31st Legislative District

Sandra Bolden Cunningham was sworn to the Senate seat to fill a vacancy on Nov. 8, 2007. Two days prior to joining the Senate, she was elected to a full term that began in January, 2008. She was re-elected in 2011, 2013, 2017 and 2021.

Bills sponsored by the senator signed into law banned criminal background questions from job application forms and made it easier for certain offenders to have their records expunged.

Senator Cunningham was born in Newark, where she attended public schools. She is a graduate of Bloomfield College and New York University School of Continuing Education’s Finance, Law and Taxation Program. She was founder and executive director of the Sandra and Glenn D. Cunningham Foundation, an agency that provided approximately $250,000 in educational support to more than 200 students entering college prior to closing its doors in 2017.

The senator is a former executive director of the Hudson County Bar Association. As a deputy director of the the Metropolitan Ecumenical Ministry she started programs to expand the role of the church in the community.