NYC Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani said Saturday he’s endorsing a longtime “comrade” and fellow card-carrying member of the Democratic Socialists of America to replace him the state Legislature.
DSA operative Diana Moreno is Mamdani’s choice in a Feb. 3 special election to fill his state Assembly seat, which covers part of western Queens, the mayor-elect announced during a news conference at Athens Square in Astoria.
Mamdani – who joined Moreno at the event — will vacate the seat when he’s sworn in as mayor Jan. 1, and his endorsement makes her a big favorite in the race to represent the far-left assembly district.
“It’s been the pleasure of a lifetime to represent this district, and I am so excited at the fact that we have in Diana, someone who will not just continue the legacy that I and so many here have built, of a district that fights for every single person who calls it home, but frankly, for someone who can take that work even further,” he said.
“I am so proud to endorse my friend, to endorse my fellow DSA member, Diana Moreno, to be the next assembly member to represent the great 36th District.”
Moreno thanked Mamdani for his support and said she hopes to win the Assembly seat so she can partner with her longtime “comrade” in building a “New York City where the dignity of working people is central.”
“I am prepared to defend our immigrant neighbors, win universal no-cost child care for our working families, and fight and fight for the tenant protections and affordable housing that my family and our neighbors will need to call Queens home for generations to come,” she said.
The Ecuadorian-born Moreno has previously held DSA leadership roles, including communications director and co-chair of the Queens branch.
Other contenders to fill the seat include far lefties Meherunnisa “Mary” Jobaida and Rana Abdelhamid.
Jobaida is a first-generation Bangladeshi American with a criminal justice platform at the extreme end with the DSA’s radical agenda that includes “decriminalizing all forms of poverty.”
Abdelhamid is a local activist and Harvard-educated ex-Google employee who enjoyed a six-figure salary for years while railing on corporate America. Since leaving Big Tech, Abdelhamid has made fighting post-9/11 anti-Muslim hate the cornerstone of her activism.
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