Aber Kawas, a 34-year-old Palestinian-American community organizer from Brooklyn, has won the New York State Senate seat for District 12, becoming the first Palestinian-American woman — and the first hijab-wearing Palestinian-American woman — elected to the state legislature, detikNews reported, with roughly 75 percent of the vote in Tuesday’s special election.
Here is why that matters. Kawas ran as a Democrat backed by the Democratic Socialists of America, the same left-wing organization whose candidate Zohran Mamdani won the New York City mayoral race last year. Her victory, confirmed as counting reached 90 percent, extends a wave of DSA-backed wins in New York and signals the growing electoral weight of pro-Palestinian voices in American politics at a moment of intense national debate over the war in Gaza.
Kawas ran on “fund dignity, fight destruction” — and won 75 percent
The special election was held on Tuesday, November 3, in a district that stretches across much of Queens — Astoria, Long Island City, Sunnyside, Woodside, Ridgewood, Maspeth, Elmhurst, Glendale, and Jackson Heights, according to Warta Ekonomi. Kawas captured about 75 percent of the vote once 90 percent of ballots were counted, detikNews and NU Online reported; Spectrum News NY1, cited by Liputan6.com, put the figure slightly lower at 74.3 percent. After her win, Kawas posted on X: “We made history.”
| Figure | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Vote share (90% counted) | ~75% (Spectrum News NY1: 74.3%) | detikNews, NU Online; Liputan6.com |
| Age | 34 | detikNews |
| Years as community organizer before politics | More than 15 | CNN Indonesia, Liputan6.com |
| District | New York State Senate District 12 (Queens) | detikNews, Warta Ekonomi |
Her campaign slogan, “Fund Dignity, Fight Destruction,” split neatly into two halves. The first covered universal healthcare, fast and reliable public transit, and affordable housing. The second covered climate action, immigrant protection, and a refusal to fund war — a direct reference to U.S. military aid to Israel.
From post-9/11 Brooklyn to a deported father and a protest arrest
Kawas was born and raised in Brooklyn, the daughter of Palestinian immigrants who arrived in the United States in the 1990s. She has said she grew up feeling accepted in her neighborhood — until the September 11, 2001 attacks changed that. Muslim families around her, she told CNN Indonesia, began living with fear of surveillance and deportation. Her father was deported to Jordan while she was still in high school, and the family’s finances shifted after that.
Before entering electoral politics, Kawas spent more than 15 years organizing around workers’ rights, immigrant communities, and Palestinian solidarity. In May 2023, she worked with Mamdani — then a state assemblyman — and State Senator Jabari Brisport on a bill dubbed the “Not On Our Dime! Ending New York Funding Act,” which would have barred New York-registered charities from funding groups tied to Israeli settlements. The bill failed amid opposition from other legislators, but it marked Kawas’s first major attempt to use government to act on Palestinian rights. She has said that before working with Mamdani she was skeptical of politicians, but watching him use his office to do something unprecedented in New York changed her view.
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This year, Kawas was arrested during a protest against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to New York for the UN General Assembly, and released. She also criticized a $750,000 contract between the NYPD and the surveillance firm Cognyte, which the police department canceled last week after objections from civil rights groups.
Why a state senate seat in Queens reverberates beyond New York
Kawas’s win is part of a broader pattern: a growing cohort of DSA candidates in the 2026 election cycle, following Mamdani’s mayoral victory in 2025. Her endorsements came from Mamdani, Senator Bernie Sanders, and Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib — three of the most prominent progressive voices aligned with Palestinian rights in national politics. Kawas also campaigned on the “New York For All Act,” which would bar state and local agencies from cooperating with federal immigration enforcement.
