Thread by @danielmarans

New: Rana Abdelhamid, a progressive activist and founder of a women's self-defense group, is challenging Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) from the left. huffpost.com/entry/rana-abd… via @HuffPostPol

Abdelhamid, an Astoria, Queens, native, told me that the pandemic exposed inequities she's experienced her whole life.

“It’s time for ... a representative who will fight for all of us ― not just certain groups or certain neighborhoods.”

Abdelhamid had to move six times as a kid due to rising rents and her dad had to give up on a deli he owned for the same reason. Her mother was hospitalized with COVID.

She wants to focus on housing. "It’s an issue that impacts gender justice, racial justice, climate justice."

Abdelhamid founded a women's self-defense group after experiencing an Islamophobic attack.

She supports "defunding" the police, ie, reducing funding and spending it on "community infrastructure."

Maloney was a classic 1990s, early 00s Democrat with plenty of right-leaning votes, but she's also a member of @USProgressives and co-sponsor of Medicare for All and the Green New Deal.

What the new NY-12 will look like is a key variable. If Astoria gets cut out and more of Manhattan put in, that could help Maloney.

Last two cycles, Suraj Patel fought Maloney to within a handful of points.

But the suspicion with which the movement left greeted him deprived him of a unified anti-Maloney bloc.

Now Abdelhamid says his time has passed.

Cutting-room floor: Abdelhamid, a former @amnestyusa board member and daughter of Egyptian immigrants, believes the U.S. should make human rights a bigger factor in how it delivers aid, including to Egypt and Israel.

She doesn't support BDS.

Final point: Abdelhamid's full-time job is in marketing for Google.

This post is an example of her work: blog.google/outreach-initi…

Significant first endorsement from an elected here: