Brooklyn Dems celebrate Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn’s 50th birthday

She built Brooklyn’s voting block as strongest county in U.S.

December 15, 2022 Brooklyn Eagle Staff

Left to right: Gov. Kathy Hochul, Brooklyn Democratic Party Chair Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn, and NYS Attorney General Tish James Photos: Brooklyn Democratic Party.

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On Tuesday, the Brooklyn Democratic Party kept the party going. It celebrated Leader and Assemblymember Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn’s 50th birthday with a rousing and politically inspiring celebration featuring prominent political leaders, including Gov. Kathy Hochul, Attorney General Letitia James, Mayor Eric Adams — along with high-profile labor and community leaders.

Celebrating Much More Than a Birthday

In addition to her 50th trip around the sun, Bichotte Hermelyn had much more to celebrate. She recently won two re-elections: as Assemblymember for Brooklyn’s 42nd AD (Flatbush, Midwood and Ditmas Park), and a second historical term as Leader of the Brooklyn Democratic Party, the first woman and black woman leader. She also led groundbreaking state, city and borough-wide Democratic midterm election victories as Party Chair.

And let us not forget, even while attending law school, she recently gave birth to a son named Daniel.

At the 50th birthday party, she delivered an inspiring speech on one of her passions, “driving Democratic unity, nationally and in Brooklyn.”

Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn and Mayor Eric Adams

Bichotte Hermelyn “looked forward to a New Year of all of the Party working together,” noting that the Brooklyn Dem Party is in the national spotlight after being a key Dem voter stronghold that greatly helped the highly contested General Elections (by delivering the most Dem votes of any county in NYS as the largest county Party in the nation).

After helping win key election victories (such as Gov. Hochul’s), “now is the time to seize on that momentum” said the Party Chair, by looking beyond intraparty fighting over differences on the Blue spectrum and focusing on legislative issues that unite all Democrats; and “allowing the Party to further uplift the people through affordable housing, economic equality and much more.”

Underlining the reference to Democratic unity, the birthday party attracted numerous District Leaders from all corners of Brooklyn.

Fighting for Brooklynites’ Health

With the Legislative Session set to begin again in Albany, Assemblymember Bichotte Hermelyn also spoke on combating the maternal mortality crisis plaguing her district. Through legislation she recently introduced, including Mickie’s Law, her goal is “to ensure women get the treatment they need after a fetal death.”

This issue is personal to Bichotte Hermelyn, who mentioned her late son Jonah was one of roughly 20,000 infants who died six years ago (Bichotte Hermelyn was denied treatment due to what she termed was “negligent healthcare”). The issue is “massively disproportionately affecting Black women,” who are two to four times more likely to die during or after childbirth than white women in the U.S., and 12x more likely to die in NYC. With the Governor in attendance, the Assemblymember vowed to end this tragic disparity.

Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn before delivering a speech, alongside Brooklyn Democratic Party Exec. Director Yamil Speight-Miller

Putting the ‘Party’ in Democratic Party

Capping off the night was a cake from the famous Trinidadian, Brooklyn-based Allan’s Bakery (Bichotte Hermelyn also has Caribbean roots as a daughter of Haitian immigrants and advocate of Little Haiti in her District). Party Exec. Director Yamil Speight-Miller jokingly apologized for stopping all Manhattan traffic to drive the delightful cake over in one piece.

“No matter if I’m County Chair, Assemblymember, or whatever, I have always been for the people, and will keep fighting for the people,” Bichotte Hermelyn concluded before starting a rendition of Stevie Wonder’s “Happy Birthday.”