Background: Kent, 53, of Jericho, is running on the Democratic and Republican party lines in the general election. Kent is currently a Nassau County Family Court judge and has been designated an acting Supreme Court justice. Kent is the lead judge for the Nassau County Family Court/Early Childhood Court. She joined the Family Court bench in 2009, following her election in 2008. She spent five years as an Impartial Hearing Officer for the state Department of Education. Kent began her legal career in 1990, joining the New York City corporation counsel's Administration for Children's Services as an attorney/law guardian prosecuting abuse and neglect cases in Family Court. She received a bachelor's degree from SUNY Binghamton in 1987, and three years later a law degree from St. John's University School of Law. She was admitted to the New York State Bar in 1990. She is a member of the Nassau County Bar Association and the Nassau County Women's Bar Association. Kent is currently on the board of directors of the New York State Family Court Judges' Association, and serves on the board of advisers for the Center for Children, Families and the Law at Hofstra University.

Background: Petrara-Perrin, 52, of Bayville, is running on the Conservative Party line for Nassau County Family Court judge in the general election. Since 2010, she has been a principal law clerk in the Supreme Court of the State of New York, 10th Judicial District. From 2012 to present, Petrara-Perrin has been the Principal Law Clerk/Commercial Division for Justice Vito DeStefano. From 2008 to 2010, she was an appellate attorney in the Law Guardian Program representing children in appellate matters in the Supreme Court of the State of New York, Appellate Division, Second Judicial Department in Brooklyn. It was her second stint as she worked there as a senior appellate court attorney from 1996 to1999. She worked for three private law firms in 1996 and 1999 to 2002. She graduated with an undergraduate degree in psychology in 1989 from New York University, and a law degree from Nova Southeastern University, Shepard Broad Law Center (Florida) in 1994. She earned a master of laws in trade regulation from New York University School of Law in 1995. She was admitted to the New York State Bar in 1996. She is a member of the Nassau County Women's Bar Association, the Columbian Lawyers' Association of Nassau County and the Catholic Lawyers Guild of Nassau County.