As much of New York City’s focus has recently been on the recently elected Democratic mayoral candidate and Bronx Science graduate Zohran Mamdani, it may come as a surprise to many that one of his most outspoken critics is a Republican council member from northeast Queens, Vickie Paladino.
First elected in 2021 to District 19 with 47.2% of the vote, beating out former Council member Tony Avella, Vickie Paladino has built a brand as a personable individual. People view her as a politician who engages directly with voters through local events in the community, a rare distinction within today’s political landscape. In fact, during the 2023 campaign for city council, her tagline was that her opponent, who was once again former Council member Avella, was “political toast” who just popped up in time to run for elections. This message of connection to the community struck a chord, as she won the district with a larger 59.9% majority in 2023 and again in 2025 with 58% of the vote, powered by a coalition of conservative and Asian American voters, cementing her influence in Queens. However, Vickie Paladino has also developed a reputation for making statements that some view as controversial or inflammatory, such as calling for the deportation of Zohran Mamdani.
This combination of local engagement and what some might consider provocative rhetoric has been present since the beginning of Councilperson Paladino’s career.
Vickie Paladino was born and raised in Whitestone to an Italian working class family of her and three siblings. When she was twelve years old, her father, a World War II veteran, passed away, an experience she describes on her campaign website as something that taught her “the value of family and community, especially during hard times.” Paladino received her high school diploma from Flushing High School and went on to own an interior goods factory in College Point and co-own a landscaping business with her husband.
Eventually, it was during the summer of 2017 that she got her political start. At the time, New York City was reeling from a high profile tragedy. New York City Police Detective Miosotis Familia had been fatally shot in the Bronx at the same time that Mayor Bill de Blasio was in Germany for the G20 summit. The timing of these events resulted in heightened tension between the Mayor and the police force, and it was in this context that Ms. Paladino confronted the Mayor on Francis Lewis Boulevard in Northeast Queens. During the incident, Ms. Paladino shouted at the Mayor for “abandoning” New York. Mayor De Blasio quickly walked away and got back into his SUV to avoid further conflict. This encounter was recorded by Ms. Paladino’s husband, and after they posted it, it went viral. The video garnered support from people around the city and led to her first run for political office: the State Senate in 2018.
As an outsider, Ms. Paladino faced an uphill battle with the Queens County GOP, who endorsed her opponent, Simon Minching. Ms. Paladino still won the Republican primary, though she lost to John Liu in the general election. This then led to her run for City Council in 2021, where once again the Queens GOP endorsed her opponent, and once again Ms. Paladino won the primary, this time also winning in the general election. Nowadays, the Queens GOP and Ms. Paladino have put their previous animosity behind them.
Once in office, Councilmember Paladino sponsored several bills aimed at challenging the city’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2022, she sponsored a bill that would have the Department of Education release monthly reports on criteria for any school mask mandates. Similarly, she sponsored a resolution urging the Department of Education to release clear scientific and mental health criteria before imposing a mask mandate, and a resolution that aimed to prohibit employers from altering terms and conditions during a state wide emergency like the pandemic.
During her second term, when the immediate emergency of the pandemic was over, Councilmember Paladino continued to support bills that upheld a conservative agenda. She sponsored bills that would have removed fees a person had to pay to have a pistol/revolver permit. Another bill she sponsored was a bill aimed at removing bus and bike lane quotas. She also sponsored bills aimed at delaying collecting fines for not meeting greenhouse gas emission regulations under Local Law 97, a law aimed at combating climate change. In a similar vein, she sponsored a bill that aimed to exempt certain residential buildings from this law and to mandate reports from the city of the financial impact of the climate change regulations on these buildings. Echoing this sentiment, she sponsored a bill to make compost collection by residential buildings voluntary. While many of these bills did not pass, they did reflect Councilmember Paladino’s commitment to the conservative perspective of opposition to vaccine mandates and prioritizing economic factors in the fight against climate change.
During her two terms, Councilmember Paladino passed resolutions aimed at the recognition of veterans. For example, Paladino sponsored two resolutions that called on the New York City Department of Education to observe Veterans Day even when it falls on a weekend, and a resolution that called on Congress to observe April 26th of each year as “Korean War Veterans and Defense Veterans Recognition Day.” In another focus on holidays, Councilmember Paladino sponsored and passed a bill that named April 17 as “Giovanni da Verrazzano Day” in New York City to honor the Italian explorer, showcasing Councilmember Paladino’s pride in her Italian heritage.
Beyond the efforts focused on recognition, Councilmember Paladino has sponsored bills aimed at improving the quality of life. She sponsored and passed a resolution that requested that the New York City Department of Education give safety lessons on school bikes. She also sponsored a resolution aimed at expanding a civil service exam credit to families of Department of Sanitation New York (DSNY) workers who died due to 9/11, highlighting her promise to support first responders. Other resolutions of hers included one that aimed to increase the elderly personal needs allowance for seniors in home care, another to allow funding plans for homeowners to fix shared sewers and driveways, and a final that would prohibit affixing external speakers to vehicles. This mix of bills helps to highlight Councilmember Paladino’s commitment to traditional Republican policy objectives and also more local quality of life issues.
