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Peoples-Stokes, who has served in the Assembly since January 2003 and served as majority leader since 2018, will discuss her future at a news conference Wednesday afternoon at 120 Broadway at the corner of Elm Street, the location of a former Dunn Tire store.

The news of Peoples-Stokes' plans not to seek re-election was first reported by Politico.

Peoples-Stokes, 74, a Buffalo native, grew up the child of a school teacher and sanitation worker who graduated from city public schools before earning her bachelor's degree in elementary education and master's degree in student personnel administration from Buffalo State University. She worked as a teacher and at the Buffalo Urban League and Citizens Action of New York before entering politics.

Peoples-Stokes served in the Erie County Legislature from 1993 until 2002, and was majority leader in 1998. She was a member of Grassroots, the Black political organization that came to power in Buffalo in the 1990s and included high-profile politicians such as Byron Brown, the city's longest-serving mayor.

Peoples-Stokes later challenged her predecessor, Assembly Member Arthur Eve in a Democratic primary which she nearly pulled off, before being elected in 2002 after he retired. Her 2018 elevation to majority leader followed the election to Congress of former Assembly Majority Leader Joseph Morelle, a Rochester area Democrat who left to successfully run for Congress. As majority leader, Peoples-Stokes serves as the "floor leader" during Assembly debates.

Peoples-Stokes' influence was showed in last year's state budget talks when she convinced Gov. Kathy Hochul to support a financial aid package for the City of Buffalo that included the proposed sale聽of city parking ramps to a newly created Buffalo parking authority, as well as a 3% hotel occupancy tax, which had been requested by then-Mayor Christopher Scanlon, who became mayor after Brown resigned in 2024 to head聽Western Regional Off-Track Betting.

鈥淚 will say that I know that Majority Leader Crystal Peoples-Stokes has enormous influence in this building and she has been a champion for this 鈥� this issue has come up,鈥� Hochul said at the time.

On Tuesday, Sen. Jeremy Zellner, D-Tonawanda, who chairs the Erie County Democratic Committee, said Peoples-Stokes has until Friday to decline the 500 signatures needed on petitions to seek re-election. A committee to fill vacancies must choose a candidate by April 14.聽

"We are going to ask anyone who is interested in filling that declination to send us a resume and the committee to fill vacancies will interview people this weekend and then they will make that determination and do the paperwork and file it by Tuesday," he said.

Zellner identified Buffalo Common Council Majority Leader Leah Halton-Pope, a former Peoples-Stokes chief of staff, as a person who has interest in the seat and who has earned a lot of support.聽

"She and I have a very good relationship, and I think she'd be a great Assembly member," Zellner said.

Zellner said聽Council President Pro Tempore Zeneta Everhart would be an excellent candidate but did not believe she was interested. He said Erie County Legislators聽Lawrence Dupre, D-Buffalo, and聽Taisha St. Jean Tard, D-Buffalo, were also possible candidates.

"There's a lot of people who would be interested in this," he said.