Dan Donovan becomes newest member of House, replacing Grimm
WASHINGTON— The New York prosecutor involved in the Eric Garner chokehold case was sworn in Tuesday as the House’s newest member, replacing a lawmaker who quit Congress after pleading guilty to tax fraud.
Republican Dan Donovan easily won a special election last week to the vacant seat, which represents Staten Island and a small slice of Brooklyn. He’s the only Republican from heavily Democratic New York City in Congress, representing a district that has many working-class white voters and is one of the city’s more conservative areas.
Donovan thanked family members and other supporters who watched from the visitors’ galleries as he took the oath of office, saying, “I promise to make all of them proud of my representation of them down here as a member of the greatest legislative body in the world.”