Republicans. That decision, along with Felder's stated willingness to return to the Senate Democratic Conference if doing so would benefit his district, had attracted attention and speculation during his Senate tenure. Brooklyn Democratic Party Chairman Frank Seddio called Felder's defection a "disgrace and a complete betrayal of his constituents." As a State Senator, Felder was the only Democrat to vote against the $15 minimum wage; he cast deciding votes against the immigration-friendly New York Dream Act, killing it; he stated that ending stop-and-frisk was a mistake; he torpedoed the 5-cent plastic bag fees, thus winning himself the 2016 "Oil Slick Award" from an environmental advocacy group; and he supported pro-Israel policies like anti-BDS laws and Iran divestment. On the final day of the 2013 legislative session, Felder voted against a hostile amendment that would have attached a pro-choice bill to an unrelated piece of legislation. Felder was reelected to the Senate without opposition in 2014 and 2016. In the latter election, he ran on the Democratic, Republican, and Conservative lines. In April 2018, other lawmakers accused Felder of "essentially holding the $168 billion budget hostage until the state agreed not to interfere with the curriculum at the private Jewish schools known as yeshivas." After an April 2018 agreement returned the Independent Democratic Conference (a breakaway faction of Democrats) to the mainline Democratic conference, Felder became the swing vote in the State Senate; this placed a spotlight on his continued affiliation with Senate Republicans. On April 24, 2018, Felder announced that he intended to continue caucusing with Senate Republicans during the remaining weeks of the 2018 legislative session; Felder made this statement despite the possibility that two special elections being held that day could give the Democratic Party a numerical majority in the State Senate, and despite Governor Andrew Cuomo's public support for Democratic control of the Senate. On April 25, Cuomo sent Felder an open letter to pressure him to rejoin the Senate Democratic Conference. Felder continued to caucus with the Republicans. According to a May 2018 article in the Times Union, Brooklyn insiders believed that Felder would not be swayed by pressure, and that the Democratic establishment did not understand the "transactional" approach most of Felder's Orthodox Jewish constituents take to politics. Several people familiar with the district's dynamics told the Times-Union that most of Felder's constituents wear their party registration very loosely. According to one of them, Jacob