Former DSA leader Diana Moreno hopes to replace Zohran Mamdani in the Assembly

The New York City chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America is on the verge of electoral success, with polls saying DSA-backed Assembly Member Zohran Mamdani is leading the race to be the next mayor of New York City.

If Mamdani becomes mayor, that will leave a vacancy in the Assembly – one that DSA member Diana Moreno hopes to fill.

Moreno, who lives in Astoria, Queens, has been deeply involved in the democratic socialist organization, serving as co-chair of NYC-DSA’s Queens branch from 2021 to 2023 and as NYC-DSA’s communications coordinator from 2023 to 2024. She has worked to elect multiple DSA-backed candidates, including New York City Council Member Tiffany Cabán, Assembly Member Claire Valdez and state Sen. Kristen Gonzalez.

Now, Moreno is preparing to run for office herself to represent Assembly District 36 – the western Queens district represented by Mamdani that’s known as “the People’s Republic of Astoria” due to its strong support for DSA-backed candidates.

Moreno is the former deputy director of immigrant advocacy group New Immigrant Community Empowerment and the current communications manager for the New York State Nurses Association, though she plans to leave that job on Friday to focus full time on her Assembly campaign.

DSA members first approached Moreno about running to replace Mamdani in June, but she initially turned them down, concerned about how the commute to Albany would affect her family, particularly her 1-year-old son.

“I just really thought about kind of where I am personally in my life, having a young kid at home, and just personally being in a place of wanting to focus on my family and understanding that the Assembly schedule and travel would be hard,” she said.

As she watched the Trump administration ramp up its attacks on immigrant New Yorkers, though, she changed her mind.

“I realized that the very same reason why I declined the first time is the reason why I decided to say ‘yes,’ which is to fight for my children’s future,” she said. “Because this is a time that I think requires a lot of courage from all of us, and may require some personal sacrifice, but that’s the reason why I want to run for office – to defend Queens from the rising authoritarianism of the Trump administration and to deliver for the working families of our district.”

Her top legislative priority is free and universal child care – an issue she is very familiar with, since she’s currently paying about $2,700 per month for child care.

“It is such a huge financial strain on my family and on many young families, which is why so many who have young kids choose to leave New York City, and so I would want to champion that as a policy,” she said.

She also supports the New York for All Act (which would prohibit local law enforcement from collaborating with federal immigration authorities), the New York Health Act (which would implement single-payer universal health care at the state level) and the rest of the DSA’s legislative agenda.

Moreno is pitching herself to potential constituents as a reliable democratic socialist legislator who will fight for Mamdani’s agenda in Albany.

“Zohran can’t govern alone,” she said. “If he – when he becomes our next mayor, he’ll need many allies in Albany, and I’m prepared to be the strongest ally that you can have.”

If Mamdani is elected mayor, a special election for Assembly District 36 would take place early next year. The Democratic county committee will select the nominee for the special election – and if the county committee opts not to choose Moreno, then she would need to run on the Working Families Party line in the special election.

“I’m less concerned about what ballot line we run on as I am concerned of maintaining a movement-led candidate that shares the values of Zohran,” Moreno said.

There will be a Democratic primary following the special election, which Moreno said she may still participate in even if she doesn’t win the special election.

Moreno is not the only DSA member looking to succeed Mamdani. Mary Jobaida, who unsuccessfully ran for the Assembly in a neighboring district, filed to run for Assembly District 36 earlier this year. Rana Abdelhamid, a Muslim community organizer and the founder of the women’s self-defense organization Malikah, told City & State that she also plans to run for the seat. Like Moreno, both Jobaida and Abdelhamid are members of the DSA and are likely to seek the group’s endorsement.

“This is definitely a district where DSA political power is strong, so I would assume that anybody who seeks to represent the district would probably want the support of our organization,” Moreno said.

Given her deep ties to the DSA, influential leaders in the group are also backing her.

“I was part of the core team that elected Zohran to this seat in 2020, and I’ve organized alongside Zohran and Diana ever since on everything from helping Starbucks workers unionize to fighting the NRG peaker plant,” said Eric Thor, a former co-chair of NYC-DSA. “Diana has been on the front lines for years fighting for working New Yorkers. I can’t think of anyone better to carry the movement’s torch to Albany.”

But the DSA endorsement is ultimately up to the group’s members.

The NYC-DSA’s Electoral Working Group plans to hold a forum on Nov. 12 for candidates seeking the group’s endorsement in Assembly Districts 34 and 36, where DSA members will be able to ask the candidates questions. After the forum, the Electoral Working Group will vote on whether to recommend each candidate for endorsement. Next, members of the DSA’s Queens branch will vote on which candidate to endorse, if any. Finally, NYC-DSA’s Citywide Leadership Committee will vote on whether to approve the endorsement.

If NYC-DSA decides to endorse one of the candidates, other DSA members in the race would be expected to end their campaigns and work to elect the DSA membership’s preferred pick – though there’s no guarantee that they will.

There is one circumstance in which Moreno definitely will not run for Assembly.

“I will commit to you right here, right now: I will not primary Zohran if he doesn’t become mayor,” she said with a laugh.