Diana Moreno, were she to emerge victorious tomorrow, would have perhaps the largest shoes to fill of any first-term state legislator in New York State history.
Assembly District 36 in Queens, which spans the neighborhoods of Astoria and Long Island City, was, until recently, represented by none other than Zohran Mamdani. On his way to becoming the New York City mayor, Mamdani took the nation by storm: injecting “affordability” into the zeitgeist, coalescing renters into a political class, and winning back disaffected immigrant voters, while rooting his campaign in universal demands.
Mamdani, elected in 2020, built his political base in Astoria: visiting small businesses on Steinway Street (Little Egypt), worshipping at local mosques on Friday evenings, hosting community events and volunteer canvasses at Astoria Park, and attending Queens Democratic Socialists of America branch meetings. The coalition — young people, renters, Muslims, South Asians — that later propelled Mamdani to the mayoralty was first built in western Queens. Now, Mamdani has endorsed a like-minded successor, Diana Moreno, a fellow democratic socialist. Moreno is facing off with two other candidates (Rana Abdelhamid and Mary Jobaida) in the February 3 special election.
But to describe Moreno solely as an acolyte of Mamdani doesn’t do her or the movement that has helped propel her to the precipice of office justice. I met Moreno, thirty-eight, at the Little Flower Cafe on 36th Avenue, a favorite spot of locals. She stands a mighty five feet two inches, with double-braided hair that hangs out of her ZOHRAN FOR NYC beanie. If authenticity is the political currency of the day, Moreno has it in spades: polished rhetoric but raw conviction, the kind of emotion sorely lacking from the Democratic establishment. An immigrant who came to Queens like so many others in the hope of starting anew, Moreno has built a resilient life for herself as an organizer and mother.
Moreno is keenly aware…
Auteur: Michael Lange
