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Sandy Nurse

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Sandy Nurse
Member of the New York City Council
from the 37th district
Incumbent
Assumed office
January 1, 2022
Preceded byDarma Diaz
Personal details
Born (1984-04-03) April 3, 1984 (age 42)
Panama
PartyDemocratic
EducationEmmanuel College (BA)
The New School
WebsiteOfficial website
Campaign website

Sandra Nurse (born April 3, 1984)[1] is an American Democratic politician from New York City who has served as the New York City Council member for the 37th district since 2022.[2] District 37 covers Bushwick and other neighborhoods in northern Brooklyn.

Early life and education

[edit]

Nurse was born in Panama and raised by a White American mother and a Afro-Panamanian father both serving in the U.S. Navy. She grew up in Panama until she was around 5 years old, when the family moved to various military posts including Cuba, South Korea, and Japan before she settled in Bushwick, Brooklyn in 2009.[3]

Nuse graduated from Emmanuel College in Boston with a bachelor’s degree in political science, which put her in student loan debt.[4] She completed graduate studies at The New School.[5]

Career

[edit]

Prior to her runs for political office, Nurse worked in a number of jobs and fields, including as a waitress, a food delivery worker, a janitor, a community organizer, and most prominently a carpenter. She is also the founder of the Brooklyn-based composting organization BK ROT and a cofounder of the Mayday Space, a venue for progressive organizations.[6]

2020 campaigns

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In September 2019, Nurse announced that she would run for the 54th district of the New York State Assembly, challenging incumbent Democrat Erik Martin Dilan from the left. Nurse was one of two left-wing challengers in the race, alongside State Senator Julia Salazar's chief of staff, Boris Santos.[7]

However, after City Councilmember Rafael Espinal resigned from the overlapping 37th district of the New York City Council in January 2020, Nurse chose to abandon her Assembly campaign and run in the special election to replace Espinal.[8] Nurse was seen as one of two major candidates in the race alongside district leader Darma Diaz, who had the support of Espinal and was seen as the race's establishment candidate.[9][10]

With the March arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic in New York City, the election took several unexpected turns. First, the planned April special election was suspended, then moved to June, and finally cancelled altogether in favor of a traditional primary and general election to be held in June and November.[11] Governor Andrew Cuomo additionally decreed that, in light of the pandemic, the number of signatures required to make it onto the ballot would be significantly reduced – but the New York City Board of Elections ruled in April that the new requirements would not apply to the special election, leaving every candidate but Diaz short of the necessary number of signatures and thus barred from the ballot. Nurse fought the ruling and argued that the Brooklyn Democratic Party had meddled to ensure a Diaz victory, but was unsuccessful in reinstating herself on the special election ballot.[citation needed] Diaz thus was able to win both the primary and general elections completely unopposed.

2021 City Council campaign

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In July 2020 – shortly after Diaz had won her special election primary – Nurse announced she would seek a rematch in the regularly scheduled 2021 City council election.[12] As in the special election, Nurse ran a left-wing campaign, and received support from many of the city's most influential progressive officeholders and organizations, among them Congresswomen Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Nydia Velázquez, Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, and the Working Families Party.[11]

On election night, Nurse comfortably led Diaz 51-24%, and acknowledged her likely victory on June 23; when absentee ballots and ranked-choice votes were counted two weeks later, she officially defeated Diaz by a ranked choice margin of 65-35%.[13][14][15] Nurse subsequently won the general election with over 86% of the vote.

As Councilmember

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In 2025, the City Council passed a bill Nurse authored that requires the city to expand availability of public restrooms.[16]

In March 2026, Nurse said the top priority in her district was housing.[17]

In May 2026, Nurse was present at the scene of a conflict in Bushwick between federal immigration officers and local protesters. She said that she witnessed what “appeared to be direct coordination between ICE and the NYPD, with officers cordoning off the ambulance bay to allow ICE to move the individual into their vehicles and leave.” This raised concerns that the NYPD had violated the city's sanctuary laws.[18][19]

Nurse sits on the City Council's Progressive Caucus, serving as co-chair.[20][21]

Personal life

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Nurse lives in Cypress Hills, Brooklyn. She identifies as Afro-Latina.[3] In December 2023, her father, Guillermo Nurse, was sworn in as the first Latino mayor of Oxford, North Carolina.[22]

Electoral history

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2025

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2025 New York City Council election, District 37[23]
Party Candidate Votes %
Democratic Sandy Nurse 21,175 74.6
Working Families Sandy Nurse 7,068 24.9
Total Sandy Nurse (incumbent) 28,243 99.5
Write-in 129 0.5
Total votes 28,372 100.0
Democratic hold

2023

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2023 New York City Council election, District 37[24]
Party Candidate Votes %
Democratic Sandy Nurse 3,765 70.0
Working Families Sandy Nurse 1,004 18.7
Total Sandy Nurse (incumbent) 4,769 88.7
Republican Isaiah Orlando Vega 461 8.6
Conservative Isaiah Orlando Vega[a] 93 1.7
Total Isaiah Orlando Vega 554 10.3
Write-in 55 1.0
Total votes 5,378 100.0
Democratic hold

2021

[edit]
2021 New York City Council Democratic primary, District 37[25]
Party Candidate Maximum
round		 Maximum
votes		 Share in
maximum
round		 Maximum votes
  First round votes   Transfer votes
Democratic Sandy Nurse 5 6,124 65.4%
​​
Democratic Darma V. Diaz (incumbent) 5 3,247 34.6%
​​
Democratic Misba Abdin 4 1,154 11.0%
​​
Democratic Heriberto Mateo 4 1,071 10.2%
​​
Democratic Rick Echevarria 2 558 5.1%
​​
Democratic Christopher Durosinmi 2 340 3.1%
​​
Write-In 1 25 0.2%
​​
2021 New York City Council election, District 37[26]
Party Candidate Votes %
Democratic Sandy Nurse 8,884 86.5
Republican Franklin Gonzalez 1,369 13.3
Write-in 20 0.2
Total votes 10,273 100.0
Democratic hold

Notes

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  1. ↑ Shared with "Medical Freedom" ballot line.

