Aber Kawas — a DSA member who once described 9/11 as a terror attack that a “couple people did” — clinched the Democratic nomination for a Queens state Senate seat Tuesday night.

The controversial self-described “Muslim civil rights advocate” easily bested Assemblyman Steven Raga (D-Queens) with about 60% of the vote in the Democratic primary for the state Senate’s District 12.

“Together we have elected the first Palestinian-American woman in the state Senate,” she said Tuesday night while celebrating her win with supporters.

Aber Kawas speaks on Wednesday, June 24, 2026, after winning her primary. William C Lopez/NY Post

“And that is why we say another world is possible,” she continued. “That is a world where Gaza is free to live. That is a world where working class communities in Queens, in New York, all over the United States, all over the world have dignity in their lives.”

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Kawas, who was endorsed by fellow anti-Israel pol Mayor Zohran Mamdani, will likely cinch the seat representing a swath of western Queens and replace retiring state Sen. Mike Gianaris (D-Queens).

She has a long trail of incendiary comments, including criticizing federal holidays and eyebrow-raising remarks on the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks.

“The system of capitalism and racism and white supremacy et cetera – and Islamophobia – have all been used to colonize lands, to take resources from other people and so this is a long trajectory and were just seeing the manifestations of that continuation with 9/11,” she said during a 2017 panel.

“The idea we have to apologize for a terror attack that a couple of people did and then there is no apology or reparations for genocides and for slavery, et cetera – is something I find reprehensible,” she said.

(From left) Diana Moreno, Claire Valdez, Aber Kawas, David Orkin and Samantha Kattan. William C Lopez/NY Post

Kawas also has been listed as a speaker for CAIR, a controversial Muslim charity accused of Hamas links.

The 34-year-old expressed solidarity for two men later convicted in terrorism cases in a series of now-deleted Tumblr posts from the early-mid 2010s,  the Free Beacon reported in November.

Kawas described Ahmed Ferhani, who pleaded guilty in 2012 to plotting to blow up a Manhattan synagogue, as her “brother … whose family I knew,” according to the report.

She also reportedly hailed Fahad Hashami, who was arrested in 2006 and pleaded guilty in 2010 to conspiracy to provide military support to al-Qaida, claiming he and such prisoners were “living martyrs… teaching us lessons in patience, sacrifice and integrity.”

Kawas later described the case as an example of “post-9/11 abuse of the judicial and carceral system against Muslim defendants,” in a City and State interview.

“Many civil rights organizations raised serious concerns about the fairness of his trial,” she argued. “And as a young high school student, this was a galvanizing case for me.”  

She also railed against American holidays in an online journal in 2015.

Aber Kawas holds up posters at a rally in Queens on June 11, 2026. Xavier Diaz/AdMedia / SplashNews.com

“Whether it is July 4th, Thanksgiving, Veterans, Columbus or now Labor Day, we enjoy days off that are supposed to be victories for people, when they truly represent the silencing and destruction of our movements,” she posted.

Her campaign highlighted her push for universal healthcare, fast transit for all and affordable housing while noting she previously worked with Mayor Zohran Mamdani to stop New York tax dollars from funding the Israeli military and Israeli settlements.

Kawas’ victory was widely celebrated by the far-left, including the Democratic Socialists of America.

“Palestine was on the ballot, and now a Palestinian-American democratic socialist is going to Albany,” the Big Apple’s DSA chapter wrote.

Along with an endorsement from Mamdani, Kawas also received the support from Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and a hodge-podge of lefty state and city lawmakers and advocacy groups.

While Gianaris, who held a significant amount of power as deputy majority leader and chair of Senate Democrats’ campaign arm in Albany, made endorsements in several other primary races, he did not weigh in on his successor.