Micah Charles Lasher (born December 18, 1981) is an American politician serving as a member of the New York State Assembly for District 69 in Manhattan in New York City since 2025.
He was previously the Director of State Legislative Affairs under New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, the Chief of Staff of NY State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, and the Director of Policy for New York Governor Kathy Hochul.
He is the Democratic nominee for New York's 12th congressional district in 2026.
Early life and education He was born in Manhattan to Stephanie Lasher and Albert C. Lasher."Election Q&A: Meet NY-12 Candidate Micah Lasher," Patch, June 12, 2026. Lasher grew up on the Upper West Side of Manhattan."As Life's Questions Get Harder, Magic Casts a Wider Spell," The New York Times, June 13, 1994.
Lasher performed magic tricks on national television by the age of 13, appearing on the Late Show with David Letterman and on NBC's Today show."Tradition reigns in one of the richest congressional districts. Or does it?," Yahoo, June 4, 2026. While a 14-year-old in high school, he authored the 224-page book The Magic Of Micah Lasher: More Than Fifty Tricks That Will Amaze & Delight Everyone Including You (1996)."ABOUT NEW YORK; As Magicians Hone Art, Presto, Woman Appears," The New York Times, December 7, 1994.
In 1998 as a 16-year-old student at Stuyvesant High School, he became an editor-in-chief of the school's student newspaper, The Stuyvesant Spectator."Student Journalists Without a Newspaper; School Halts Publication, Raising Question of First Amendment Rights," The New York Times, April 17, 1998. In 1999, after the school's assistant principal pleaded guilty to sexually abusing a 15-year-old female student, Lasher condemned the fact that the assistant principal was only sentenced to three years' probation and was receiving a full pension."Probation For Teacher Guilty of Abuse At Stuyvesant," The New York Times, August 18, 1999., Lasher graduated from Stuyvesant High School in 1999.
He graduated from New York University in 2003 with a degree in sociology. While at NYU, Lasher spent a semester in London, where he was roommates with Aziz Ansari. Before he graduated from college, he was a founding partner of the national political consulting firm SKDKnickerbocker (now called SKDK), advising elected government officials, labor unions, and nonprofits. The New York Times reported that he "has been called a political whiz kid ever since he helped to found an influential political consulting firm while still in college."
Political career Early years Lasher's first job, when he was 16 years old and a junior in high school, was as deputy campaign manager for Eric Schneiderman's winning campaign for the New York State Senate in 1998."Meet the voters of New York’s 12th Congressional District," cityandstateny, June 15. 2026. When he was 17 years old, he was an informal adviser to New York State Assemblyman Scott Stringer. In 2001, when Lasher was 19, he managed Brad Hoylman-Sigal's campaign for New York City Council out of his dorm room."Metropolitan Operatives," City Limits, March 1, 2001. From 2007 to 2009, he worked as a special assistant and chief aide to Jerrold Nadler."From Jewish teen magician to congressional contender: Meet Micah Lasher, Jerry Nadler’s heir apparent," The Forward, September 4, 2025."Magical wunderkind lobbyist Micah Lasher gets promoted," Chalkbeat, January 21, 2010.
In 2009, he was the Executive Director of Public Affairs and a lobbyist for the New York City Department of Education, as well as a trustee of the Community Service Society of New York, an antipoverty organization.
NYC Director of State Legislative Affairs From 2010 to 2012, Lasher was Director of State Legislative Affairs, the city's chief lobbyist, for New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg."Livery Cab Proposal Faces New Uncertainty," The New York Times, December 7, 2011."Out With the Old Commissioners, In With the New," The New York Times, February 17, 2010. During his time in that role, he criticized proposed state budget cuts to the city’s senior centers, which he called "an unusually painful and disproportionate cut to a very vulnerable population," supported a new law under which hundreds of former New York City factory buildings and warehouses were able to become legal residential lofts, and took part in negotiating an agreement creating a new teacher evaluation system."Obscure Budget Proposal Threatens Senior Centers," The New York Times, March 7, 2010."That Cheap, Roomy Loft Can Now Be a Legal One, Too," The New York Times, July 25, 2010."Group Aims to Counter Influence of Teachers’ Union in New York," The New York Times, April 3, 2010.
Executive Director of StudentsFirstNY In 2012, he became the Executive Director of StudentsFirstNY, the New York branch of a national education reform advocacy organization founded to promote the expansion of charter schools and the firing of ineffective teachers, and to oppose tenure. In response to criticism from liberal advocacy groups and labor unions, Lasher said that his group was "a union for students, fighting for a quality teacher for every child," and that the interests of the teachers' union were not always aligned with the interests of schoolchildren."New Coalition to Challenge Bloomberg’s Education Policies," The New York Times, May 17, 2012.
Chief of Staff of NY State Attorney General In 2013, New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman hired Lasher as Chief of Staff, a position in which he managed 1,800 people."Attorney General Picks Ex-Bloomberg Aide to Be Chief of Staff," The New York Times, March 25, 2013. In that role, he he helped coordinate a lawsuit against Donald Trump and Trump University. Lasher also served as an aide and community liaison for Congressman Jerrold Nadler.