References

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  1. ↑ @SandyForCouncil (April 2, 2021). "Tomorrow is my 37th birthday! Join me tomorrow to knock 37 doors and make 37 calls to help us win the race for City Council district 37!". Retrieved July 27, 2021.
  2. ↑ "District 37 - Sandy Nurse". New York City Council. Retrieved January 3, 2022.
  3. 1 2 Duggan, Mike (March 5, 2021). "Bushwick pol accuses challenger of switching race identities for political gain". Brooklyn Paper. Retrieved December 27, 2025.
  4. ↑ Nova, Annie (February 12, 2020). "Why people with student debt are refusing to repay it". CNBC. Retrieved December 27, 2025.
  5. ↑ Heilemann, John (November 23, 2011). "Will Occupy Wall Street Upend Obama's Presidential Election?". New York. Retrieved December 27, 2025.
  6. ↑ Emma Whitford (September 18, 2019). "Co-founder of Bushwick's Mayday Space sets eyes on assembly seat". Brooklyn Eagle. Retrieved July 30, 2021.
  7. ↑ Sam Raskin (September 19, 2019). "Bushwick Activist Sandy Nurse Joins Race to Oust Dilan". Patch.com. Retrieved July 27, 2021.
  8. ↑ Charlie Innis (February 10, 2020). "Sandy Nurse Joins the City Council Race". Politics NY. Retrieved July 27, 2021.
  9. ↑ Rainier Harris (February 26, 2020). "Former Councilmember Rafael Espinal Endorses Darma Diaz for His Seat". Bklyner. Retrieved July 27, 2021.
  10. ↑ Andrew Karpan (April 7, 2020). "The Bitter Fight for Brooklyn's City Council Seat is Complicated by Coronavirus". Bushwick Daily. Retrieved July 27, 2021.
  11. 1 2 Samar Khurshid (December 28, 2020). "Newly-Seated Brooklyn City Council Member Quickly Faces Tough 2021 Primary". Gotham Gazette. Retrieved July 27, 2021.
  12. ↑ Kevin Duggan (July 23, 2020). "Council Comeback: Bushwick Activist Sandy Nurse Relaunches Campaign for 2021 Election". Brooklyn Paper. Retrieved July 27, 2021.
  13. ↑ Ben Brachfeld, Ben Verde, and Meaghan McGoldrick (June 24, 2021). "Here Are the Brooklyn City Council Election Results So Far". Brownstoner. Retrieved July 27, 2021.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  14. ↑ @SandyForCouncil (June 23, 2021). "I was unsuccessful in telling everyone that we won't know until all the scanners reported, but…alas. What an incredible 18 months it's been. Thank you to everyone. More appreciations later, but for now: Thank you team!!". Retrieved July 27, 2021.
  15. ↑ Billy Richling (July 7, 2021). "Latest BOE Numbers Reveal Several Winners in City Elections". Bkylner. Retrieved July 27, 2021.
  16. ↑ "Sandy Nurse Fought Two Years to Pass a Public Bathroom". Bushwick Daily. 2026-01-28. Retrieved 2026-05-12.
  17. ↑ Tomaswick, Lea (2026-03-26). "Inside Government with PoliticsNY: A Q&A with Council Member Sandy Nurse". politicsny.com. Retrieved 2026-05-12.
  18. ↑ Kim, Elizabeth; Sundaram, Arya; Feuerherd, Ben (2026-05-04). "Mamdani condemns ICE action at Bushwick hospital, says NYPD didn't coordinate". Gothamist. Retrieved 2026-05-12.
  19. ↑ Hogan, Gwynne (2026-05-04). "Video Appears to Show ICE Agent Tasing Man Multiple Times Ahead of Bushwick Hospital Standoff". THE CITY - NYC News. Retrieved 2026-05-12.
  20. ↑ Donaldson, Sahalie (2026-01-20). "Meet the new, bigger City Council Progressive Caucus". City & State NY. Retrieved 2026-05-12.
  21. ↑ "About Us – NYC Progressive Caucus". Retrieved 2026-05-12.
  22. ↑ Rivera Cotto, Claudia; Gomez, Walter (December 20, 2023). "History is made: Guillermo Nurse takes office as the first Latino mayor in North Carolina". Enlace Latino NC. Retrieved December 27, 2025.
  23. ↑ "00301100037Kings Member of the City Council 37th Council District Recap.pdf" (PDF). Vote NYC. New York City Board of Elections. December 2, 2025. Retrieved July 6, 2026.
  24. ↑ "00301600037Kings Member of the City Council 37th Council District Recap.pdf" (PDF). Vote NYC. New York City Board of Elections. December 5, 2023. Retrieved July 6, 2026.
  25. ↑ "DEM Council Member 37th Council District". Vote NYC. New York City Board of Elections. July 20, 2021. Retrieved July 6, 2026.
  26. ↑ "00300700037Kings Member of the City Council 37th Council District Recap.pdf" (PDF). Vote NYC. New York City Board of Elections. November 30, 2021. Retrieved July 6, 2026.
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