Aber Kawas becomes first Palestinian Muslim woman in NY legislature

NEW YORK (MNTV) – Aber Kawas, a Palestinian American community organizer from Queens, has been elected to the New York State Senate, making her the first Palestinian Muslim woman to win a seat in the state legislature.

Kawas announced her victory on Instagram on Tuesday night.

The win caps an improbable rise for the first-time candidate, who secured the Democratic nomination for Senate District 12 in June — the decisive contest in a heavily Democratic stretch of Queens — after running on a democratic-socialist platform with the backing of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and the city’s Democratic Socialists of America.

Born and raised in New York to Palestinian parents, Kawas built her campaign around housing and tenant protections, immigrant rights at a moment of aggressive federal immigration enforcement, and solidarity with Palestinians — themes that have animated a new generation of candidates since the start of Israel’s genocide in Gaza.

Her bid drew a barrage of attacks from right-wing media during the campaign, which she and her supporters dismissed as smears intended to delegitimize a Palestinian American seeking office.

Her election is the latest marker of a historic cycle for Muslim and Palestinian American political representation.

MNTV has identified at least 51 Muslim Americans on the ballot nationwide, from the US Senate to city councils, and Kawas joins a wave of candidates who have turned grassroots organizing into electoral power.

Kawas’s victory in Albany-bound District 12 adds a prominent Palestinian American voice to a state legislature at the center of national debates over immigration, housing affordability and US policy toward Israel.

This is a developing story and will be updated with official vote totals.