Pia Rahman, a community organizer and healthcare worker who previously served as campaign manager for Assembly District 34 candidate Brian Romero, has launched a campaign to succeed Assembly Member Claire Valdez in the 37th District.
Valdez, a prominent member of the New York City chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) will vacate her seat in the Assembly at the end of the year after launching a campaign to succeed U.S. Rep Nydia Velázquez in New York’s 7th Congressional District.
Rahman launched her campaign to succeed Valdez at the end of January, touting a progressive platform centered on housing stability, climate resilience and safe streets.
Born in New York to immigrant parents from Bangladesh, Rahman has also made reliable healthcare, “fair tax” and investments in public transportation central to her campaign.
Samantha Kattan, a tenant organizer backed by Valdez and the DSA, has also launched a campaign to succeed Valdez in the district, which includes parts of Long Island City, Sunnyside and Ridgewood.
Rahman, who is a former member of the DSA, worked as a dietitation nutritionist during the Covid-19 pandemic and pointed to her “lived experiences” in the community.
“As a kid who survived traffic violence and later as a healthcare worker during the pandemic, I saw firsthand how policy decisions shape people’s safety, health, and dignity,” Rahman said in a statement announcing the launch of her campaign.
“I’m running to bring that lived experience to Albany and fight for solutions that make life more stable, fair, and affordable for Queens families.”
Kattan, on the other hand, has made immigration reform central to her campaign. She said passing New York for All, which would prohibit state and local law enforcement from cooperating with federal immigration authorities, would be her first priority if she is elected to office.
The race to succeed Valdez in District 37 is one of many in western Queens that pits a DSA candidate against a traditional progressive Democrat, including in the 7th Congressional District where Valdez is facing off against traditional progressives such as Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso and Council Member Julie Won.
The 37th District is one of the most liberal in the city and forms part of the newly-dubbed “Commie Corridor,” a stretch of neighborhoods in Western Queens and North Brooklyn which Mayor Zohran Mamdani won by a significant margin in the 2025 mayoral election.
If elected, Rahman would be the first Bangladeshi-American to ever serve in the New York State Assembly. Rahman’s campaign has received an early endorsement from Ridwana Isla, a Bangladeshi-American council member in Bridgewater, New Jersey, who became the first South Asian and Muslim official to serve on the council.
