Shahana Hanif, the first Muslim woman elected to the City Council in New York City, has held onto her seat in Tuesday’s Democratic primary contest, which had turned into a tense race where the politics of the Middle East became a focal point.
Ms. Hanif, who represents Brooklyn neighborhoods including Park Slope, Windsor Terrace and Kensington, defeated her challenger, Maya Kornberg, a senior research fellow at the Brennan Center for Justice, according to The Associated Press.
Ms. Kornberg, 33, said she decided to challenge Ms. Hanif, 34, who was elected in 2021, because of the councilwoman’s focus on the plight of Palestinians in Gaza, and she regularly characterized her as being insufficiently concerned with the needs of the district.
“The Council member’s disproportionate focus on that issue and taking public divisive stances on that issue, instead of focusing on the local issues facing our district — on fixing potholes and planting trees — is precisely the progressive attitude we need to change,” Ms. Kornberg said in a recent television interview.
The race was animated this winter by the vandalism of an Israeli restaurant in Park Slope. Ms. Hanif condemned it, but some constituents felt she had not been vocal enough in calling out the vandalism as antisemitic. In an interview before the primary, Ms. Hanif said her opponents had tried and failed to belittle her efforts to bring more housing to Brooklyn, among other priorities.
She cited as an example her efforts to rezone the site of the Arrow Linen & Uniform Supply Company in Windsor Terrace for housing. Many community members opposed the redevelopment, which passed the City Council earlier this year. Before it did, Ms. Hanif worked to scale it down and to ensure that more affordable units were included.
“My campaign has been a multiracial and intergenerational coalition of people who want to build bridges,” said Ms. Hanif, who was supported by and campaigned aggressively with the progressive mayoral candidates Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani and Comptroller Brad Lander.
“If you look at the other side, you’re not going to see anything close to that sort of coalition.”
In the end, Ms. Hanif, who grew up in the district in Kensington, prevailed in part because of her grass-roots outreach in immigrant communities. The efforts helped her withstand about $400,000 in super PAC spending from, among others, Uber and companies associated with Madison Square Garden, deployed to boost Ms. Kornberg’s campaign and attack Ms. Hanif.
Benjamin Oreskes is a reporter covering New York State politics and government for The Times.
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