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Accusations of voter suppression fl y Queens after
Republican candidates booted off primary ballot
BY BILL PARRY
The same group that backed Congresswoman Alexandria
Ocasio-Cortez in her upset of Joe Crowley
in 2018 has found a primary challenger from Astoria
to run against 14-term Congresswoman Carolyn
Maloney.
The Justice Democrats are throwing their support
behind Rana Abdelhamid, a 27-year-old member
of the Democratic Socialists of America, a daughter
of Egyptian immigrants and community organizer
who launched her campaign last week in the Little
Egypt section of Steinway Street.
“As someone who has personally confronted inequality
and displacement, I know that 28 years of
Carolyn Maloney’s failed leadership has left too
many New Yorkers behind,” Abdelhamid said. “As
the pandemic has exacerbated inequities in our communities,
this district deserves a representative who
fights for renters instead of developers, and small
shops instead of big banks. A leader who went to New
York City public schools, isn’t a millionaire, and answers
to all of us — not just the corporate PACs who
fund her reelection campaigns.”
In her campaign video, Abdelhamid is shown as
a fighter who has dedicated her life to protecting her
neighbors and communities when politicians fail to
TIMESLEDGER | QNS.12 COM | APRIL 23-APRIL 29, 2021
act. After she was assaulted for wearing her hijab at
age 16, Abdelhamid launched Malikah, a nonprofit
that builds power for women and girls from marginalized
backgrounds through self-defense, healing,
organizing and financial literacy.
Now, after watching twin crises — the pandemic
and the recession — devastate her community, Abdelhamid
launched her primary challenge for Congress
on her vision of housing justice and economic
security for all believing that the people who power
New York should be able to afford to live, work and
thrive in New York.
Growing up, rising rent and poor housing conditions
forced her family to move six times before she
was 9 years old. Despite owning and operating a local
deli, her father had to take on a second job working
long nights as a cab driver to make ends meet.
Eventually, rent hikes forced him to give up the
deli her family built from the ground up. Like too
many New Yorkers during the pandemic, Abdelhamid
says the experience gave her firsthand knowledge
of what it’s like to grow up in a working-class
community in an “unequal city, fighting against a
cruel economic system that threatens lives and livelihoods
every day.” She added that it is why she is
running to bring housing, economic security and
racial justice to NY-12.
“As someone who has fought tirelessly for her community
against racism and economic security, we’re
proud to support Rana Abdelhamid’s campaign for
progressive change,” Justice Democrats Executive
Director Alexandra Rojas said. “Voter and activists
all across the district have made clear that they want
to help usher in a new generation of leadership into
the Democratic Party free or corporate money and
dedicated to uplifting all of our communities.”
When Maloney announced her reelection bid last
month she noted an unmatched record for delivering
federal money to her district, including more than
$12.95 billion to New York state and $5.6 billion to
New York City in the American Rescue Plan during
the COVID-19 crisis.
Read more on PoliticsNY.com.
BY CLARISSA SOSIN
A Republican PAC in
Queens is crying foul and accusing
the county party and
the New York City Board of
Elections (BOE) of voter suppression.
The allegation comes
after their candidates were denied
spots on the Republican
primary ballot.
The PAC, the Queens
County Republican Patriots,
held a press conference outside
of the BOE’s office in
Queens last week after the petitions
of 31 Republican candidates
were disqualified for
a technicality and the candidates
were excluded from the
ballot. They filed a petition
in Queens Supreme Court on
April 16 asking the court to
validate the ballots.
“You know with Georgia,
other states, requiring signatures
and this or that and everything
else. Well these guys
aren’t even letting the voters
of Queens know that there are
other candidates who want to
stand up and run,” said Joseph
Concannon, lead organizer of
the Republican Patriots who
petitioned to get on the ballot
as a candidate for Republican
State Committee in Assembly
District 33, the day after the
press conference. “They’re
beating us back before we
even get a chance to get onto
the battlefield.”
This is a continuation of an
ongoing effort by the party to
maintain the status quo and
their stranglehold on Republican
power in the county,
Concannon said. Instead of
encouraging the growth of the
party through encouraging
voters and new candidates,
they are restricting the party
to the inner circle of those already
in power.
“People would argue that
they didn’t even know there
was the Republican Party
in Queens County,” he said.
“They’re looking to take in
all the power themselves, and
basically keep anybody out
that’s not in agreement with
them. And we don’t agree with
them.”
Concannon said that the
petitions were disqualified
because they listed the election
districts and volume
number in what would have
otherwise been a blank space
in the middle of the petition.
Nothing in election law prohibits
doing this, he said, but
the BOE’s counsel made the
case that it was confusing to
voters and the petitions were
disqualified.
Read more on
PoliticsNY.com.
The Queens County Republican Patriots held a press conference in
front of the Queens County Board of Elections office.
Photo courtesy of Queens County Republican Patriots
RANA ABDELHAMID
Astoria community organizer
launches bid for Congress
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