Mondaire is an attorney, nonprofit leader, and activist running to represent New York in Congress. 

Mondaire Jones was raised by a young single mother and later by his grandparents. As a teenager, Jones revived the Spring Valley NAACP Youth Council and led that organization in registering and mobilizing voters. When he was 19, Jones was elected chair of a committee on the NAACP’s National Board of Directors. Hewent on to graduate from Stanford University where he was also noted for organizing the student body to call for the resignation of the Stanford School Police Chief for endorsing racial profiling. Jones later graduated from Harvard Law School and went on to work in the Obama Administration in the Office of Legal Policy at the Department of Justice, focusing on judicial nominations for the White House, including that of future Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan. At the DOJ, Jones also co-authored a report to Attorney General Eric Holder on reducing the recidivism of people leaving federal prisons and helping them rejoin society. Following his graduation from Harvard, he worked at a law firm and was honored by the Legal Aid Society for his hundreds of hours of pro bono legal work. Most recently, Jones was an attorney in Westchester County’s Law Department. There, he litigated Westchester County’s biggest cases and served as a legal advisor to the County Executive, the Board of Legislators, and the Human Rights Commission. His role included drafting and advising on legislation. Mondaire is the co-founder of the non-profit Rising Leaders, Inc., which teaches leadership skills to underserved middle-school students in three cities.