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Meet Ben Yee

Ben Yee is a lifelong New Yorker, political reformer, and candidate for State Assembly in Lower Manhattan. Ben is a product of New York’s public schools, attending P.S. 234, East Side Middle, and Bronx Science High School.

His commitment to protecting democracy is deeply personal: he is the son of a first-generation Chinese-American father and a Jewish immigrant mother whose family survived the Holocaust and moved to the US as refugees after WWII.

Modernizing Government

Ben has spent his career at the intersection of politics, government, and technology, working to make systems work better for people. He got his start as the New York State Digital Director for the 2008 Obama Campaign. Afterward, he moved to the New York State Senate where he helped pull our state government into the digital era.

Since then, Ben has worked with both local & national nonprofits and startups to help strengthen our democracy. Recently, he's focused on the education crisis by joining an EdTech startup during the Pandemic. Ben helped to build virtual classrooms and AI tools that help to close the post-COVID learning gap.


A Record of Reform

For over a decade, Ben has led efforts to open New York’s Democratic Party to anyone interested in getting involved in our democracy. As Secretary of the Manhattan Democratic Party, he pushed it to become the most transparent County Party in the State of New York.

Elected in 2016 to represent Lower Manhattan on the New York State Democratic Committee, Ben has become a key leader in the party’s Reform Coalition. He has built strong alliances with Committee Members and County Chairs statewide and is known for helping guide new members through the party process and parliamentary procedure.

As one of the State Committee’s most active and effective members, Ben has helped to pass more reforms than any other member in over a decade. His wins include: requiring the public disclosure of Committee Member attendance, ensuring all adopted proposals are published on the Democratic Party’s website, pushing the Party to call for an end to the cooperation between law enforcement and ICE, and winning support for age-appropriate consent education in every public school.

Empowering Our Community

A grassroots organizer at heart, Ben's philosophy is that leadership means empowering others. In response to the first Trump Administration, he co-founded You Matter Nation, an organization dedicated to providing free political training and civic education. Between 2017 and 2025, Ben has personally led workshops for over 8,000 New Yorkers across all five boroughs, hundreds of whom have used those lessons to become organizers, leaders, and elected representatives in their own communities. He’s also partnered with organizations like WNYC to create content like the People’s Guide to Power.

Now, Ben is taking his experiences in government, policy, and empowering others to the State Assembly for a vision of how government should support the communities of New York.


"Real change doesn't come from the top down—it comes from our neighbors and the organizers standing right beside you."

-Ben Yee

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