Pete Harckham

Senator Harckham was elected to the New York State Senate in November 2018 and re-elected in 2020 and 2022. Currently, he is chair of the Senate Environmental Conservation Committee.

Harckham helped pass the toughest climate protection legislation in the nation and also introduced legislation, later enacted, requiring all new passenger car and truck sales to be zero emission by 2035 and allowing municipalities to build solar canopies and jumpstart community renewable energy projects. Earlier this year, Governor Kathy Hochul placed Harckham’s landmark wetlands legislation protecting Class C streams statewide, which will safeguard fragile drinking water resources, into her proposed 2023 State Budget.

In 2015, Harckham was appointed Assistant Director of the Office of Community Renewal, responsible for the rollout and implementation of a special allotment of $4.3M in CDBG funding for Westchester municipalities. Afterward, he served as the Director of Intergovernmental Affairs for the Governor Mario M. Cuomo Bridge project. From 2008 to 2015 Harckham served on the Westchester County Board of Legislators (BOL), where he was a leading voice for protecting the environment, maintaining vital services, and investing in our families. He was the BOL’s Majority Leader from 2010 through 2013.

Before being elected to the BOL, Harckham served as board president of A-HOME, a not-for-profit housing corporation that built affordable housing in northern Westchester, and worked as a communications professional.