Gregory Meeks

Gregory Weldon Meeks (born September 25, 1953) is an American lawyer and politician who has been a U.S. representative from New York since 1998, and since 2013, has represented the state's 5th congressional district. He is a member of the Democratic Party and chaired the House Committee on Foreign Affairs from 2021 to 2023. He still sits on the committee as ranking member. He is also the chair of the Queens County Democratic Party. He will become the dean of New York’s House delegation upon the retirements of Jerry Nadler and Nydia Velázquez in 2026. In the last Congress, Meeks's district included most of southeastern Queens, including Jamaica, Laurelton, Rosedale, Cambria Heights, Saint Albans, Springfield Gardens, The Rockaways, and the John F. Kennedy International Airport. It was made up largely of economically diverse African-American and West Indian American communities, but also included a small part of Ozone Park and part of Howard Beach known as Old Howard Beach, both of which are predominantly middle-class Italian-American communities. He also represented much of Kew Gardens and northern Richmond Hill, as well as the largely Irish American western part of Rockaway Peninsula.