At an inaugural ball in Downtown Binghamton, State Sen. Lea Webb ‘04 was ceremonially sworn into office for a second term by New York’s lieutenant governor, Antonio Delgado.

Themed “The People’s Purple Ball,” Webb was in part celebrating her November victory over challenger Mike Sigler, a Tompkins County legislator. She won with 57.5 percent of the 52nd Senate District, which includes Binghamton, Ithaca and Cortland.

She defeated Rich David, a Republican former mayor of Binghamton, with around 51 percent of the vote in 2022, becoming the first Democrat to represent the 52nd District in decades.

“We are in some tough times,” Webb said to the room after the ceremonial swearing-in. “But as stewards of history and as students, we know what must be done. And that is power to the people every day, all day and that requires us to organize, to stay connected, to build community and to fight back — to fight back against injustice in every shape, form and fashion in which it shows up.”

“We know what needs to be done, and I look forward to continuing to do all of that with you here in this room and beyond,” she added.

In her reelection campaign, Webb, the chair of the State Senate’s Committee on Women’s Issues, heavily emphasized her community roots, reproductive freedom and the needs of working families. The celebration was intentionally held on the weekend of the birthday of Webb’s late mother, Gail.

Delgado, who was appointed lieutenant governor in May 2022 following the resignation of a predecessor accused of corruption, was the first person of color to represent upstate New York in Congress. He defeated an incumbent after running a campaign he said was rooted in affordability.

After the November election, which saw a Democratic collapse in major metropolitan areas, including New York City, Delgado wrote an op-ed in The New York Times calling for Democrats to recenter the working class and economic issues.

He wrote in the piece, “Democrats, It’s Time to Say Goodbye to Our Neoliberal Era,” that “Mr. Trump’s success in 2016 and this month underscored the flaw inherent in the Democratic approach of promising to move forward while looking backward.”

“If we have good people who are willing to go through it, it’s up to everybody in this room and to our communities to stand with them every step of the way to lift them up, to support them, to give them the love that they need to stay inspired, to stay grounded in the work,” Delgado said. “That’s what this swearing-in is all about.”

His focus on what it means to be a public servant mirrored remarks from a get-out-the-vote rally held in November that saw words from House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries ‘92, Assemblywoman Donna Lupardo MA ‘84 and Webb.

Elected as the first Black member of the Binghamton City Council in 2007, Webb also served as an educator at BU in the Division of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. She won a competitive 2022 Democratic primary in decisive fashion to begin her return to elected office.

“The values that drive the Democratic Party are the values of lifting up those who are marginalized, whether it’s working families, whether it’s women, people of color, immigrants, children,” Webb told Pipe Dream. “And so in reflecting on this past election, what it signals is that we have a lot of work to do that’s beyond party.”

“It’s really about continuing to center the needs of people and so that’s why with my campaign, but more importantly, the work that I’ve been doing not only as a senator but just as a public servant for the majority of my life is that you have to center those who are often left behind, and that means through policy as an elected official, through practices, through investments and so much more,” she added.

Webb is just one of the many alumni that have made political gains in recent years. Jeffries was elected one of the most powerful figures in American politics in 2022 as House Democrats’ successor to Rep. Nancy Pelosi, the decorated former House speaker.

In November, John Mannion ‘90 unseated an incumbent congressman in a Syracuse-area district, and Yevgeny Vindman ‘97, who goes by Eugene, won the election to represent Virginia’s 7th Congressional District. (His twin brother, Alexander, graduated from BU in 1998 and testified at President Donald Trump’s first impeachment trial.)

The event’s featured guest, Delgado has been at the center of political rumors in New York that he will mount a challenge to his boss, Gov. Kathy Hochul. He denied the claims in an interview with The New York Times but vowed to be an “independent actor.”