![\"Special](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/k3xi910w6fvzjv9z.jpg\")
<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
QUEENS – The race to fill New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s old assembly seat will come to a head tonight.<\/p>\n
Special election to fill Mamdani’s seat <\/p>\n
What we know:<\/p>\n
The special election<\/a> to fill the vacancy in Assembly District 36<\/a> is today, Feb. 3. The election was prompted by Mamdani’s resignation after he won the mayoral election last year.<\/p>\n The district encompasses a large portion of Astoria and Long Island City.<\/p>\n Local perspective:<\/p>\n There are three candidates in the race, and all of them are members of the Democratic Socialists of America:<\/p>\n Diana Moreno (Democratic Party, Working Families Party) <\/p>\n Moreno<\/a> is the candidate touting Mamdani’s endorsement.<\/p>\n Moreno was born in Ecuador \u2013 her family moved to the United States when she was 11-years-old. She currently lives in Astoria.<\/p>\n The policies she advocates for foremost include enacting universal childcare for the city, strengthening tenant protections and passing the New York For All Act<\/a>.<\/p>\n This act would prohibit both state and local officers from working with ICE agents.<\/p>\n Moreno is also endorsed by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and the New York City Democratic Socialists of America.<\/p>\n Rana Abdelhamid (Queens For All Party) <\/p>\n Abdelhamid’s<\/a> background includes building mutual aid networks<\/a>, running a community safety center<\/a> and teaching self-defense.<\/p>\n She would be the first Egyptian and Muslim woman in the state assembly if elected. Her platform includes similar policies as Moreno’s, but Abdelhamid would also fight for the Not On Our Dime Act<\/a> and the REPAIR Act<\/a>.<\/p>\n Abdelhamid has been endorsed by Rep. Nydia Vel\u00e1zquez and Rep. Rashida Tlaib.<\/p>\n Mary Jobaida (People First Party) <\/p>\n Jobaida<\/a> was raised in Bangladesh before immigrating to New York in 2001.<\/p>\n She later became the founding program manager of Time Television<\/a>, the first Bangladeshi HD television channel in the city.<\/p>\n Some of her more unique policy proposals include decriminalizing poverty and supporting high-quality universal healthcare.<\/p>\n Jobaida has been endorsed by NYS Sen. John Liu and the Alliance of South Asian American Labor.<\/p>\n How to vote in the special election <\/p>\n What you can do:<\/p>\n New Yorkers who are registered to vote and live in this district can vote<\/a> at any polling location from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. today.<\/p>\n A list of the available polling sites can be read through below:<\/p>\n The Source: This article includes information from the candidates’ campaign websites and reporting from FOX 5 NY’s political reporter Morgan McKay.<\/p>\n Politics<\/a>Queens<\/a>Zohran Mamdani<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"QUEENS – The race to fill New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s old assembly seat will come to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":121210,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[2659,9,24,55,54,56,63,1232,87,122,618,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-121209","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-city","8":"tag-election","9":"tag-new-york","10":"tag-new-york-city","11":"tag-new-york-city-headlines","12":"tag-new-york-city-news","13":"tag-ny","14":"tag-nyc","15":"tag-people","16":"tag-politics","17":"tag-queens","18":"tag-us","19":"tag-zohran-mamdani"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121209","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=121209"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121209\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/121210"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=121209"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=121209"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=121209"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/36.jpg\")
Candidates <\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/rana.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/mary.jpg\")
<\/p>\n