New York (GNP): Aber Kawas has won the New York State Senate District 12 seat, making history as the first hijab-wearing Palestinian American to serve in the state legislature. She took about 75 per cent of the vote with 90 per cent counted when the race was called.
She announced the result on social media with a short message saying that she and her supporters had made history. She is also described as the first Palestinian Muslim woman elected to the legislature, and she joins a small group of Palestinian Americans elected at state level across the United States.
The win is the end of a quick rise for a first-time candidate. Kawas, a community organiser from Queens, secured the Democratic nomination in June in a heavily Democratic stretch of the borough. She ran as a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, with endorsements from New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, Senator Bernie Sanders and Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib.
Her campaign slogan was “Fund dignity, fight destruction”. The first half covered healthcare for all, fast and reliable public transport and affordable housing. The second covered action on climate change, protection for immigrants and her “No money for war” position.
Her path to the Senate began in organising. Kawas spent more than 15 years campaigning for workers’ rights, immigrant communities and Palestinian rights before entering politics. In 2023, she joined a coalition of activists working at local level to disrupt funding for Israel’s military occupation of Palestinian land.
That work led to the “Not On Our Dime” campaign, which sought to bar New York nonprofits from funding groups that support the occupation. Mamdani, then an Assembly member, and State Senator Jabari Brisport worked with her on the bill, and Brisport sponsored it in May 2023. Strong opposition from lawmakers meant it never became law, but Kawas says the experience showed her what an elected official could achieve.
Her stance on immigration comes from her own family history. Born and raised in Brooklyn to Palestinian parents who moved to the US in the 1990s, she saw her father deported to Jordan while she was in high school. She says the family’s finances and wellbeing suffered, and that her siblings had to work from a young age to help their mother.
That experience shapes her promise to end New York’s cooperation with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). She backs the New York For All Act, which would bar state and local agencies from assisting federal civil immigration enforcement.
She has also challenged the idea that a political career is impossible for those who speak up for Palestinian rights. Earlier this year she was among dozens arrested at a protest against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s arrival in New York for the United Nations General Assembly, and she was later released. Her campaign also drew heavy attacks from right-wing media, which she and her supporters dismissed as smears.
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Her stance on surveillance fits the same pattern. Earlier this month, she criticised a $750,000 deal between the New York Police Department (NYPD) and the Israeli company Cognyte to develop AI-powered phone tracking. She said it threatened the rights of all New Yorkers, and the NYPD backed out last week after criticism from civil rights groups.
Kawas arrives in Albany at a time when the state legislature is at the centre of national debates over immigration, housing affordability and US policy toward Israel. One tally counted at least 51 Muslim Americans on ballots nationwide, from the US Senate to city councils.
Aber Kawas said, “New Yorkers want change and a community safety system that values people’s lives.”
Managing Editor at Global News Pakistan (GNP), with a Bachelor's degree in International Relations from Riphah International University, graduated with a Gold Medal. Reach out at sabahtareengnp@gmail.com
