Vito Fossella (born March 9, 1965) is a Republican politician from the state of New York who represents the state's 13th Congressional district (map), including Staten Island and the Bay Ridge, Dyker Heights, Bensonhurst and Gravesend neighborhoods of Brooklyn in the U.S. House of Representatives. He is the only Republican Congressman from New York City. Fossella was born on Staten Island into a Roman Catholic family of Irish and Italian extraction. His great-grandfather, James O'Leary, represented Staten Island in Congress from 1935 to 1944. Fossella was a member of the New York City Council from 1994 to 1997, when he won a special election to replace Congresswoman Susan Molinari. He was elected to a full term in 1998 and has been reelected every two years since then.
A native Staten Islander, Fossella attended Monsignor Farrell High School before earning a Bachelor of Science degree from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. In 1993, he earned his Juris Doctor from the Fordham University School of Law.
In 1990, he married Mary Patricia Rowan. Their first son, Dylan Michael Fossella, was born on September 30, 1995, their second son, Griffin Thomas Fossella, on November 21, 1997, and their first daughter, Rowan Frances Fossella, on September 12, 2003.
