Queens Borough President Donovan Richards is constantly on the move.

On the morning he caught up with NY1, the 36-year-old Richards joined two business ribbon-cutting ceremonies in Jamaica.

He’d visited a pop-up vaccination site in South Richmond Hill, attended a Lunar New Year celebration by JFK airport, and all before lunch.

As Queens Borough President, a lot of people are counting on him to succeed.  Not only because of the things they want done in the borough, but because they relate to Richards, being that he’s the first black man to ever hold the office.

 “It’s been surreal to achieve this monumental and historic victory in becoming the first black man to be the borough president in Queens,” Richards said.

He said there’s never a dull moment.

“I know that being the first, there’s always a big responsibility and you know you have to get it right,” Richards said.

“And I sort of said that when I won the City Council — because I was actually one the youngest out of South East Queens — and I recognize that people would look at what we’ve achieved and what we would do. And if we did not get it right, it would be an impediment to people who came after me. So it’s a big weight on the shoulders, but you know our ancestors prepared us for this moment,” he continued.

Richards said right now he is focused on the immediate needs of Queens residents, and long-term he is looking at ways to leverage resources for them.

But with a competitive primary in June, Richards, just two months in, will have to defend his seat.

He has confidence based on his work serving residents that he will be reelected.

“I honestly believe if you’re doing the work, people across this borough can see that this office has delivered in this short period of time,” Richards said.

“Diversity is going to be key as we move forward in selecting and making sure that the borough of diversity, 350 languages spoken here, over 200 countries represented, we need to make sure that there is diversity on our boards,” he said.

Outside of the office, Richards’ home life keeps him grounded and distracted from politics.

He has a five-year-old and a wife of 10 years.

“It’s funny. I come into this office, and you know, it’s a beautiful office, but when I get home could you believe that I still have to do the dishes and take the garbage out. You know, that goes right out the window,” he said.

He joked that he has no perks at home, saying he’s the one who has to shovel the snow.

The borough of Queens is very diverse from a demographic perspective, but it also has a lot of political divisiveness.

But a lot brings residents together too, said Richards.

“There are a lot of people in this borough with different political ideologies, but there’s one thing that bring us altogether, and that is the need for better education for our kids. I think everybody can agree that we need a better health care system. I think everybody wants their roads fixed. I think everybody wants permanent housing, affordable housing, and to be able to stay in the home that they’ve grown in,” Richards said.

“I think everyone can agree on the need that our small businesses should survive. We may not all agree on ‘how do we get there?’ but the, ‘how to get there.’ But the bottom line is, the borough president has to work with everyone, and I think we’ve done that over that course of the last two months,” he continued.