Current Elected Officials
Inna Vernikov
NYC Council Member, District 48; Council Minority Whip
Inna Vernikov is the New York City Council Member for District 48 in southern Brooklyn and the Minority Whip of the Council — the first Republican to represent a Brooklyn district on the Council since 2002.
Born August 30, 1984, in Chernivtsi, Ukraine (then part of the USSR), to a Jewish family, Vernikov immigrated to the United States at age 12. She attended Baruch College (BA) and Florida Coastal School of Law (JD), and worked as an immigration and divorce attorney and as an aide to Assemblyman Dov Hikind.
A registered Democrat until 2020, she switched parties citing rising antisemitism and “socialism,” and in 2021 became the first Republican to represent a Brooklyn district on the City Council since 2002. She was re-elected in 2023 with 66.7%, and in 2025 she won her Republican primary 65–34 before winning the general election unopposed by a Democrat, with 97.6%.
A high-profile and combative figure, she pulled CUNY Law funding over BDS and was named Council Minority Whip in January 2026.
Sources
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