Joshua "Josh" Lafazan is an American politician who is the legislator for the 18th District of the Nassau County Legislature. He is the second youngest public servant to be elected in New York State. Lafazan was placed on the Long Island Press Power List of the 50 most influential people on Long Island in 2012. His book, titled Political Gladiators: How Millennials Can Navigate the 21st Century Political Minefield and WIN!, was published in November 2015, and tells experiences of other politicians who were elected at a young age. Lafazan has been featured as a speaker in TedX conferences. He is currently a professor at Long Island University, instructing a course focusing on how to run for public office as a young candidate.
Education and political career
Josh Lafazan graduated from Syosset High School in June 2012. He attended Nassau Community College, and received the State University of New York Chancellor's Award for Student Excellence. He was named a recipient of the New York State School Boards AssociationLifetime Achievement Award in 2016. Lafazan attended Cornell University for his Bachelor of Science degree and Harvard University for his Master of Education degree. During the latter part of his senior year of high school, Lafazan had been campaigning for a trustee position on the Syosset Board of Education, which he won in May of that year with 82 percent of the vote. He was re-elected to the board in 2015 for another three-year term. On April 26, 2013, Josh was elected to the Long Island Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence, in which they credited him for founding Saferide Syosset, an outreach program to help guide teenagers on how to get home when impaired. On June 8, 2017, Lafazan announced he was running for County Legislator of the 18th District. He won on November 7, 2017, with 56 percent of the vote, against incumbent Republican Donald MacKenzie. Lafazan resigned from his position on the school board on December 31, 2017, based on a clause in the Nassau County Charter that provides a possible conflict with holding both positions. Lafazan has authored and passed multiple notable pieces of legislation in his tenure as a legislator. "Timothy's Law" was passed in August 2018, which established a 24-hour hotline for substance abuse intervention. Related legislation mandated the creation of a smartphone application containing resources for substance abuse, such as treatment center locations. The "Dignity For Our Heroes" package, signed into law in April 2019, marked veterans as a protected status under the County's Human Rights Law, in addition to creating the Nassau Commission on Ending Veteran Homelessness, which guides projects meant to reduce the number of veterans who are housing insecure in the region. Lafazan was re-elected for his second term in 2019 with over 70 percent of the vote against Republican challenger Timothy Jenks.
