Joseph D. Morelle Bio
Joseph D. Morelle is an American politician who has served as the U.S. Representative for New York’s 25th congressional district since 2018. A member of the Democratic Party, he represents a district that includes eastern portions of the City of Rochester and surrounding Monroe County suburbs. Morelle was first elected to Congress after the death of longtime Representative Louise Slaughter, and he has continued to win reelection in each cycle since. Before his time in Washington, he built a long career in New York state and local government, earning a reputation as a detailed legislator and party leader.
Born and raised in upstate New York, Morelle came from a working-class family with deep union roots. He earned a college degree later in life while working, then transitioned from private-sector sales into public service. Over more than three decades in elected office, he has focused on workers’ compensation, veterans’ affairs, elder care, and economic development in the Rochester region.
Joseph D. Morelle Career
Early Career (1983–1990)
Morelle made his first run for elective office at age 24, when he sought a seat in the Monroe County Legislature. He failed to unseat the incumbent on his first attempt, but he prevailed in the 1983 election and went on to win reelection once more. During this period he worked as a sales manager for a drycleaning and laundry business, while also gaining political experience as a constituent services representative and legislative aide for State Senator John D. Perry in Rochester and Albany.
Path to US Politics
In 1990, Morelle was first elected to the New York State Assembly, representing the 136th Assembly district in the Rochester suburbs. He quickly became a prolific legislator, eventually authoring more than 200 state laws. His reforms included major changes to the workers’ compensation system, requirements for carbon monoxide detectors in one- and two-family homes, tighter rules for charitable organizations, stronger protections for elderly residents in nursing homes and home-based care, and an increase in the senior citizens’ real property tax exemption. He also sponsored legislation exempting veterans from certain licensing fees, protecting veterans’ grave sites, and helping them with the civil service application process.
State Assembly Leadership (2001–2018)
In January 2001, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver appointed Morelle as chair of the Assembly Standing Committee on Tourism, Arts, and Sports Development, where he worked to promote Rochester as a regional hub for culture and tourism. He also held seats on committees covering Economic Development, Job Creation, Commerce and Industry, Higher Education, Local Governments, and Libraries and Education Technology. At his request, the Speaker created a Subcommittee on Manufacturing to give New York’s manufacturing sector a stronger voice in state government.
In 2005, Morelle was elected chair of the Monroe County Democratic Committee, a position he held until 2014. That same year he issued a report titled Creating a State of Innovation: Unleashing The Power of New York’s Entrepreneurial Economy, which examined New York’s economic decline, particularly upstate, and proposed policy recommendations to reverse the trend. In January 2013, Speaker Silver elevated him to Majority Leader of the New York State Assembly, and he served as acting speaker in Silver’s absence.
US House of Representatives (2018–Present)
Following the death of Representative Louise Slaughter, Morelle announced his candidacy for New York’s 25th congressional district. He won the Democratic nomination on June 26, 2018, and on November 6, 2018, he won both a special election to finish Slaughter’s 16th term and a regular election for a full two-year term, defeating Republican Jim Maxwell in both races. He was sworn in on November 13, 2018.
Morelle has continued to win reelection comfortably. In 2020, he defeated Republican George Mitris after winning a contested Democratic primary. In 2022, he ran unopposed in the Democratic primary and defeated Republican La’Ron Singletary in the general election, capturing 53.8 percent of the vote. In 2024, he won a fourth term by defeating Republican Gregg Sadwick with 60.8 percent of the vote to Sadwick’s 39.2 percent. According to a FiveThirtyEight analysis, Morelle voted with President Joe Biden’s stated position 100 percent of the time in the 117th Congress.
Notable Events and Milestones
On July 7, 2024, it was reported that Morelle was among House Democrats who expressed interest in encouraging President Biden to end his bid for reelection during a leadership call held by U.S. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries. Earlier in his career, in 1990, an acting state Supreme Court justice ruled that Morelle had fraudulently obtained signatures on his nominating petitions. In 1991 he was charged with seven misdemeanor counts of violating state election law. He denied intentionally breaking the law but accepted a plea bargain in which he was found guilty of two counts of disorderly conduct, receiving a sentence of 32 hours of community service and a $25 fine.
Joseph D. Morelle Family
Family Background and Personal Life
Joseph D. Morelle was born on April 29, 1957, in Utica, New York, and is of Italian American heritage. He was raised by his parents, Gilbert and Juliette Morelle. His father, Gil, was a Korean War veteran who worked as a heating and cooling technician and was a lifelong member of the Plumbers and Pipefitters Union. Morelle grew up Catholic on Vayo Street in Irondequoit alongside his three siblings and attended Eastridge High School. He went on to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science from the State University of New York at Geneseo in 1986.
Morelle has been married to Mary Beth Bauer since 1984, and the couple lives in Irondequoit, New York. They have three children together. Before entering politics full time, Morelle worked as a sales manager for a drycleaning and laundry business, an experience that informed his later focus on workers’ rights and labor issues in the State Assembly.