Progressive South Asian networks turn against Queens Assemblywoman Jenifer Rajkumar

The split inside Queens progressive politics now runs through two of its highest-profile South Asian elected officials. Jenifer Rajkumar, the first South Asian-American woman ever elected to a New York State office, is facing pushback from the same networks that helped elevate Zohran Mamdani, turning a once-symbolic breakthrough into a live test of whether ethnic representation can still unite a coalition when ideology and alliances pull in different directions.

Rajkumar represents Glendale, Ozone Park, Richmond Hill, Ridgewood, and Woodhaven in the New York State Assembly, where she took office on January 1, 2021 after winning the 38th Assembly District seat. She and Mamdani were both elected in 2020 and were widely described at the time as the first South Asian Americans elected to the lower house of the state Legislature. That shared milestone once tied them to the same generational story line; now it highlights how quickly those lanes have diverged inside the Democratic coalition.

Rajkumar has built her profile around a record that blends symbolic firsts with policy wins. Her campaign biography says she made Diwali a school holiday after a 30-year fight and helped pass the SMOKEOUT Act and the AAPI Commission. She also announced a campaign for New York City Public Advocate in January 2025, a move that raised her profile beyond the assembly district and put her in a broader citywide contest for influence among progressive voters, immigrant communities, and establishment Democrats.

Her relationship with Mayor Eric Adams has become part of the political argument around her. In March 2023, Adams joined Rajkumar for her Toast to the Great Women of Queens event, reinforcing a highly visible alliance at a moment when many progressive activists viewed Adams as an antagonist rather than an ally. That association now sits uneasily beside the South Asian progressive networks that have rallied around Mamdani and other left-leaning Queens figures.

A March 2025 Queens Power 100 list placed both Mamdani and Rajkumar among five Indian American leaders highlighted in Queens, alongside Shekar Krishnan, Udai Tambar, and Shivani Parikh. That overlap captures the central tension in the fight now unfolding around Rajkumar: descriptive representation may open the door, but it does not settle the question of who gets to define the movement once inside.