Like her original encounter with Mayor de Blasio, Councilmember Paladino has a knack for making statements that have gone viral, although some feel that they are not for the right reasons. After being elected in 2021, Councilmember Paladino refused to disclose whether she was vaccinated or not, preventing her from casting her vote in the City Council Chambers, as they had a vaccine requirement at the time. While making it clear that she was an anti-mandate and not anti-vaccination, Councilmember Paladino compared the mandate to Nazi Germany: “I don’t need to show you my papers. This is not Nazi Germany.” The day following the incident, Councilmember Paladino clarified her statements: “While my intent was to illustrate that requiring residents to show medical papers to earn a living or do everyday activities is an authoritarian practice that does not align with this country’s principles, it is never okay to compare anything to the evil of Nazi Germany.” Though she walked back her statements comparing the vaccine mandates to Nazi Germany, she still made it clear that she would not back down: “Going forward, if anyone has a problem with me in the chamber, they will have to remove me.” This started a trend that would continue throughout Councilmember Paladino’s career which demonstrated what both repelled and gravitated people towards her: her unfiltered presentation of her ideas.
Another example of her unfiltered presentation of her ideas came during Councilmember Paladino’s second term. At the time New York faced a wave of protests due to the conflict in the Middle East. Before and after the October 7th 2023 attacks, Councilmember Paladino was a strong supporter of Israel. A month after the attacks, Councilmember Paladino got into an argument with her colleague, Councilmember Shahana Hanif, over the conflict on X after Hanif criticized Paladino’s pro-Israel statements on social media, suggesting she should express her views “face to face” rather than online. Councilmember Paladino’s comments came in response to Councilmember Hanif posting pro-Palestinian signage at a Brooklyn bodega, highlighting a split within the City Council over the issue.
Following this incident, college campuses throughout the city had students establish encampments and occupy buildings in solidarity with the Palestinian people. Then, Mayor Eric Adams’ Administration portrayed these protests as being influenced by outside actors, justifying the use of the NYPD in certain instances.
Councilmember Paladino’s stance on the issue was that it was the academic institutions themselves that had radicalized the students. In a post on X, she said that “The sad reality is that our schools are producing monsters, and it’s now our job to slay them. Simple as that. And the schools and faculty who sit at the top of this chaos must be razed along with them.” Similarly, after a protest broke out in Hillcrest High School, Councilmember Paladino said that “order and discipline must be restored” and that “We’ve tried ‘progressive’ educational theory for far too long, and it’s gotten us absolutely nowhere. Our students and our city deserve far better than this.” In response to these protests Councilmember Paladino also sponsored resolutions aimed at banning masks or facial coverings during protesters or rallies.
As noted above, this year Councilmember Paladino has also called for Zohran Mamdani’s deportation, saying “Let’s just talk about how insane it is to elect someone to any major office who hasn’t even been a US citizen for ten years—much less a radical leftist who actually hates everything about the country and is here specifically to undermine everything we’ve ever been about. Deport.” In a later post, Councilmember Paladino also posted a photograph of a t-shirt bearing the slogan “Deport Zohran” alongside the caption “New Merch Drop?” In an interview with 710 WOR’s Mendte in the Morning program, the Councilmember clarified her statement saying, “The tweet was as simple as could be.. Let’s talk about how insane it is to elect someone to any major office who has been a U.S. citizen for less than five years…I simply put, ‘Deport’, period. We know that he is now an American citizen — we can not deport him. ‘Deport’ was sarcasm… their feelings got hurt because I used the word deport, well, that’s just too damn bad!”
Councilmember Paladino also ought to link her opponent in this year’s City Council election, Ben Chou, to Mamdani. Both are graduates from Bronx Science, and in a message to her constitutes Councilmember Paladino said, “We can’t take anything for granted here — my opponent in this race was Zohran Mamdani’s former high school classmate and will roll out the red carpet for Zohran and the Democratic Socialists to dismantle everything we’ve worked so hard to build here. The threat is real.” This managed to energize her base as she won 58% of the vote at this year’s election.
While Councilperson Paladino has been faulted for what some see as divisive rhetoric, she has remained determined to connect with the constituents in her community. I know this firsthand as I’ve seen her in person at my middle school’s award ceremony and at a shopping mall in the area. Councilperson Paladino is constantly out and about in events making sure she is always visible to her constituents. To give another example, my grade school P.S.31 had been undergoing renovations for over five years, with scaffolding up much longer than it had been scheduled to be up. When the renovations were finally finished, Councilperson Paladino held a ceremony to commemorate it, increasing her visibility and connecting with her constituents by stressing that she cares about those same local issues.
Vickie Paladino also combines old and new media, posting about her perspective about what’s going on in the city on X, like she did during the college protests last year, while still appearing on traditional radio shows. This constant effort to be visible shows her trying to avoid the mistakes of her previous opponent, Tony Avella, who she called “political toast” for never participating in the community. In the present day, Councilmember Paladino successfully won a third term in office, beating Bronx Science graduate Ben Chou. This year’s race presented uncharted waters for Councilmember Paladino, as she faced a newcomer who brought his own energy to the scene, as she did in 2021 when she first ousted incumbent Tony Avella. Her win over Chou proves her continued influence over her district, and that even against different opponents, she can energize her base. In a statement after the win, Paladino said, “I could not be happier after the win last night… The NY GOP would be very well advised to see how our operation runs, because clearly we’re doing it better than anyone else in this city.”
To read my accompanying article, an exclusive interview with Vickie Paladino, click HERE.
First elected in 2021 to District 19 with 47.2% of the vote, beating out former Councilperson Tony Avella, Vickie Paladino has built a brand as a personable individual. People view her as a politician who engages directly with voters through local events in the community, a rare distinction within today’s political landscape.