Erik Bottcher: Quotes and Statements

Bottcher has spoken extensively about his adolescent mental health crisis as a motivating force behind his public service career. In a 2026 interview with City and State New York, he described being hospitalized at age 15 after a series of suicide attempts and credited the experience with sparking his political awakening, noting that the treatment he received is unavailable to the vast majority of Americans and that his parents were fortunate to have insurance that covered the care . He has emphasized that mental health care functions as preventive medicine, arguing that early detection and treatment are essential and that the cost of underinvestment manifests in people being funneled into jails and emergency rooms . In discussing the federal rollback of the LGBTQ-specific pathway within the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, he characterized the Trump administration's action as effectively communicating to queer youth that their survival is not a priority .

Following the December 2022 vandalism of his apartment building and district office by anti-Drag Story Hour protesters, Bottcher described the incidents as unmasked hatred and stated that the attacks would not intimidate him or his staff, asserting that their resolve was strengthened . He has consistently framed Drag Story Hour events as family-friendly programs that promote inclusivity and freedom of expression, and has characterized the opposition as part of a broader campaign of homophobic and transphobic extremism . In a 2025 interview with The Advocate, he reflected on growing up as the only gay person he knew in a small Adirondack town and stated that whatever he does, he wants it to matter .

When announcing his decision to drop his congressional bid and run for the state Senate in December 2025, Bottcher stated that the decision was rooted in where he believed he could do the most good immediately, identifying the Senate as the venue where critical decisions are made on housing affordability, mental health, environmental protection, and defending New York against what he termed the Trump agenda . After winning the special election with 92 percent of the vote, he expressed gratitude for the trust voters placed in him and stated that he was ready to get to work for the shared community . In his first hours in Albany, he described the experience as surreal, recalling that as a child from Lake Placid he had been awestruck by Albany and never imagined he would serve there as a senator .

Bottcher has articulated his gun safety legislation in public health terms. When introducing the graphic warning bill at the City Council in September 2024, he expressed hope that one day every gun store in the United States would carry written warning language, and that the effort could be traced back to that day in New York City ⁷. At the state-level press conference in March 2026, he stated that if even one person reconsiders a purchase because of seeing a graphic image, the law would be worth enacting .

Bottcher has described sanitation as a quality-of-life issue with direct connections to public safety and community well-being. When launching the Poop Fairy campaign in 2022, he called attention to the volume of constituent complaints about dog waste on sidewalks and stated that people need to be responsible for cleaning up after their animals . Regarding sidewalk scaffolding reform, he characterized the city's hundreds of miles of sheds as having a deleterious effect on communities and expressed pride in legislation that would begin bringing them down .

In a March 2026 interview, Bottcher stated that standing up to ICE and what he called a campaign of persecution against immigrant families was a pressing issue before the state Senate . He advocated for extending New York City's protections against local cooperation with federal immigration enforcement to the state level, arguing that the framework has worked well in the city without compromising public safety and has allowed undocumented residents to feel safe reporting crimes and seeking essential services .