Lincoln Restler

Lincoln P. Restler is an American politician and civil servant from New York City, who is a member of the New York City Council for the 33rd district which covers Greenpoint, parts of Vinegar Hill, Williamsburg, Boerum Hill, Brooklyn Heights, Dumbo, and other Downtown neighborhoods in northern Brooklyn. Restler co-founded reform political club, New Kings Democrats, and was a New York State Democratic District Leader. He held several positions in municipal government before running for City Council.

Early life and education

Restler grew up in Brooklyn Heights on Pierrepont Street with an older sister. Restler is Jewish and attended the Reform Brooklyn Heights Synagogue in his youth.
His father, Peter Restler, founded the private equity firm CAI Funds.
He attended the Packer Collegiate Institute and graduated from Brown University with a bachelor in Africana Studies and Latin American Studies in 2006. He was schoolmates with future political adversary and eventual Council predecessor, Stephen Levin.

Restler became involved in politics while in undergrad with the Providence, Rhode Island City Council re-election campaign of David Segal, and in the 2008 presidential primary supporting Barack Obama.
He worked for the City of New York as an employee at the Department of Small Business Services and Department of Consumer Protection. Restler co-founded reform club New Kings Democrats in 2008, and worked in the Bill de Blasio administration. He worked on the de Blasio campaign and as senior policy advisor to the mayor.
In 2020, Restler resigned from the de Blasio administration and joined the St. Nicks Alliance.

Restler was elected District Leader in the 50th Assembly District in 2010 when he was 26. He was supported by U.S. Representative Nydia Velasquez and then-City Councilmember Tish James. Restler lost the seat in 2012 to Chris Olechowski by 19 votes.
In 2021, Restler ran for the New York City Council 33rd district and defeated seven other candidates to win the Democratic nomination, and ran in the November general unopposed. He received endorsements from State Senators Julia Salazar and Jabari Brisport, the Working Families Party, Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, and Velasquez. In the 7th round of ranked choice voting, he prevailed over closest candidate Elizabeth Adams 63.9%-36.1%.

Location	Year	Election	Results
NYC Council District 33	2021	Democratic Primary	√ Lincoln Restler 50.3%% Elizabeth Adams 21.7% Victoria Cambranes 7.3% Sabrina Gates 5.7% Toba Potosky 5.6% April Somboun 5.2% Stu Sherman 4.1% Ben Solotaire 2.1%