Sean Eldridge

Sean Eldridge
Born	Sean Simcha Eldridge (1986-07-31) July 31, 1986 Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Alma mater	Deep Springs College Brown University
Known for	Freedom to Marry
Political party	Democratic
Spouse(s)	Chris Hughes (m. 2012)

Sean Simcha Eldridge (born (1986-07-31)July 31, 1986) is an American investor and politician. He is the president of Hudson River Ventures, an investment fund that focuses on small businesses in New York's Hudson Valley region. He is also an advocate for environmental protection, LGBT equality and campaign finance reform. Eldridge ran as a Democratic candidate for New York's 19th congressional district.

Early life and education

Eldridge was born in Montreal, in the Canadian province of Quebec, and became a U.S. citizen in 2006. Eldridge grew up in the suburbs of Toledo, Ohio, and attended public school in Ottawa Hills, a village in Lucas County that is a bedroom community and suburb of Toledo. Both of his parents are medical doctors; his father, Steve Eldridge, is a radiologist, and his mother, Sarah Taub, is a family physician. His mother was born in Petah Tikva, Israel, to Jewish refugee parents, and his father converted to Judaism. Eldridge held Israeli citizenship.

He studied at Deep Springs College in Deep Springs, California, then graduated with a degree in philosophy from Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, where he helped organize the national Students for Barack Obama campaign in 2007. Eldridge enrolled at Columbia Law School in New York City but withdrew to join Freedom to Marry after the New York State Senate voted against legalizing same-sex marriage in New York in December 2009.

Early career

After the New York Senate failed to legalize same sex marriage in New York State in 2009, Eldridge joined Freedom to Marry, the campaign to win marriage equality nationwide. He served initially as communications director and then as political director, a role in which he helped lead the successful 2011 effort to legalize same-sex marriage in New York. He currently serves as a senior advisor to the group. Eldridge has debated opponents of gay rights on Fox News.com and ABC News Nightline. The New York Observer ranked him as one of NY's Top 50 "most powerful gay figures" of 2011.

Following the legalization of same-sex marriage in New York State, Eldridge founded the investment fund Hudson River Ventures in 2011 to address the growing issue of access to capital for small businesses in the Hudson Valley." The fund has invested in more than a dozen businesses in the region, with a particular focus on food and beverage companies. In 2013, Eldridge founded the Hudson Valley Advanced Manufacturing Center at SUNY New Paltz, which trains students and workers on the use of 3-D printing technology.

Eldridge serves on the board of directors of Scenic Hudson, "the largest environmental group focused on the Hudson Valley" and is a significant supporter of their climate change and waterfront protection programs.

In 2012, he launched Protect Our Democracy PAC and New York Leadership for Accountable Government (NY LEAD), a bipartisan group of business and civic leaders advocating for campaign finance reform in New York State.

He and his husband, Chris Hughes, a co-founder of Facebook, fund advocacy groups and Democratic candidates across the U.S. They attended U.S. President Barack Obama's first state dinner in 2009.

The couple was featured on the cover of The Advocate magazine's "Forty Under 40" issue in May 2011, and they were profiled in the New York Times in May 2012.

Personal life

Eldridge and Hughes announced their engagement in January 2011 at a reception in support of Freedom to Marry. They married on June 30, 2012, and reside in Shokan, New York.

Political career

Eldridge served as a delegate to the 2012 Democratic National Convention for NY-19.

In early 2013, he filed paperwork to run for the U.S. House of Representatives in 2014, challenging incumbent Chris Gibson in New York's 19th congressional district. On November 4, 2014 Eldridge lost that election by 29 points.

Electoral history

US House election, 2014: New York District 19
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Democratic	Sean S. Eldridge	55,839	28.31
	Working Families	Sean S. Eldridge	11,185	5.67
	Total	Sean S. Eldridge	67,024	33.98
	Republican	Chris Gibson	96,545	48.94
	Conservative	Chris Gibson	19,339	9.80
	Independence	Chris Gibson	8,593	4.36
	Total	Chris Gibson (Incumbent)	124,477	63.10
	None	Blank/Void/Write-In	5,763	2.92
Total votes			197,264	100

External links

• Sean Eldridge for Congress official campaign website

• Official Facebook page
• http://www.politico.com/story/2014/04/on-the-ground-sean-eldridge-chris-gibson-new-york-2014-elections-105498.html
• http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2015/06/chris-hughes-sean-eldridge-new-republic-congress-run