Rana Abdelhamid, a prominent community organizer in western Queens who currently serves as executive director of anti-violence nonprofit Malikah, officially launched her campaign to succeed Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani in Assembly District 36 with an event in Astoria Tuesday afternoon.
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.
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.
“I learned that safety is not just physical,” Abdelhamid said Tuesday. “Safety 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.”
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.
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.
She said she has experienced the “pain” that the local community has experienced.
“I heard what it feels like to not be able to keep the lights on because the Con Edison bill is too high,” she said. “I heard what it is like to raise a child who now has Asthma because they were raised in Asthma Alley.”
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.
She touted her previous experience “organizing for immigrant justice” and pointed to her work advocating for asylum seekers in migrant shelters in nearby Long Island City.
“New York for All and the MELT Act are deeply important to prioritize,” she said.
Among Abdelhamid’s 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.
Abdelhamid further vowed to invest in community safety and youth programming, including afterschool care, mental health supports and culturally-grounded community services.
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.
“People who want to raise their families here don’t have a choice,” she said. “They have to leave because they can’t afford to be here.”
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.
Hantzopolous praised Abdelhamid for organizing “across cultures, across religions, across ethnic backgrounds and across communities.”
Hantzopolous further touted Abdelhamid’s 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.
The project, which attracted significant controversy, was recently shelved by developers.
Hantzopolous said Abdelhamid would fight for “truly affordable housing” in Albany and not luxury developments that displace residents from the district. She also pointed to Abdelhamid’s work advocating for the immigrant community across the district and New York City.
“I just admire the work that Rana has done with the migrant community, making sure they are feeling welcomed in this community,” Hantzopolous said.
Toussaint, meanwhile, described Abdelhamid as a “blessing” for the local community and spoke of her efforts to teach self-defense in schools across the district.
“Rana is always thinking about engaging people and making sure she’s working with all of us,” Toussaint said.
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.
Abdelhamid, who is also a DSA member, had sought the party’s endorsement, but party leaders recruited Moreno to run for the seat.
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’s official endorsement. Mary Jobaiba, another DSA member, has also filed to run for the seat.
Abdelhamid said she respects the DSA’s 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.
“Whether it’s tenant organizing, whether it’s people organizing around food and immigration, I have those relationships,” she said.
