Christopher Marte

Marte was born and raised on the Lower East Side of Manhattan.^[5] His father owned a bodega and his mother worked in a factory. Marte's parents immigrated from the Dominican Republic.^[6] He attended St. Agnes Boys High School and earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in international economics and politics from LIU Global.^[7]

After graduating from college, Marte worked in finance for IBM.^[8] Marte continued his work in finance, serving on the Young Professionals Board of Defy Ventures. Here, he assisted formerly incarcerated people with entrepreneurship. Later, Marte worked as a legal researcher at an immigration law firm.^[9] He then joined Arena, a Democratic-affiliated political action committee that trains candidates and campaign staffers. He later co-founded Neighbors United Below Canal, a non-profit organization.^[10]

Marte ran for City Council in 2017, losing narrowly to incumbent Margaret Chin. He ran again in the 2021 Council elections, which were the first New York City elections to use ranked-choice voting. In the Democratic primary, Marte won 34.9% of the votes in the first round of voting and 60.5% of the votes in the final round.^[11] Marte won 72.1% of the vote in the general election.

In 2023, Marte voted against a proposal to allow outdoor dining structures created during the COVID-19 pandemic to become permanent.^[12]

In 2025, Marte's campaign website allegedly falsely claimed that he was endorsed by groups that had not officially endorsed his campaign.^[13] The same year, Marte was criticized after video footage allegedly depicted Marte removing an opponent’s flyer from in front of an apartment.^[14] Later that same year, Marte won the Democratic primary election, and the general election during the 2025 New York City Council election.^[15][16]

In August of 2026, Marte was accused of instructing a government staffer in his office to fundraise for his campaign and an affiliated Independent Expenditure (IE) group, in violation of ethics and campaign finance laws ^[17]. The complainant also alleged that Marte's office attempted to terminate her upon her initial objection to being directed to fundraise for his campaign and the related IE, but relented after the Association of Legislative Employees stepped in on behalf of the staffer.

Politico reported in August 2026 that Marte allegedly instructed a government staffer named Meng Qin Zou for the New York City Council and his personal council office to engage in fundraising activities during her non-employment hours for his campaign and the political organization No More 24. Zuo accused the Marte campaign of trying to fire her in June 2026.^[26] In March 2026, Steven Wong was fired from Marte's team for verbally harassing a female Chinese journalist.^{[26][relevant?]}