{"id":597,"date":"2026-08-17T10:11:18","date_gmt":"2026-08-17T10:11:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businessrelocationdigest.com\/?p=597"},"modified":"2026-08-17T10:11:18","modified_gmt":"2026-08-17T10:11:18","slug":"shelley-mayer-is-ready-to-lead-the-dscc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businessrelocationdigest.com\/?p=597","title":{"rendered":"Shelley Mayer is ready to lead the DSCC"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

After a long \u2013 and very successful \u2013 nearly 16 years of leading the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee, now former-state Senate Deputy Majority Leader Mike Gianaris has passed the torch to state Sen. Shelley Mayer. He leaves big shoes to fill. Gianaris took over after a rough election cycle in 2010 that saw Democrats lose a short-lived and contentious majority in the chamber, and went on to orchestrate his party\u2019s return to power in 2019.<\/p>\n

Read more Jeremy Zellner may win reelection as county party chair, but what happens next?<\/a><\/p>\n

Mayer, a close ally of state Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, who is also from Yonkers, joined the state Senate that same year. She won a 2018 special election to elevate herself up from the Assembly, and attributed her resounding success in part to the assistance she got from the DSCC and Gianaris. Now, Mayer is ready to take over for Gianaris and support others the way she said Gianaris helped her.<\/p>\n

Whereas Gianaris was focused for many years on simply winning an outright majority for Democrats, Mayer\u2019s immediate focus is on gaining back the party\u2019s supermajority it lost in after 2024\u2019s elections. She spoke with City & State about entering the new role, her plans for November and working with Gianaris on his way out. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Is serving as Democratic Senate Campaign Committee chair something you wanted to do before you got the call, or was it something of a surprise when you got selected?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019m very appreciative of the majority leader for picking me. I am a person who has been deeply involved in Democratic politics for my whole life, and this is a very natural development for what I care about and what I have spent my time on. I\u2019ve been a Democratic district leader, and I\u2019m first vice chair of the Westchester County Democrats. I support and nurture new candidates all the time at home, including trying to take over some Republican-led communities I represent with fantastic Democratic candidates. So this is something that I thought played to my strengths, and I\u2019m glad the leader sees it as doing so. I\u2019m very interested in making sure we have new exciting candidates, and I\u2019m also very comfortable with places outside of my district. My husband is from Niagara County and I spend a lot of time outside of downstate New York, and this job will allow me to really focus on the parts of the state that we need to win.<\/p>\n

What is your vision for the DSCC?<\/strong><\/p>\n

My first vision is to continue the extraordinary success that (former state Senate Deputy Majority Leader) Mike Gianaris had running it for all these years. Building a supermajority \u2013 which we\u2019re very close to, and I\u2019m hopeful we\u2019ll get back to \u2013 and building such a strong base of really committed senators from all over representing both geographic and demographic diversity. I\u2019m just going to continue down that path, bringing my own style and approach of what I call \u201cbig tent Democratic politics\u201d to the table. But I\u2019m building on an incredible record that Mike Gianaris and the DSCC staff have had for the last multiple years, including my race in 2018, which was a pivotal race in getting the Senate Democrats to take back the majority.<\/p>\n

What does the transition period look like so far? Gianaris\u2019 last official day with the Senate was Aug. 6, but there\u2019s a little bit of a transition period?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Well, I\u2019ve jumped in full force starting on (Aug. 10), when this became effective. Sen. Gianaris has left the Senate, but he\u2019s going to continue as a consultant to the DSCC, and I\u2019m relying on his good judgment and expertise in doing this. It\u2019s a lot to take on in one fell swoop, so we\u2019ll be working very closely together with a very exceptional staff. I\u2019m extremely impressed by them \u2013 they basically ran my 2018 race, which was a sort of a vicious race for my seat, and we\u2019re going to build on exactly what they\u2019ve done. I\u2019m going to continue to work closely with Sen. Gianaris and the team there for now, and just move ahead. We have great candidates. We have to keep raising money and make sure the campaigns are run effectively and speak to the constituents on the issues that matter, and I\u2019m very confident we can do that.<\/p>\n

What about your experience in Westchester will help inform your work in this new role? Westchester is still downstate and has been pretty Democratic for a while, but it\u2019s a very different area than where Gianaris is from in Queens.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Read more In purple Suffolk County, Democrats are weighing a leadership change<\/a><\/p>\n

