Anthony David Weiner (; born September 4, 1964) is an American former politician who served as the U.S. representative for from 1999 until his resignation in 2011. A member of the Democratic Party, he consistently carried the district with at least 60% of the vote. Weiner resigned from Congress in June 2011 after it was revealed he sent sexually suggestive photos of himself to different women.
A two-time candidate for Mayor of New York City, Weiner finished second in the Democratic primary in 2005. He ran again in 2013, placing fifth in the Democratic primary.
In 2017, Weiner pled guilty to transferring obscene material to a minor and was sentenced to 21 months in prison. He was also required to permanently register as a sex offender. Weiner began serving his federal prison sentence the same year and was released in 2019.
Early life and education
Weiner was born in Brooklyn in New York City, the middle son of Jewish parents, Mort Weiner, a lawyer, and his wife, Frances (née Finkelstein), a public high school math teacher. The family lived for a time in the Park Slope neighborhood of Brooklyn. Weiner attended elementary school at P.S. 39 The Henry Bristow School. His older brother Seth was 39 years old when he was killed by a hit-and-run driver in 2000. His younger brother, Jason, is a chef and co-owner of several New York restaurants.
Weiner took the Specialized High Schools Admissions Test, an examination used to determine admission to all but one of New York City's specialized high schools, and was admitted to Brooklyn Technical High School, from which he graduated in 1981. He attended the State University of New York at Plattsburgh, and spent his junior year as an exchange student at the College of William & Mary, where he was friends with future comic and political commentator Jon Stewart. Stewart acknowledged the friendship when he poked fun at him during the sexting scandal in 2011. Weiner's interests turned towards politics; he became active in student government and was named most effective student senator.
After he received his Bachelor of Arts degree in political science in 1985, Weiner joined the staff of then–United States Representative and current Senator Charles Schumer. He worked in Schumer's Washington, D.C. office for three years, then transferred to the district office in Brooklyn in 1988, when Schumer encouraged him to become involved in local politics.
New York City Council
After working for Schumer for six years, Weiner got his first chance at political office in 1991 when the New York City Council was expanded from 35 to 51 seats. Weiner was considered a long-shot because he faced strong competition in the Democratic primary elections from two other candidates who had better local name recognition and funding. Weiner narrowly won the primary, besting Adele Cohen by fewer than 200 votes. Controversy ensued in the last weeks of the campaign after Weiner's campaign anonymously spread leaflets around the district that had alleged ties between Cohen and the so-called "Jackson-Dinkins agenda"; the leaflets referred to the Crown Heights riots earlier in the year, after which white residents had seen Jesse Jackson, who became notorious for his earlier remarks about New York City as "Hymietown", and then-mayor David Dinkins as having been beholden to the predominantly African-American rioters and therefore endangering whites.
Weiner's win in the November general election was widely considered a formality because he had no opposition in the heavily Democratic district. He was 27 years old when he became the youngest councilman in the city's history. Over the next seven years on the City Council, Weiner initiated programs to address quality of life concerns. He also started a program to put at-risk and troubled teens to work cleaning up graffiti, and he backed development plans that helped revive the historic Sheepshead Bay area.
U.S. House of Representatives
Elections
In 1998, Weiner ran for Congress from New York's 9th congressional district, which was the seat held by his mentor, Chuck Schumer, who had run successfully for the U.S. Senate. Weiner won the Democratic primary election, which was tantamount to election in the heavily Democratic district that included parts of southern Brooklyn and south and central Queens.