Friday, October 16, 2026
Democratic Assemblyman Noah Burroughs, who represents New York’s 18th District, has kept himself busy in service of others since ending his professional football career in 2003. He credits his time as a civics teacher, and his father’s work as a civil rights leader, for having prepared him for his transition to local and state politics.
Burroughs, 55, a Hempstead resident, was elected as a village trustee in 2021 after running unsuccessfully two years earlier. At the time, he taught civics, social studies and English in the Hempstead school district, but after concluding that local political representation was lacking, he decided to give up teaching and run for the Assembly.
“I would have conversations with so many elected officials about the things that I wanted to do [in the community], and the answers were just wrong,” Burroughs said.
He wanted, for example, to make scholarships more accessible to students, but when he shared the idea with an official, Burroughs recounted, the response was focused on athletic opportunities and ignored academic ones.
The people who could help weren’t helping, he concluded, “so I said, if I continue to let this happen, there’s going to be a lot more kids left behind.”
Burroughs won the District 18 seat in 2024 as the Democratic and Working Families candidate, and is hoping to be re-elected and take on more issues. Prioritizing building good relationships not only with constituents, but with government officials on both the state and local level, he said, has helped him effectively represent the district and provide needed resources to its communities.
One of his biggest triumphs, he said, was alleviating financial strain on public school districts. “Charter schools are really plaguing my district in particular,” Burroughs said. “The state aid that goes to [public] school districts is decreased because of charter schools. Roosevelt, Uniondale, Baldwin, West Hempstead — they’re getting affected.”
This year, Burroughs said, he successfully fought for a 2 percent maximum increase for most school districts’ budgets, to help ease their monetary stress.
He also spoke proudly of planned investments in water infrastructure across the district, and recent development in Hempstead’s Mirschel Park, on Atlantic Avenue and Terrace Avenue, in what he described as traditionally one of the least desirable places in the community.
“We wanted to invest in the worst part, which is in Hempstead, and that’s Terrace Avenue,” Burroughs said. “In the past it’s gotten a lot of negative press, but it’s a small amount of people that do these things. So we’re not going to shy away from investing in that part of the community.”
While he acknowledged that an Assembly member’s role is limited when it comes to reducing taxes, Burroughs said he is committed to addressing the rising cost of utilities and insurance.
And he added that what separates him from his challenger, Republican Charlene Jackson, is his greater understanding of politics and what he can promise.
“One of the reasons that it was a smooth transition for me into politics is because I taught it,” Burroughs said. “I want to save money as much as possible. You got to understand your job, and I think that’s one of the things that I can bring, because people could come in, and they don’t understand government.”
