Both Rana Abdelhamid and Mary Jobaida are both set to appear on the ballot in a special election to replace Mayor Zohran Mamdani in the State Assembly after the Queens Democratic Party chose to nominate Diana Moreno to appear on the Democratic line in the race.
Abdelhamid and Jobaida, who had sought the Democratic nomination in the race to replace Mamdani in the 36th Assembly District, both reached the required number of signatures to appear on the ballot for the Feb. 3 special election ahead of the Jan. 12 filing deadline.
Shivani Dhir, who had also sought the Democratic nomination in the race, has announced that she will not contest the special election, and will instead focus her efforts on the June primary.
Moreno, an Ecuadorian-born organizer and a member of the New York City chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), is the clear frontrunner to replace Mamdani after securing the Queens Democratic Party nomination earlier in January. Moreno has also been endorsed by both the DSA and Mamdani, who appeared alongside her at an endorsement event in Astoria last month.
Moreno also picked up an endorsement from the New York Working Families Party (WFP) last week, strengthening her position in the race.
But Abdelhamid and Jobaida, who are also members of the DSA, signaled their intent to contest the special election on a third-party ballot line and have both reached the required threshold of 1,500 signatures.
Abdelhamid, a prominent community organizer with non-profit Malikah, announced on Monday that she had received 2,871 petition signatures for the race, crediting the 150 campaign volunteers who had persistently knocked on doors since she officially launched her campaign in November.
“You stood in the cold, knocked on doors, talked to our community, and believed in this campaign even when people said it couldn’t be done,” Abdelhamid said in a post on Instagram.
Abdelhamid also picked up an endorsement from the Queens chapter of the WFP despite failing to secure the broader New York endorsement.
Jobaida, meanwhile, said “nearly 3,000 voters” had signed petitions allowing her to contest the special election.
A native of Bangladesh, Jobaida was the first candidate to announce a campaign to replace Mamdani in the 36th Assembly District.
“We were given the tough task of collecting 1,500 signatures from registered voters in our district in a very short time. We are grateful to share that our community took it personally and nearly 3,000 voters signed to see Mary on the ballot,” Jobaida said in a post on Instragram.
