{"id":251390,"date":"2026-06-01T21:25:41","date_gmt":"2026-06-01T21:25:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/251390\/"},"modified":"2026-06-01T21:25:41","modified_gmt":"2026-06-01T21:25:41","slug":"mamdani-endorses-slate-of-queens-candidates-for-state-legislature-qns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/251390\/","title":{"rendered":"Mamdani endorses slate of Queens candidates for state Legislature \u2013 QNS"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mayor Zohran Mamdani<\/a> has endorsed a slate of candidates for the state legislature in Queens, backing Brian Romero, Aber Kawas and Samantha Kattan for open seats in Albany as well as backing Diana Moreno to retain her seat in his old Assembly District in the borough.<\/p>\n

Mamdani, who announced the endorsements Saturday afternoon, put his political weight behind a number of candidates backed by the New York City chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), backing\u00a0Kawas in the race to succeed outgoing State Sen. Mike Gianaris in the 12th Senate District. Assembly Member Steven Raga has also launched a campaign for the seat.<\/p>\n

The mayor, meanwhile, backed Kattan in the race to succeed Assembly Member Claire Valdez in the 37th District after Valdez launched a bid for the soon-to-be-vacant 7th Congressional District. Kattan, who has also been endorsed by the DSA, is running against Pia Rahman and Melissa Orlando for Valdez\u2019s seat.<\/p>\n

Mamdani endorsed Moreno before her convincing special election victory to replace him in the 36th District in February and has done so again ahead of the June primary, with Mary Jobaida, another candidate in the recent special election, also launching a campaign for the seat.<\/p>\n

Mamdani also put his weight behind Romero, who is running to replace the outgoing Assembly Member Jessica Gonz\u00e1lez-Rojas in the 34th district. Romero has not been endorsed by the DSA but is a member of the organization and is on course to succeed Gonz\u00e1lez-Rojas after both Kawas and fellow candidate Andreas Migias dropped out of the race.<\/p>\n

Mamdani, notably,\u00a0did not endorse any candidates challenging incumbent state lawmakers, such as David Orkin, a DSA-backed candidate challenging Assembly Member Jenifer Rajkumar in District 38.\n<\/p>\n

However, U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, announcing her own slate of endorsements, did endorse Orkin in a move that seems to dovetail with the mayor\u2019s endorsements. Ocasio-Cortez has endorsed three DSA Assembly candidates challenging incumbents, including Orkin, Eon Huntley, who is challenging Assembly Member Stefani Zinerman in Brooklyn, and Christian Celeste Tate, who is challenging Assembly Member Erik Dilan, also in Brooklyn.<\/p>\n

However, Ocasio-Cortez has not yet endorsed in the race to succeed U.S. Rep. Nydia Vel\u00e1zquez in NY-7, while Mamdani has backed the DSA-backed Valdez for the seat over Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso and Council Member Julie Won.<\/p>\n

Mamdani has also endorsed Brad Lander over U.S. Rep. Dan Goldman and Darializa Avila Chevalier over U.S. Rep. Adriano Espaillat, while Ocasio-Cortez has remained silent in both races in line with a reported policy of not endorsing against incumbent Democrats in the House.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Hell Gate<\/a>, which first reported Mamdani\u2019s most recent slate of endorsements, reported that Mamdani avoided endorsing against any incumbent state lawmakers to avoid any friction with Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie.<\/p>\n

Still, several candidates who received the mayor\u2019s backing have welcomed the recent endorsements.\n<\/p>\n

Kawas, for example, said Mamdani\u2019s \u201cprincipled leadership\u201d during the mayoral elections inspired her to run for office and praised the mayor for sharing her \u201cvision for a Queens that\u2019s affordable for working families.\u201d<\/p>\n

Romero, on the other hand, credited Mamdani for \u201cfundamentally shifting what is possible for working-class New Yorkers.\u201d Romero, a former staffer for both Gonz\u00e1lez-Rojas and State Sen. Kristen Gonzalez, recalled working with Mamdani in Albany.<\/p>\n

\u201cDuring our time together in the Assembly, we proved that when you organize boldly, you can take on the billionaire class, fully fund our public infrastructure, and stand up for human rights both at home and abroad,\u201d Romero said in a statement.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mayor Zohran Mamdani has endorsed a slate of candidates for the state legislature in Queens, backing Brian Romero,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":251391,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[46417,22824,33947,40975,310,860,9,24,63,122,124,123,57477,98051,25668,82],"class_list":["post-251390","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-aber-kawas","tag-aoc","tag-assembly-member-jessica-gonzu00e1lez-rojas","tag-brian-romero","tag-daily-newsletter","tag-jessica-ramos","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news","tag-samantha-kattan","tag-state-senator-mike-gianaris","tag-steven-raga","tag-zohran-mamdani"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251390","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=251390"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251390\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/251391"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=251390"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=251390"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=251390"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}