Republican · New York's 9th District · 2026
Joel Azumah
Azumah played club volleyball at Union College while earning a civil engineering degree.
Biography
Joel Azumah played club volleyball at Union College while earning his Bachelor of Science in civil engineering, then built a working life around buses and coaching.1 His full name is Joel Anabilah-Azumah, and his campaign biography lists team handball alongside volleyball, transportation and geopolitics among his interests.2
He founded Transport Azumah and has coached at the high school and college levels.1 At Iona, he was part of the women's volleyball coaching staff that helped the team reach consecutive conference tournaments.3 He also worked at the Fashion Institute of Technology and St. Peter's before becoming Brooklyn College's men's head coach for the 2023 season.3
He is the 9th District's Republican candidate.4 Azumah identifies with the MAGA movement, while emphasizing domestic infrastructure over involvement in foreign wars.5 His platform includes extending the subway along Utica Avenue, rebuilding roads and rail, improving pipelines and constructing nuclear power plants.56
He proposes raising the federal minimum wage to $17 an hour, arguing that higher starting pay would help working families depend less on government assistance.6 He also favors lower taxes and fewer burdens on property ownership, protects free speech as a campaign priority, and raises concerns about accountability when artificial intelligence is used to operate government systems.56
Record and controversies
Bus franchise ruling
Transportazumah, the transportation business Azumah founded, was the defendant in a civil dispute over replacing discontinued New York City bus routes.17 The company argued that it brokered charter services and challenged the city's regulatory authority.7 In 2011, a state court found that the service required a city franchise and permanently barred that service without one.7
An appeals court unanimously affirmed in December 2012, while expressly clarifying that the injunction covered the type of service in the case and did not prohibit every future type of bus service the company might offer.8