Carolyn Maloney Draws Progressive Challenger In Re-Election Bid

NEW YORK, NY — Longtime congresswoman Carolyn Maloney has drawn another challenger in her pursuit for another term next year: Rana Abdelhamid, an activist whose candidacy is being backed by the same group that helped launch the career of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

Abdelhamid, a 27-year-old democratic socialist who announced her bid for Congress on Wednesday, will seek to oust Maloney, who has represented the 12th District since 1992 and launched her re-election campaign in March.

They will likely be joined in the Democratic primary by Suraj Patel, a 37-year-old attorney who ran against Maloney in 2018 and 2020, coming within a few points of defeating her last year. Patel told Patch last month that he plans to run again in 2022.

Each candidate hails from a different part of the district — Maloney from Manhattan's Upper East Side, Patel from the East Village, and Abdelhamid from Astoria, Queens.

Abdelhamid is being backed by Justice Democrats, the progressive group that also recruited Jamal Bowman in his successful challenge to U.S. Rep. Eliot Engel in the Bronx last year.

"Failed leadership"

In a two-minute launch video Wednesday, Abdelhamid described an incident when a man tried to rip her hijab from her head when she was a teenager — an attack that led her to found a nonprofit that trains women in self-defense.

I was 16 when a man grabbed my hijab and tried to rip it from my head.

New Yorkers helped me find the courage to fight back and organize for safety and power.

I'm running for Congress because we need true representation that reflects all of us, not just those at the top. #NY12 pic.twitter.com/XT2giaEpNk
— Rana Abdelhamid (@RanaForCongress) April 14, 2021

She also took pointed aim at Maloney, who she said has "spent 30 years taking millions of dollars from the developers and Wall Street banks profiting off our suffering."

In a news release, Abdelhamid assailed the district's inequalities, which she said had driven her family out of their longtime home, and which she attributed to Maloney's "failed leadership."

Maloney, 75, chairs the powerful House Oversight Committee and has touted her record of securing federal dollars for her district — a map on her website lays out the projects she helped fund, as the New York Times first noted Wednesday.

The 12th District currently includes much of Manhattan's East Side as well as Western Queens and Greenpoint in Brooklyn, but could be entirely reshaped by redistricting next year.

Abdelhamid will run on her support for progressive goals like Medicare for All and the Green New Deal, the Times reported Wednesday. Maloney has co-sponsored both bills in Congress, her supporters point out.

"Now more than ever, our city needs innovative leaders to spearhead our rebuilding from the COVID-19 crisis, and I am proud to say that I have started rolling up my sleeves," Maloney said in a statement last month.

When I first ran for office, they said I was too young. They told me I’d never win because I was a woman.

$10 billion dollars to NYC and 70 bills signed into law later, I say never take no for an answer and: pic.twitter.com/eWfiezJn9y
— Carolyn B. Maloney (@CarolynBMaloney) March 31, 2021

Previous coverage:

• Carolyn Maloney To Seek Re-Election, Setting Up Patel Rematch
• Suraj Patel Concedes Defeat To Maloney In Congressional Race