A lifelong resident of Elizabeth, Senator Lesniak graduated Thomas Jefferson High School in 1964 and served in the US Army from 1967 to 1969. He graduated from Rutgers University, class of 1971, and with honors from St. John’s Law School in 1974. He served in the State Assembly from 1978 to 1983 and in the State Senate from 1983 to January 2018. During his legislative tenure, Senator Lesniak sponsored the most significant environmental protection laws in the nation, abolished New Jersey’s death penalty and repealed mandatory minimum sentences and expanded eligibility for treatment in place of incarceration for drug offenders, was an animal welfare champion and advocated for marriage equality. Leaving the State Senate after forty years in the Legislature in January, 2018, Senator Lesniak is the Founder and President of the Lesniak Institute For American Leadership at Kean University. In October Senator Raymond J Lesniak teamed up with Toys For Hospitalized Children, Karolina Dehnhard, Kelly Waters, and Carmen and Noel Musial to provide ipads, winter coats hats, and gloves, toys, and candy for 700 Ukrainian refugee children from Odessa, Ukraine who are now housed in Ossa, Poland for an indefinite amount of time.
