Samantha Kattan

Kattan describes herself as a first-generation American; her mother immigrated from Mexico and her father from Syria.[2] The Queens Ledger reports that she grew up in Austin, Texas, and studied urban planning at the University of Texas at Austin. After moving to Brooklyn in 2014, it says, she helped co-found tenant associations and neighborhood groups, including a Brownsville and East New York coalition called HOPE (Housing Organizers for People Empowerment).[6]

Kattan works as director of contracts at the Urban Homesteading Assistance Board, a nonprofit that helps tenants create housing co-ops, according to City & State; the Ledger says she previously directed organizing there. Her campaign website says she has spent years as a tenant organizer and that she is a working parent.[3][6][2] According to City & State, she has lived in Ridgewood, within the district, for more than five years.[3] Kattan joined the Democratic Socialists of America in 2017, according to City & State, which also reports she has played a key role in the group's electoral strategy and, in 2019, helped launch Phara Souffrant Forrest's Assembly campaign in Brooklyn. She identifies as a democratic socialist.[3][2]

According to City & State, Kattan filed on Dec. 31 to run for the Assembly seat held by Claire Valdez, who did not seek re-election; the Ledger describes the district as stretching from Long Island City through Sunnyside, Ridgewood and parts of Maspeth. On June 23, 2026 she won the Democratic primary with 66.8% over Melissa Orlando and Pia Rahman.[3][6][1] Her campaign website lists endorsements from the New York City Democratic Socialists of America, the New York Working Families Party, Mayor Zohran Mamdani, and Assembly Members Claire Valdez, Phara Souffrant Forrest, and Diana Moreno, among others.[2] She was unopposed in the November 3, 2026 general election, according to Ballotpedia and Wikipedia.[1][4]