 2022 election, please click here.
Campaign themes
2022
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Christian Amato completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2022. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Amato's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.
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My name is Christian Amato. I’m a community organizer, a Democrat, and the proud son of Italian immigrants. I’m a first-generation Bronxite; this community is my home. I attended neighborhood schools and graduated from SUNY Plattsburgh.
I’ve organized throughout the Bronx and Westchester for campaigns, candidates, and causes - working to uplift our most marginalized communities through advocacy and activism. As a community leader, I have served as a board member on Community Board 11, Pelham Parkway Neighborhood Association, and the Liberty Democratic Association.
During the Pandemic, I launched a mutual aid network to provide our neighbors with PPE and built a community food program to combat food insecurity through weekly free food drives.
Across our many communities, we face the same issues. The pandemic has changed our neighborhoods, hurt our workforce, and burdened renters and homeowners alike. Meanwhile, our government’s solutions have been temporary bandaids.
I believe that our district deserves community-centered leadership and that when our communities unite, we rise together. I’m running for New York State Senate for District 36 because we need a champion in Albany to fight for the Bronx and Westchester.- Passing Good Cause Eviction; creating fully-supportive, affordable, cross-class housing; and Investing in NYCHA
- Supporting green transit and green jobs; Building publicly-owned renewable energy; and Addressing the climate crisis and the impact it has had on our aging infrastructure
- Expanding Universal Pre-K across the state of New York, Ensuring Foundation Aid is allocated to our schools, and Supporting A New Deal for CUNY & SUNY
Food insecurity and our public transportation need to be a priority. Our residents are at risk for food insecurity in neighborhoods where transportation options are limited, the travel distance to stores is greater, and there are fewer supermarkets. Those who are food insecure may be at an increased risk for various adverse health outcomes. Our community's mobility is crucial to addressing our public health. Optimizing New York’s existing transit infrastructure is critical to moving more New Yorkers into the transit system and providing greater access to New York’s jobs, schools, and amenities to those without a car.
Transit also plays a role in our climate resilience. Transportation emissions are the most significant source of greenhouse gas emissions in the state. We need to champion environmental initiatives to transition toward electric vehicles while assisting workers in this transition to well-paying jobs.
I held this internship for an entire summer when I was 16 years old, and I still remember it fondly. On a visit with some of the leadership recently, I learned that the Zoo played an integral role in saving the American Bison and reintroducing the species back to their natural environments. Whenever I return to the Bronx Zoo, I am transported to that experience and remain inspired by the incredible accomplishments we are achieving right here in the Bronx.
An independent redistricting commission can be an effective solution against such abuses as we saw during the latest redistricting process, how the legislature could impede these commissions to preserve political capital. But some work better than others.
Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.
See also
2022 Elections
External links
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Candidate New York State Senate District 34 |
Personal |
Footnotes
- ↑ Information submitted to Ballotpedia through the Candidate Connection survey on April 16, 2022.
