ALBANY – Saritha Komatireddy, the Republican candidate aiming to challenge state Attorney General Letitia James, believes she has a clear path to victory. She argues that New Yorkers have grown weary of the perceived “lawlessness” under James’s leadership.
A self-described political outsider, Komatireddy was driven into public service following the 9/11 terrorist attacks. With a robust background as a federal prosecutor, she has tackled cases against Al Qaeda and ISIS, and has built an impressive legal career, including notable work with the Drug Enforcement Administration.
Residing in Manhattan, Komatireddy is a mother of four and was recently selected as the GOP nominee. She criticizes what she describes as “woke” and lenient crime policies that, in her view, are making life increasingly difficult in New York.
“These issues impact innocent people and everyday New Yorkers,” Komatireddy, 41, explained. “I believe people across the political spectrum are just fed up with the lawlessness.”
Komatireddy is a native New Yorker whose immigrant parents settled in Coney Island after moving from India in the 1980s. The 9/11 attacks inspired her pursuit of a career in law enforcement. She holds a law degree from Harvard Law School and has the distinction of clerking for Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh during his tenure on the Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit.
After the 9/11 attacks, she was motivated to pursue a career in law enforcement. She earned a law degree from Harvard Law and clerked for Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh when he sat on the Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit.
She went on to prosecute cases against terrorists and narcotics traffickers in the Eastern District of New York. In 2020, President Trump nominated her for a federal judgeship in the district, though it never moved forward prior to the end of his first term.
She’s now a partner at Holzman Vogel.
The prosecutor said she wants to make her campaign about her vision where the AG’s office gets tough — cracking down on drug crimes, antisemitism and rampant disregard for laws in public places like New York City homeless shelters.
She also pointed to a need for more oversight of Democrats’ stranglehold on state government itself – pointing to an urgency to root out fraud in Medicaid and other non-profit-fueled social services.
“We have to make sure that the people taking taxpayer money to provide services are actually providing those services,” she argued.
“When we audit and investigate every homeless shelter in the state, we will be able to see who’s doing a good job, who’s doing a bad job, who is creating a safe space and who is not,” Komatireddy said.
She said she would tackle grift that is being fueled by one-party rule and lack of accountability.
“Everyone in an official position is friends with everyone else, and no one’s really a check,” Komatireddy said – adding that she would not “target people for their politics.”
That’s exactly what she accuses James of doing in her indictment and conviction of Trump on local charges in the four years he was out of office, before he won a second term in 2024 reelection.
Komatireddy said James was wrong to have campaigned on the premise of pursuing the prosecution of a political opponent.
“That was wrong. Real prosecutors, they don’t target people. They target crimes,” she said.
She wouldn’t say the Trump administrator took that same approach when they tried to prosecute James for mortgage fraud for claiming a second home in Virginia was a primary residence in documents.
“I’m going to trust the attorneys at the Department of Justice to do the right thing in that case,” she said noting that she hadn’t “looked at the file” in James’ case.
But Komatireddy said she also wouldn’t take a predetermined or “knee-jerk” approach to dealing with the federal government under Trump if she ultimately unseated James.
“I would rule out making decisions based on politics. I’m not going to have a knee-jerk partisan reaction to anything,” she said.
James, 67, has played a central role in dozens of lawsuits against Trump in just the first year of his second term. This includes several meant to force the federal government to unfreeze funding for huge federal projects like the Gateway Tunnel and Second Avenue Subway.
The political newcomer faces an uphill battle against James, a darling of the progressive left who took office as AG in 2019 after the resignation of Eric Schneiderman. No Republican has served as AG since Dennis Vacco left office in 1998.
No Republican has won statewide in New York since former Gov. George Pataki won a third term in 2002.
Democrats now represent 48% of registered voters in the state while Republicans represent 22%. Some 25% of registered voters are unaffiliated, according to the latest Board of Elections figures.
Komatireddy said she’s confident having a message of safety and community should resonate enough to get her enough attention ahead of November.
The gravity for Komatireddy getting the party nod shifted dramatically early this year after 2022 GOP attorney general candidate Michael Henry dropped his comeback bid.
Komatireddy ultimately beat out Khurram Dara, a lawyer from the cryptocurrency sector, for the GOP nomination and Republicans’ convention on Long Island last month.
