Alvin Bragg, a former federal prosecutor made history after being elected as Manhattan’s first African American district attorney on Tuesday, the New York Daily News reports.
As the new D.A, Bragg will be working closely with a police department led by Eric Adams, who won the race for mayor on Tuesday night.
Currently, the office that Bragg will helm, is overseeing a probe of former President Donald Trump and his family business.
Bragg, who was considered the favorite in the race, defeated Republican Thomas Kenniff, after beating Tali Farhadian Weinstein in the Democratic primary.
Running on a progressive platform, Bragg put a spotlight on racial bias in the criminal justice system and pledged to address mass incarceration. Also, he represents Gwen Carr, the mother of Eric Garner who was killed by a police officer’s chokehold.
“Some people have said, ‘How can you run for district attorney and sue the city?’” Bragg, 48, told The Associated Press. “That’s the whole point. The whole point is that safety and fairness are compatible. Indeed, they are inextricably interwoven.”
Before being elected to the District Attorney’s office, the Harvard Law School graduate served as the Executive Deputy Attorney General (EDAG) for Social Justice, the Chief Deputy Attorney General in New York, and an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Criminal Division of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York.
Throughout the campaign, Bragg recounted his personal experiences of being harassed by police as a resident of Harlem and a student in Harvard including being held at gunpoint. He promised that those experiences will influence his work in the district attorney's office.
“We have been given a profound trust tonight,” Bragg said. “The fundamental role of the district attorney is to guarantee both fairness and safety.”
