Mamdani backs Diana Moreno as his Assembly successor

Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani endorsed Diana Moreno to succeed him in the assembly on Saturday.  Eagle photo by Ryan Schwach

By Ryan Schwach

Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani officially threw his support behind longtime friend Diana Moreno in her bid to succeed him in the State Assembly.

Mamdani announced his support for the Democratic Socialists of America-endorsed candidate from Athens Square Park in Astoria on Saturday as he prepares to leave the local office in Queens and ascend to City Hall as mayor.

Moreno and the mayor-elect, who met through the DSA, have been friends since his first run for the Assembly in 2020, and his support will likely be pivotal in her race against several other leftist candidates in the strongly progressive district.

“We need someone who has shown an ability to not only fight to protect what working New Yorkers have today, but an ambition and imagination to fight for what they should have tomorrow,” said Mamdani.

Mamdani applauded Moreno – who appeared in his first ad for mayor – for her work in the district.

“I’m proud to endorse Diana, frankly, because she has shown, time and again, an ability to fight for the people, not just in this district but for people across New York City,” he added later.

Moreno told the Eagle that she was thrilled and humbled by the endorsement.

“I also see it as a deep responsibility to carry on the mantle of really making sure that we have a mayor in New York City that can deliver,” she said. “His campaign was so historic, and I see it as my responsibility to make sure that he can deliver on his platform, and it's also for me and my family to be able to stay here and raise our child here.”

There are currently three other women vying to succeed Mamdani in the 36th Assembly District.

Progressive DSA organizers Mary Jobaida and Rana Abdelhamid are both filed for the seat, as is Shivani Dhir, an assistant dean at the New York University Tandon School of Engineering.

Jobaida, who was the first to file for the seat well before it was clear it would be available, said that Mamdani himself was a little known candidate without significant institutional support when he ran for mayor.

“Zohran himself was once a little-known candidate when he first declared his run for mayor,” she said. “The first organization to endorse him was the Bangladeshi American Advocacy Group, an organization that has also endorsed our campaign this time.”

“I am endorsed by the people,” she added. “Ours is a neighbors-to-neighbors, grassroots campaign, built from the ground up, not from the top down. I carry our community’s trust with me, and I’m looking forward to the election.”

Dhir, who is the newest to join the fray, said she supports Mamdani’s affordability efforts and is herself focused on those issues. She did not comment specifically on the mayor-elect’s endorsement in the race.

Abdelhamid could not be reached for comment on Saturday.

Moreno, who was endorsed by the DSA, which holds significant sway in the highly progressive district. The district includes the area known as the “People’s Republic of Astoria,” the only neighborhood in the country represented by socialists at every level of government.

Governor Kathy Hochul is likely to call a special election to fill Mamdani’s seat in the coming weeks. Her office told the Eagle she will do so once Mamdani officially resigns and becomes mayor on Jan. 1.

It is expected that she may call the election for as early as Feb 3., giving Moreno, Jobaida, Abdelhamid and Dhir a little over 30 days to make their case to Astoria voters.

Moreno told the Eagle on Saturday she is up for that challenge.

“I feel like Zohran's campaign was our training,” she said. “We are carrying on so much of the momentum, energy and experience from that campaign, we have knocked on almost 3,000 doors in two weeks, and so that's the way that we are going to win the special election.”

“Even though it's in such a short timeline, we feel confident in our ability to talk to our neighbors in the hope that people are caring to build on the movement,” she added.

This is the second local endorsement Mamdani has made since he was elected mayor, previously endorsing ally Brad Lander in his bid for Congress in Brooklyn.

There are two other Queens races where DSA candidates are in the running, including Aber Kawas in Assembly District 34 and David Orkin in Assembly District 38.

The mayor-elect stopped short of making any other endorsements when asked by the Eagle on Saturday about how he plans to weigh in on other local races.

“As soon as we have more decisions to announce, we will be sure to do so,” he said. “It'll always come back to who will be able to fight for the people of this city, especially for the future they so deeply deserve.”