NEW YORK (RNS) — Walking along Steinway Street, the busy commercial stretch of the Queens neighborhood of Astoria, one can hardly miss the bright blue-and-purple campaign posters for Rana Abdelhamid plastered on the windows of many cafes and halal supermarkets.
In November, the Muslim community organizer launched her campaign and filed with the state Board of Elections to run for New York’s 36th State Assembly District — a seat currently held by Zohran Mamdani, who will vacate the role when he takes office as New York’s mayor on Jan. 1.
Mamdani has held the Assembly seat for the district, which spans Astoria, Ditmars-Steinway and Jackson Heights, since 2019. Earlier this year, Abdelhamid canvassed for his mayoral campaign, reaching out to Middle Eastern and North African voters in the district. And on election night, she hosted one of Astoria’s largest watch parties to celebrate the election of the city’s first Muslim mayor.
Now, she hopes to build on the momentum that his affordability-focused campaign generated among New Yorkers. Like Mamdani, Abdelhamid, 32, is part of a generation of young Muslim progressives who have sought to invest in the city’s halls of power in recent years. If elected, the daughter of Egyptian immigrants would become the first Muslim woman elected to the New York State Assembly, further enshrining the growing political power of New York’s Muslim community.
“I’m the daughter of the community, and I’m running to represent them so personally, a …