House Creative Committee
Ritchie John Torres (born March 12, 1988) is an American politician affiliated with the Democratic Party. He was elected in 2013 to New York City's 15th District Council, becoming the first publicly gay candidate to be elected to legislative office in the Bronx and the youngest member of the city council. In 2016, Torres was a delegate to Bernie Sanders' campaign.
In July 2019, Torres announced his candidacy for New York's 15th congressional district to succeed Congressman José E. Serrano. The 15th district is one of the most democratic in the country, and Torres won the November 2020 general election, taking office on January 3, 2021. With this victory, he and Mondaire Jones became the first publicly gay blacks elected to Congress, and Torres also became the first publicly gay Afro-Latino to achieve that position.
Torres is Afro-Latino, with a Puerto Rican father and an African American mother. He was raised by his mother in Throggs Neck Houses, a public housing project in the East Bronx, where he faced health problems due to mold in his apartment. Growing up in difficult economic conditions, he was raised by a single mother who supported the family on minimum wage. Torres' outrage over the $269 million investment in Trump Golf Links, built near his home rather than in affordable housing, motivated his commitment to social justice. During elementary school, Torres discovered he was gay, but kept it a secret for fear of homophobic violence.
