About Former Senator Chris Jacobs's

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Senator Chris Jacobs is the New York State Senator representing Western New York in the 60^th Senate District, sworn into office in January 2017.  The district includes parts of the City of Buffalo, the City of Tonawanda, and the towns of Brant, Evans, Grand Island, Hamburg, Orchard Park and Tonawanda. 

In 2011, he was elected Erie County’s ninth County Clerk, and was re-elected to that post in 2014.  During his five years as County Clerk, he led a dramatic transformation of the office, including transforming County Auto Bureaus into modern, efficient and customer-centered operations.

Raised in Buffalo, Chris Jacobs has been a vocal advocate for expanding local business development.  Prior to his election, Chris owned Avalon Development, a real estate development company that focused on redeveloping older vacant buildings in Buffalo’s Theater, Cobblestone and Larkin Districts.  He has received several awards for his historic renovation and adaptive reuse projects.

A long time passionate advocate for providing a high quality education to all children, Chris is a co-founder of the BISON Scholarship Fund.  Over the last 20 years, BISON has raised over $15 million dollars and awarded more than 20,000 scholarships, enabling low and moderate-income families the opportunity to send their children to private grammar schools. 

In 2004, Chris was elected to the Buffalo Board of Education, and was re-elected in 2009. During his time on the Board, Chris focused on stabilizing the District’s finances, and renovating the District’s aging school buildings while improving academic performance.

Chris also worked for several years in Washington with former Congressman Jack Kemp when he was cabinet secretary at the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).  While at HUD, Chris worked on Kemp’s flagship legislation called Project HOPE (Homeownership and Opportunity for People Everywhere), which gave public housing residents homeownership and entrepreneurship opportunities.

Chris has received numerous awards for his service to the community including the Pathfinder Award, The Rising Star Award, the 40-under-40 award and the Buffalo Urban League. He has been listed for several years in Buffalo Business First 200 most influential people in WNY.

Chris received a law degree from SUNY Buffalo, an MBA from American University in Washington, DC, and a BA from Boston College.