{"id":53338,"date":"2025-11-26T20:27:13","date_gmt":"2025-11-26T20:27:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/53338\/"},"modified":"2025-11-26T20:27:13","modified_gmt":"2025-11-26T20:27:13","slug":"rana-abdelhamid-officially-launches-campaign-to-replace-mamdani-in-queens-assembly-district-36-qns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/53338\/","title":{"rendered":"Rana Abdelhamid officially launches campaign to replace Mamdani in Queens Assembly District 36 \u2013 QNS"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rana Abdelhamid, a prominent community organizer in western Queens who currently serves as executive director of anti-violence nonprofit Malikah<\/a>, officially launched her campaign to succeed Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani in Assembly District 36 with an event in Astoria Tuesday afternoon.<\/p>\n

Abdelhamid, joined by a number of community leaders, spoke to dozens of supporters at a Nov. 25 campaign launch event at Zyara at 25-53 Steinway St., pledging to fight for affordable housing protections, universal childcare, immigrant protections and community safety programs if she is elected to Albany.<\/p>\n

Abdelhamid founded Malikah to help teach self-defense to individuals from minority communities and said Tuesday that she learned of other issues facing the community through conversations with participants at self-defense classes around the neighborhood.<\/p>\n

\u201cI learned that safety is not just physical,\u201d Abdelhamid said Tuesday. \u201cSafety is political. Safety is economic. Safety is being able to know that you know where to go and that someone is going to have your back.\u201d<\/p>\n

She previously ran for Congress in 2022, attempting to defeat then-incumbent Carolyn Maloney in the 12th Congressional district, which included parts of Astoria as well as the east side of Manhattan. Abdelhamid later dropped out of the race when the district was redrawn to remove Astoria.<\/p>\n

Abdelhamid, who would become the first Egyptian and Muslim woman ever elected to the New York State Assembly if she is successful, said she was attacked physically as a child because of her religion and pledged to fight for the Muslim and North African community in District 36 as well as all working-class residents in the neighborhood.<\/p>\n

She said she has experienced the \u201cpain\u201d that the local community has experienced.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cI heard what it feels like to not be able to keep the lights on because the Con Edison bill is too high,\u201d she said. \u201cI heard what it is like to raise a child who now has Asthma because they were raised in Asthma Alley.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, Abdelhamid said she would fight for a number of immigrant protections if she is elected to the state legislature, including New York for All, which would prevent state and local law enforcement from working with federal immigration authorities, and the MELT Act, which would prevent all federal immigration authorities from wearing masks.<\/p>\n

She touted her previous experience \u201corganizing for immigrant justice\u201d and pointed to her work advocating for asylum seekers in migrant shelters in nearby Long Island City.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cNew York for All and the MELT Act are deeply important to prioritize,\u201d she said.\n<\/p>\n

Among Abdelhamid\u2019s other legislative priorities is a slate of tenant protection measures, including statewide right to counsel and rent stabilization. She has also pledged to fight for increased funding for NYCHA and supporting community land trusts if she is elected to Albany.<\/p>\n

Abdelhamid further vowed to invest in community safety and youth programming, including afterschool care, mental health supports and culturally-grounded community services.\n<\/p>\n

She said investing in community programs and advocating for tenant protections would help working-class residents remain in the district at a time of rising costs and gentrification.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople who want to raise their families here don\u2019t have a choice,\u201d she said. \u201cThey have to leave because they can\u2019t afford to be here.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

Abdelhamid was joined by a number of prominent community leaders at her kickoff event, including Community Board 1 Chair Evie Hantzopoulos and Community Education Council 30 co-President Whitney Toussaint.<\/p>\n

Hantzopolous praised Abdelhamid for organizing \u201cacross cultures, across religions, across ethnic backgrounds and across communities.\u201d
\n\"HantzopolousHantzopolous speaks at an the official kickoff event. Photo by Shane O\u2019Brien.\n<\/p>\n

Hantzopolous further touted Abdelhamid\u2019s efforts fighting against the Innovation QNS housing development, a $2 billion project that planned to create 3,200 new housing units along with retail space and community facilities near Kaufman Studios in Astoria.<\/p>\n

The project, which attracted significant controversy, was recently shelved by developers.<\/a>\n<\/p>\n

Hantzopolous said Abdelhamid would fight for \u201ctruly affordable housing\u201d in Albany and not luxury developments that displace residents from the district. She also pointed to Abdelhamid\u2019s work advocating for the immigrant community across the district and New York City.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just admire the work that Rana has done with the migrant community, making sure they are feeling welcomed in this community,\u201d Hantzopolous said.\n<\/p>\n

Toussaint, meanwhile, described Abdelhamid as a \u201cblessing\u201d for the local community and spoke of her efforts to teach self-defense in schools across the district.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cRana is always thinking about engaging people and making sure she\u2019s working with all of us,\u201d Toussaint said.
\n\"ToussaintToussaint also spoke at the event. Photo by Shane O\u2019Brien.\n<\/p>\n

Abdelhamid faces competition for the soon-to-be-vacant District 36 seat, however, after Diana Moreno, former co-chair of the Queens chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), launched her campaign earlier in November.<\/p>\n

Abdelhamid, who is also a DSA member, had sought the party\u2019s endorsement, but party leaders recruited Moreno to run for the seat.\n<\/p>\n

Moreno received 96% of the vote at a recent DSA endorsement forum and it will now fall to the Queens chapter of the organization to determine if she receives the party\u2019s official endorsement. Mary Jobaiba, another DSA member, has also filed to run for the seat.<\/p>\n

Abdelhamid said she respects the DSA\u2019s decision but said she has built up a cross-coalition of support and said she would set herself apart from ideologically similar candidates through the work she has done for the community over the past two decades.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhether it\u2019s tenant organizing, whether it\u2019s people organizing around food and immigration, I have those relationships,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rana Abdelhamid, a prominent community organizer in western Queens who currently serves as executive director of anti-violence nonprofit…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":53339,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[29436,29437,310,29438,17690,29439,9,24,63,122,124,123,29440,29441],"class_list":["post-53338","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-assembly-district-36","tag-cec-30","tag-daily-newsletter","tag-diana-moreno","tag-evie-hantzopoulos","tag-malikah","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news","tag-rana-abdelhamid","tag-whitney-toussaint"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53338","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=53338"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53338\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/53339"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53338"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53338"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53338"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}