LikeSen. Gianaris and all my colleagues, each of us really knows our communities. I know all the different towns, villages and cities. I know the ones that are run by Republicans where I have good working relationships with the leadership, but I\u2019m politically involved with candidates who are trying to win and become the supervisors of the town and judges. I\u2019ve been very involved in the congressional races right now. (The 17th Congressional District) is very important to defeat (Rep.) Mike Lawler, and I\u2019m very committed to Cait Conley and am already heavily involved in that race, so I have a strong feeling. Over the years that I\u2019ve been involved in the Legislature \u2013 I started with Bob Abrams during his work in Albany over 40 years ago \u2013 I have been involved in electoral politics throughout the state, so I\u2019m familiar with rural communities. I\u2019ve worked on races in both rural and suburban areas, and in the city of New York and other cities.<\/p>\n

The other question here is who will take over for Gianaris as deputy majority leader in the Senate. Are you interested in potentially taking that position? <\/strong>You\u2019ve been very close with the majority leader for a long time.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I am totally immersed in this job. We have so many great candidates that we are working on, and every one of them deserves literally hours of my attention to make sure that we are attentive to the needs of their district. I\u2019m very, very involved in that. I\u2019m totally focused on that and not on what comes next, but yes, I have a wonderful relationship with the majority leader. We both have been through Yonkers politics together and campaigned together. She\u2019ll make her decision when she feels the time is right, and I\u2019m not focused on that at all.<\/p>\n

What are the next couple months ahead of the election going to look like as you settle into this new position?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I look forward to meeting all of our new candidates personally, and hopefully having an opportunity to go to their districts and get a good feel because we are really about results for working people. That\u2019s what I do as a senator and have spent my career doing, and I know that\u2019s what our candidates want to do. I want to make sure I have a good feel in helping to shape these campaigns. \u2026 We\u2019ve got to obviously raise money. That\u2019s important, and I\u2019m going to continue to do that, have a very open door, as I always have had. I\u2019m going to assist in making sure we have the resources we need, working with the campaign teams on the actual candidates, and then obviously our marginals. \u2026 Having been involved in ground campaigns and field campaigns all my life, I have a very good feel of how many doors you have to knock, how many bagel stores you have to stand in front of and how many people who have to disagree with you. These are things that are really bread and butter in campaigns, and I feel quite well versed in that stuff.<\/p>\n

In your conversations with Gianaris so far in his advisory position, has there been any particular piece of advice that he\u2019s bestowed upon you that you\u2019ve found particularly helpful so far?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Well, I appreciate that he relies on me to trust my instincts and experience, and he\u2019s been very clear with that. I\u2019ve learned a lot from him, and I think we are very good partners in many ways. I respect his knowledge, his experience and his incredible success \u2013 he was instrumental in my run in 2018, after which we took the majority in 2019. So we have a history together. I think he trusts my judgment, but I\u2019m going to go affirmatively to him and ask his advice repeatedly. I\u2019m very happy that he\u2019s going to stay on in a consulting role, and that will not only help me but help us win, and then actually do the work. It\u2019s really about the work. Politics is all for the ultimate end of producing results for the people we represent, the people of New York.<\/p>\n

Read more This week\u2019s biggest Winners & Losers<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With Election Day just three months out, the Westchester state senator is stepping into high gear.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,30],"tags":[7,31],"class_list":["post-597","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-new-york-state","category-personality","tag-new-york-state","tag-personality"],"yoast_head":"\nShelley Mayer is ready to lead the DSCC - Business Relocation Digest<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/businessrelocationdigest.com\/?p=597\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Shelley Mayer is ready to lead the DSCC - Business Relocation Digest\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"With Election Day just three months out, the Westchester state senator is stepping into high gear.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/businessrelocationdigest.com\/?p=597\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Business Relocation Digest\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-08-17T10:11:18+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"8 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/businessrelocationdigest.com\\\/?p=597#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/businessrelocationdigest.com\\\/?p=597\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/businessrelocationdigest.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/3174a35dc160ba2a2c93ee7892afb9e0\"},\"headline\":\"Shelley Mayer is ready to lead the DSCC\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-08-17T10:11:18+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/businessrelocationdigest.com\\\/?p=597\"},\"wordCount\":1533,\"commentCount\":0,\"keywords\":[\"New York State\",\"Personality\"],\"articleSection\":[\"New York State\",\"Personality\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/businessrelocationdigest.com\\\/?p=597#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/businessrelocationdigest.com\\\/?p=597\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/businessrelocationdigest.com\\\/?p=597\",\"name\":\"Shelley Mayer is ready to lead the DSCC - 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