Lea Webb was born and raised in Binghamton and is a lifelong resident of the Southern Tier. Webb is a proud graduate of public schools and a first generation graduate of SUNY Broome and Binghamton University. Before joining the Senate, she worked as an educator at Binghamton University, where she developed diversity and inclusion training and programs for faculty, staff, and students to advance its goals of fostering diversity and inclusivity.

In 2007, Lea Webb was elected to Binghamton’s City Council, the first Black person to serve on the council. Webb served her community for 8 years, working to strengthen her community, from removing blighted properties and supporting their redevelopment into homes for her community to addressing food insecurity by establishing community gardens. She has passed legislation supporting equal pay for women, creating a city-based human rights commission, establishing a city-wide climate action plan, and supporting small business development and job creation.

In 2022, Senator Lea Webb was elected to represent the newly drawn 52nd Senate District, which includes all of Cortland and Tompkins Counties, and part of Broome County. She was sworn into office in January of 2024 as part of a historic class of incoming Democratic senators made up entirely of women for the first time in the 245-year history of the New York Senate.

Senator Webb passed 35 bills through both houses during her first term, over 25 of which have already been signed into law. She serves as chair of the Senate Committee on Women’s Issues, where she works tirelessly to pass legislation addressing a wide range of issues impacting women, including menstrual product accessibility, improved maternity health services, reinforced reproductive rights, enhanced protection against fibroids and ovarian cancer, and stringent measures to prevent human trafficking.

Senator Webb has secured record funding for the district, including $200,000 for youth education programming across the district, $300,000 to support EMS in Tompkins County, $125,000 for the Ross Park Zoo in Binghamton, $250,000 for the Lime Hollow Nature Center in Cortland County, and more.

During her first term, Webb voted to advance a Constitutional Amendment to always protect a woman’s right to choose, passed groundbreaking legislation to protect our access to clean water and air, and expanded school lunch in public schools and free universal pre-k. She also passed legislation through the budget to increase the TAP award to help more students afford college. In addition to all these important pieces of legislation, she tackled many local issues, including passing legislation to ban CO2 fracking and saving Roosevelt Elementary and the Ithaca Carshare.

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As a life-long community organizer, Senator Webb believes deeply in expanding opportunities for civic engagement. She is a national trainer with Vote Run Lead, training thousands of women across the country on how to run for elected office. She is a Co-Chair/Co-Founder of the Black Millennial Political Convention and a Founding Board Member of Local Progress. Lea was honored with the President’s Award by the Broome-Tioga Branch of the NAACP for her significant contributions to her community.