Diana Moreno will take Zohran Mamdani’s Queens 36th district. Derek French/SOPA Images/ShutterstockThree Big Apple politicos, including a Democratic socialist, got new gigs in state government as a result of Tuesday’s special election.
City Council Member Erik Bottcher (D-3) will serve as a state senator to Chelsea’s district 47, while former City Council Majority Leader Keith Powers (D-NY) replaces Council Member Harvey Epstein (D-2) in Manhattan’s 74th Assembly district.
Diana Moreno (D-NY), a 38-year-old socialist community organizer, will take over Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s seat in Queens 36th Assembly district.
former council majority leader Keith Powers will take over district 47 for newly minted council member Harvey Epstein. Robert MillerEx-council members Bottcher and Powers both coasted to easy victory over their Republican opponents, while Moreno, who was endorsed by Mamdani and the Democratic Socialists of America, faced a slightly more crowded field.
The democratic candidate went up against two other members of the DSA–getting caught in the middle of a political standoff between the mayor and his one-time close ally Congresswoman Nydia Velázquez.
The retiring Queens rep. endorsed Muslim socialist Rana Abdelhamid for the seat in her district. The move came after Velázquez expressed frustration over Mamdani’s decision not to back her preferred candidate, Antonio Reynoso, for her soon-to-be-open congressional seat.
“Honeymoons are short, and people need to pay attention to the work at hand,” Velázquez told the New York Times after Mamdani revealed he was endorsing DSA candidate Claire Valdez for Velázquez’s role.
Erik Bottcher will serve as State Senator for the 47th district. He is expected to be replaced by his chief of staff, Carl Wilson. Paul MartinkaMoreno ultimately nabbed Tktk percent of votes, while Abdelhamid got a modest tktk. A third candidate and fellow DSA member, Mary Jobaida, fell short with tktk percent.
Bottcher got an overwhelming tktk% stamp of approval from his assembly district, which overlaps with the council district he has served since 2021 and was re-elected to in 2025.
Bottcher’s Chief of Staff Carl Wilson is the favorite to replace him in a separate special election expected to be held in the Spring.
Powers, who served City Council’s district 4 from 2018 until the end of his term in 2025, will take over Epstein’s district after receiveing tktk% of the vote over Republican Joseph Foley.
