Mary Jobaida, a candidate in the upcoming special election to replace Mayor Zohran Mamdani in the 36th Assembly District, might have considered dropping out of the race after frontrunner Diana Moreno picked up the Queens Democratic Party nomination and fellow candidate Rana Abdelhamid picked up endorsements from a swath of progressive lawmakers. But dropping out was never an option for Jobaida, who has centered her campaign on advocating for constituents often excluded from the political process.
Jobaida, a Bangladeshi immigrant living in Queensbridge Houses since 2001, was the first candidate to file to succeed Mamdani in the 36th District after his victory in the 2025 mayoral election.
A member of the New York City chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), she has centered her campaign on environmental justice for residents in NYCHA developments, taxing the rich and protecting the district’s immigrant residents from federal immigration authorities.
Moreno, who previously served as co-chair of the Queens branch of the DSA, picked up the organization’s endorsement last month before picking up an endorsement from Mamdani himself. She has also received endorsements from a slew of elected officials and labor unions, in addition to receiving the Queens Democratic Party nomination at the beginning of January.
Abdelhamid, another member of the DSA who founded anti-violence non-profit Malikah, has picked up endorsements from traditional progressive lawmakers such as U.S. Rep. Nydia Velázquez and Council Member Julie Won.
In a race between three candidates who appear ideologically similar, Jobaida has picked up an endorsement from State Sen. John Liu but said her campaign is rooted in the local community.
She said her campaign is focused almost explicitly on hyper-local issues and added that she is committed to giving a voice to constituents who often feel shut out of the political process.
Jobaida also committed to making the expansion of constituent services one of her first priorities if she pulls off a victory in the Feb. 3 special election and blasted the Board of Elections for placing one of the four polling sites for the upcoming election outside the assembly district.
That site, located at the Federation of Hellenic Societies of Greater New York, is situated just beyond the borders of the 36th District, while no sites are located within the district’s three NYCHA developments at Queensbridge, Ravenswood and Astoria Houses, something Jobaida described as a form of voter suppression.
QNS spoke to Jobaida about a range of campaign issues in a conversation this week as part of a series ahead of the Feb. 3 special election. The interview has been edited for length and clarity.
How do you separate yourself from two candidates with whom you are politically aligned on a number of issues?
I am a first-generation immigrant. I came into this country as an adult, so I’m a real immigrant. I’m not a daughter of an immigrant or granddaughter of an American. I am an immigrant, and we have about 38% of our people in the district who are born outside of the US.
I have also been living in this district for over two decades, and I bring local issues, like how our communities were excluded from the political process, how our communities didn’t have a voice, how we have been facing the same climate resiliency issues, like a little rain causing the streets to flood…
I’m advocating for local people, and I’m so rooted in local issues that I’m not even paying much attention to what’s happening worldwide or nationwide. Other candidates are totally focusing more outside of the district. And finally, in this difficult time when immigrants are targeted, including in our district. So bringing an immigrant into the state legislature will actually show a real change.
You are an immigrant representing a district with a significant immigrant population. If elected, what would you do to advocate for that immigrant community?
My target would be to protect immigrants from the federal government’s cruelty… We have to make sure that New York State and police do not cooperate with the ICE agents so that our people are safe. We also must offer them legal help.
New immigrants in this country, regardless of documentation, should have access to all fundamental basic needs… People already made their home here, and instead of meeting them with cruelty, we should be giving them access to all the important cares and services that are needed to help them to find a productive path and quickly become productive members.
The best way to help immigrants is streamlining the path to work with targeted job trainings and funding the legal system so they become productive members and helping them with access to housing, food and medical care.
Where do you see the state’s role in combating the housing crisis?
At this point, the way they use the word housing, and they create only the luxury buildings that is not affordable to the real people who need housing. It’s actually not helping with the housing crisis.
We have a lot of luxury apartments sitting empty and a lot of abandoned houses. What we can do is create a mandatory survey of all the apartments and houses that are abandoned and create affordable housing. For example, if the people who rent luxury apartments can’t find tenants in six months, it should go under the control of the city or state, who will actually house people who have been looking for apartments. This is one way to make sure that empty apartments are not sitting there for years when people are struggling.