New York Senate campaign In 2016, Lasher ran for the New York Senate in the 31st district, in the northern and western edge of Manhattan, after Adriano Espaillat left the position to successfully run for the U.S. House of Representatives. He was endorsed by The New York Times."Endorsements in New York Primary Races," The New York Times, September 2, 2016. Lasher lost to Marisol Alcantara in the Democratic primary election, as she received a plurality of 32.7% of the vote, and Lasher received 31.6% of the vote–294 votes shy of her total. She went on to join the Independent Democratic Conference, a caucus of Democrats who formed a power-sharing arrangement with the Senate Republican Conference.
Sidewalk Labs From 2017 to 2020, Lasher worked as Head of Policy and Communications at Sidewalk Labs, an Alphabet Google company the goal of which was to innovate technology and urban design to improve cities."Governor Hochul Announces New Administration Appointments," Empire Report, November 22, 2021. Sidewalk's primary proposed project, Sidewalk Toronto, was intended to be an innovative reinvention of Toronto's neglected eastern downtown waterfront, and Sidewalks Labs said it did not intend to own the data it gathered in public spaces and instead would relinquish control of the data to an independent organization to be established and named the Civic Data Trust."Sidewalk Labs to weigh suggestions from panel for Toronto smart city project," The Canadian Press, November 9, 2018 The proposed project generated controversy in Toronto over data privacy and surveillance and was eventually cancelled by Alphabet which cited economic concerns caused by the uncertainty of the economy experiencing the COVID-19 pandemic .
Director of Policy of New York State In November 2021, New York State Governor Kathy Hochul appointed Lasher as Director of Policy. During his tenure, Lasher participated in shaping and implementing state policy following Hochul’s ascension to the governorship after Andrew Cuomo's resignation. In his role, Lasher helped write a set of gun laws directly after the 2022 Buffalo shooting. He resigned from this role in early 2024 to pursue a campaign for the New York State Assembly.
As of 2024, Lasher had served as the chair of the Riverside Park Conservancy, a non-profit organization supporting the maintenance and improvement of Riverside Park.
New York State Assembly During the 2024 New York State Assembly election, Lasher ran for the 69th district, comprising Manhattan Valley, Morningside Heights, and portions of the Upper West Side and West Harlem. He ran in a crowded five-candidate Democratic primary, securing victory with 53% of the vote, 19 per cent ahead of his closest competitor.
Lasher's campaign focused on addressing housing affordability, advocating for comprehensive public education reforms, and fostering economic equality. He also proposed solutions for addressing zoning and vacant storefront issues in his district. Lasher received endorsements from local elected officials and organizations, including U.S. representatives Jerrold Nadler and Adriano Espaillat, and Manhattan Borough president Mark Levine."The Race Is On: Eli Northrup Post Big Fundraising Haul For UWS Seat," Patch, March 15, 2024. He ran unopposed in the November general election.
In April 2025, Lasher co-sponsored a bill requiring an audit of a state subsidy agreement with Elon Musk's Tesla in order to "identify waste, fraud and abuse committed by private parties to the contract." It would assess whether Tesla is meeting job creation targets, making promised investments, paying sufficient rent, and meeting job training commitments. If Tesla were not in compliance, the state could claw back state benefits,assess penalties, and end contracts. Lasher said: "It is the height of hypocrisy that Elon Musk, the man who is dismantling federal agencies and doing enormous damage on the basis of wildly unsubstantiated claims of waste, fraud and abuse, is the beneficiary of one of the biggest, shadiest subsidy deals of all time,""N.Y. Lawmakers Fight Trump With a Proposal Targeting Elon Musk," The New York Times, April 2, 2025.
Also in April 2025, he worked to rescue the Metro Theater, a landmark 1933 Art Deco movie theater on Broadway near West 99th Street on the Upper West Side. The movie theater received discretionary grants from New York Governor Kathy Hochul, whom he had lobbied, as well as from the New York State Senate."Upper West Side Theater Is Sold After Governor Allocates $3.5 Million," The New York Times, April 6, 2025.
In June 2025, amid concern President Trump might seek to strip federal laws governing housing discrimination, a New York State bill that he co-sponsored was adopted by New York State lawmakers. The intent of the bill was to pre-empt any such potential rollback by allowing prosecutors to bring housing discrimination cases based on conditions in residences, rather than them being required to prove intent to discriminate. Lasher said: "It would mean that the state law is no longer weaker than the federal law, and clarify any question now or in the future about whether claims brought under state law must meet some higher burden.""N.Y. Lawmakers Target Prison Reform and A.I. in Frantic End of Session,", The New York Times, June 20, 2025.
In November 2025, in the wake of a rowdy and chaotic protest at the entryway of Park East Synagogue, which included chants of "Death to the IDF" and "Globalize the intifada," and an exhortation that "We need to make them scared!," Lasher said: "If you are standing outside a synagogue calling for 'intifada revolution,' you are not peacefully protesting. You are trying to intimidate and create fear among Jews, and that is never acceptable.""Mamdani Response to Protest Inflames Tensions With Jewish Leaders," The New York Times, November 24, 2025.