Meet Michele

Michele grew up in her family’s flower and greenhouse business in Oneonta - one of the largest geranium growers in the state. A former Oneonta City Council member, Michele now lives in Delhi where she is an Assistant Professor of Criminal Justice at SUNY Delhi. She lives with her spouse and three sons, two of whom are neurodivergent. Michele is also a Real Estate Agent for a locally owned real estate company. It was in this family business surrounded by acres of flowers, where Michele learned from an early age that everyone deserves to grow in their gardens and flourish. Today, as a boomerang New Yorker, that means Michele is ready to fight for rural New Yorkers when it comes to planting their roots, growing their families and tending to their communities.

As someone born and raised in Oneonta, I was honored to be elected to the Oneonta City Council. I worked with my colleagues to improve our city, advocating for summer childhood programming to help working families, building a community dog park to bring people together, improving energy efficiency for the city to save taxpayer money, making our parks family-friendly smoke free zones, and more. I was hooked on being a public servant and solving complex problems to improve the lives of my neighbors. But when the pandemic hit, my family needed me - particularly my oldest son who has autism. 

While focusing on the needs of my family, I stayed involved. As a realtor, I experience the housing crisis first-hand on a daily basis. Every day, I talk to people who want to live here, make a life, plant roots but aren’t able to find the housing they need or can afford. I talk to people who want to live in our rural communities but without reliable, affordable internet and cell service, the remote work world is beyond reach. And for folks who are looking for local jobs, the lack of public transportation makes it a challenge. To grow the future of the 51st district and make sure everyone has the opportunities my family had to succeed here, we need to address these issues.

I am also a parent of a child who doesn’t always fit, I know first-hand that it takes community to raise the next generation and create opportunities for them to thrive. But I also know that navigating the system for services for children with disabilities is daunting, and far too complex to meet the needs of kids and their families. And it’s the same for families with aging parents in need of services. Families deserve support to provide dignity and a hopeful future for their kids and their parents because when families get the support and services they need, everyone benefits.

As a former crisis intervention worker and professor of criminal justice, I understand that diversifying our response to crisis changes lives and makes our communities safer. When we respond to crises with the appropriate professional - from mental health to elder care specialists - we free up our law enforcement professionals to focus on community safety.

Now, I want to take this experience and bring positive change to the communities of the 51st District. Together, we can make rural New York a place where everyone looking to plant roots, grow their families and flourish in their communities can thrive.

Michele Frazier

Growing the 51st through …

Planting Roots

  • Increase the stock of housing in NYS through innovative solutions with sustainable building practices that save on heating costs, and provide more affordable housing options so people can afford to live, raise a family and retire here.

    Address short-term rentals, low stock and unhoused population through affordable housing initiatives that make our communities safer and healthier.

  • Make WiFi a public utility for all so that people can work remotely, start and run businesses, and kids can do their homework at home.

  • Increase transportation in our rural communities so folks can get to work, get to school, and get their goods to market.

Tending Families

  • Increase access to child care options in NYS so that parents who want or need to work can work while knowing their kids are in safe, nurturing environments.

  • Make it easier for parents of children with disabilities to get the support they need so children can thrives and families are not thrown into crisis.

Harvesting Talents

  • Revise our centralized 911 system to include professionals in mental health, domestic violence, suicide and drug overdoses to relieve law enforcement, freeing them to focus on public safety and reducing wait times for emergency services.

New York’s 51st State Senate District

All of Otsego, Delaware, Schoharie and Sullivan Counties. Portions of Chenango, Broome, and Ulster Counties.