I personally support social housing… but we are having a hard time finding developers who are completely profit-oriented. They would not want to invest when returns are very low. What we can do is, on behalf of the State, we can give them subsidies.
And finally, we have to look at the many one or two-story structures we have in our state…. If we create legalized basement apartments and help homeowners to upgrade the safety code and climate resiliency, flood protection, then we can create enough housing to solve the housing crisis immediately, without displacing community members in the meantime.
You have previously mentioned a desire to tax the rich, to increase the corporate tax to match that in New Jersey. The Governor’s budget last week included no plans to tax the rich. If you were elected. How would you work with moderate Democrats and Republicans to bring in those policies?
I will expand my alliance with all the leftists and mobilize more people. I have experiences of traveling the entire state, so what I could do is expand my alliance and explain why it is needed. If the people are not being helped, ultimately, this entire system will tumble down because the rich’s money is only possible because of the workers.
The workers produce the goods and transport those things. They’re selling those things. They distribute those things. If New York becomes unaffordable, people will be bound to leave. I already know that over 100,000 people in the Bangladesh community moved to Buffalo because they couldn’t afford living in New York City. But if the entire state becomes unaffordable, then people can’t afford to stay…
Even the capitalist system is not going to benefit from that. Having everyone in good health and good mental health and working conditions will continue the circulation of the money.
If you were elected, what would be your day-one legislative priority for the district?
My number one priority would be to immediately create the constituent services… making sure that people who have been unheard for a long time do not need to navigate the state or city issues alone anymore.
What are some of the policies that you will fight for to combat the impacts of climate change?
I would fight for climate resiliency infrastructure immediately. I will also look for long-term solutions by working with other elected officials to make sure that we fund and create more renewable energy in the fastest manner.
I would also fight to close the [Ravenswood] power plant on Vernon, which impacts the three NYCHA houses complexes in our local community. I would fight to close the power plant as soon as possible, which is not very practical unless we have enough renewable energy production.
On education, if you’re to look at test scores and attendances, standards seem to be falling. Do you see any role that the state has to play in improving those standards?
Teachers need more support… Students are still struggling with their health issues and emotional issues after the pandemic. Schools need more social workers, teachers need more support. There are schools that do not have any basic support things like pens, consoles and notebooks.
There is also a teacher shortage. Teachers are not awarded a livable salary… Teachers have to use their own money to provide support and resources in the classroom. We have to make sure that we offer the right salary.
In terms of this race, it’s a very short election season. Your opponent, Diana Moreno, has picked up the Democratic nomination, along with endorsement from Mandani… What made you want to stay in the race?
I’ve always fought for justice and against discrimination. It’s not going to be easy to fight for the working class. We side with real people on the ground. A lot of times, the big organizations side with the power, side with the status quo.
I did not run for this election thinking that I would be supported by the status quo. DSA did not endorse me in 2020 [in the primary for AD 37]. This year, when I applied for the endorsement, they didn’t send me the survey. I had to request the survey. When I submitted the survey, they let me know in an email that they decided not to invite me to the forum or forward my survey to the forum.
The Democratic Party chair [Gregory Meeks] called me for a meeting, and we had a long conversation, and he said they were not ready to go into war with the new mayor, who is elected and is popular. Even though I already knew that result, they told me they still had to attend the forum [at the Powhatan and Pocahontas Democratic Club on Jan. 3]. I attended because I wanted to let people know who I am and what I stand for.
They didn’t call me to run for office in the first place. I am the one who decided to pick up the fight and speak for the people who have been forgotten for too long and whose voices were not heard for too long.
Is there anything else you would like to mention that has not been asked?
I am the People’s candidate. We’re not even on social media. I’m grounded in the community.
I also want to mention that at this time, one of the polling stations is completely outside of the district. They need to make sure that they take immediate actions to rectify it, and also to place a polling site in NYCHA, where most of our senior people or people with accessibility issues live. They deserve access.
