ALBANY COUNTY — “I’m a voice often for the voiceless,” said Democrat Patricia Fahy who is making her sixth run to represent the 109th District in the State Assembly.

She wants to continue to advocate for higher education for those who may not have the financial means, for affordable housing, and for training that will make jobs accessible.

She said she was humbled this week to be given an award by the Whitney Young Center for her advocacy for health care — “for a level playing field so that, regardless of your income, you can be served,” said Fahy.

During her decade in the post, Fahy has had education, jobs, and the environment as her focus.

Fahy has described herself as a first-generation American whose parents “came to this country for a better life,” where education was key. Fahy has a bachelor’s degree in political science from Northern Illinois University and a master’s degree in public administration from the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Before moving to Albany a quarter of a century ago, Fahy spent many years in Washington, D.C., working on Capitol Hill with labor committees and employment subcommittees, drafting legislation.

In New York State, she had worked as an associate commissioner at the labor department and for the state legislature. She also served on Albany’s school board; her children attended city schools.

Fahy leapt into local politics in 2012 when the reconfigured 109th District’s longtime representative, Democrat John McEneny, retired. With a grassroots campaign, she bested her five opponents in the Democratic primary, winning 37 percent of the vote in the Democrat-dominated district.

She has easily won each November election since.

“I have carried over the last 10 years about 200 bills and, while we’ve succeeded in getting almost 70 of them done, we have more to do,” Fahy told The Enterprise this week. Looking back at those 10 years, she listed some of the accomplishments of which she is most proud.

She named “gun control and gun safety, particularly holding reckless gun manufacturers and distributors liable. That one was passed over a year ago, and the attorney general is now suing about 16 distributors,” she said.

Fahy also named indigent legal services. Defense attorneys in upstate New York had been carrying caseloads of “200 to 600, even 800,” she said, “and I carried a bill to bring down those caseloads.” The bill was defeated because of lack of funding in the state budget but the following year, in 2017, then-governor Andrew Cuomo, did put in the funding, she said.

“We have transformed the delivery of indigent legal services,” said Fahy, adding, “It led to Albany county hiring dozens of new defense attorneys.”

Fahy concluded, “I do feel privileged to be in this role. And there is always more work to be done. The challenges some days seem insurmountable.

“We are facing a lot of negative news. And I try to remind young people all the time: Get out from behind those screens and remember that there are positive things. We are investing in tremendous research to address … some of these tremendous challenges like climate change and … our housing shortages and more.”