Democrats Weigh Whether a Lawmaker’s Ethnicity Counts More Than Ideolog...

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Democrats Weigh Whether a Lawmaker’s Ethnicity Counts More Than Ideology

The same progressive South Asian networks that helped elect Zohran Mamdani as mayor in New York are mobilizing against Jenifer Rajkumar, a Queens assemblywoman.

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Jenifer Rajkumar, center, was the first South Asian American woman to be elected to the New York State Legislature.

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Shuran Huang for The New York Times

By

Sarah Chatta

April 25, 2026,

5:00 a.m. ET

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Outside a Sikh temple in the Little Punjab section of Queens, hundreds of people lined up around the block, waiting to receive plates of hot chickpea curry and deep-fried bhatura bread. It was the third Sunday in April, and the temple had prepared thousands of meals to celebrate the Indian harvest festival Vaisakhi.

Inside, the local assemblywoman, Jenifer Rajkumar, who had traded her signature red dress for one in harvest yellow, was working the crowd.

“Who here likes to have a Punjabi representative in office?” she asked the congregants, referring to herself. About half of them raised their hands.

Ms. Rajkumar registered faint disapproval. Everyone should raise their hands, she said, because “as a community, we have never been more powerful.”

She had a point. Last November, many of the people in the room had helped elect Zohran Mamdani as the first South Asian American to become the mayor of New York City. But as Ms. Rajkumar seeks another term in office, her race may test whether this community’s support of Mr. Mamdani was rooted more in identity or ideology.

Her Democratic primary opponent, David Orkin, is a democratic socialist who is also courting the mayor’s supporters, and earlier that afternoon, he had also visited the temple. He was accompanied by an entourage of progressive South Asian volunteers who helped to ingratiate him with the local community.

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