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Skyler Johnson
Skyler Johnson
On the campaign trail in his bid to unseat incumbent New York State Senator Anthony Palumbo, Democrat Skyler Johnson recalled his first political debate.
He was 11 years old.
“One of my earliest political memories is getting into an argument in grade school because I believe a woman should have a right to choose, and my classmate was pro-life.”
A mere 11 years later, the 22-year-old lifelong Long Islander, born and raised in Mount Sinai, is running for office on the Democratic ticket. If he wins, he’ll beat the record held for youngest person elected to the State Legislature. Theodore Roosevelt was elected to the Assembly at 23.
“I’d actually unseat the record of someone who went on to be president of the United States. It’s a cool piece of trivia about this campaign,” Johnson pointed out.
His family moved to Mount Sinai in the 1960s, and his grandmother was district clerk in the school district he attended.
“Everything in my life was based on Long Island,” he said. “I’m very much rooted in this district. This district is my home.”
A graduate of Stony Brook University, Johnson was 19 years old, a political science major, and still in school during his first campaign for Senate in 2020. He was unsuccessful in the primary, but proud to garner 3,000 votes.
“I was in the middle of my degree while running,” he said, “and what was fascinating about that and even leading into this campaign was the intersection of my schoolwork and my actual life.”
At school, he had the opportunity to read curated case law about the issues that were on the table nationally. “I would recommend anybody running for office to look into established case law,” he said. “It was a really helpful and the focus of my study, American law and public policy.”
Johnson described the five-way Democratic primary for that election as “really hectic.”
Earlier that year, however, he found time to work on Southampton Village Mayor Jesse Warren’s campaign.
“What was really fascinating, what I really loved, was I got to help with policy, like the cleanup of Lake Agawam,” he said. “I really value my time I spent working within Southampton Village.”
Working for New Hour LI, an advocacy organization providing support to current and former incarcerated women and their families, Johnson collaborated with members of the State Legislature on policy and legislative matters. That career and government work in tandem, he said.
His roots in advocacy run deep.
At the time of that elementary school debate, he recalled, “I was always engaged in the conversations with adults at that point, so I started to learn and try to advocate as well. I was always driven to be involved in politics. I always wanted to fight for the right to choose.”
He believes running for office gives him a chance to make legislative change and be a voice for Long Islanders.
The right to choose has remained a theme woven through Johnson’s political aspirations. “New York needs to maintain its ability to protect the right to choose. I am always very concerned that if Republicans take power they will pass a federal law to ban abortion, at which case there will be nothing we can do to protect bodily autonomy,” he said.
He characterized the Dobbs decision by the Supreme Court as “so deeply flawed and deeply disturbing to the ethos of America, to say that we don’t have a right to privacy is so unfathomable, the implications are so upsetting because it can overturn everything that we know of our way of life within the United States.”
He believes New York can enshrine stronger protections within its constitution. “The right to choose, the right to marriage, anti-discrimination legislation are a top priority for me,” he said.
The candidate said he and his team are knocking on doors from Stony Brook to Montauk, in the “massive” district.
He recalled knocking on one door and being greeted by a woman holding a newborn baby.
“She asked what party I’m in and said, ‘We”ll be at the polls, don’t worry about it.’” The response drove home for him how decisions nationally are affecting people locally. “I do believe young people will come out in November because lives are at stake here, and their futures are at stake here.”
Johnson acknowledged that people in his age group are not the largest group that traditionally comes out to cast ballots. But in the wake of the Roe v. Wade decision, he said, a lot of younger people began to see “how the Republican party was messing with their futures.”
And at the other end of the voter demographic? Has he confronted ageism? “People are a little taken aback that someone so young is running. It’s always ‘How old are you?’” he reported.
But then those he’s met seem to embrace the idea of a young person running for office. “People say, ‘That’s great. We need more young people in government.’ That’s a response that I see almost universally coming from people for all parties,” Johnson said.
The challenger pointed to one of his favorite campaign memories so far: meeting an older man who was clearly a Republican. “He was not a fan of the national Democratic Party, he was not a fan of their policies, but after we were chatting for a minute, he goes, ‘You’re young, you’re ambitious, I like your priorities. You have my vote.”
“Voters would like to see change and that is what I’m offering in a very fundamental sense,” Johnson continued. “A new generation of leadership, a new generation of ideas. I can offer some generational diversity in Albany.”
