Mamdani-Backed Socialist Candidate Said July 4 ‘Means Nothing,’ Represents ‘Destruction’

A New York State Assembly candidate supported by Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani and the Democratic Socialists of America is facing scrutiny over resurfaced comments about American holidays.

Aber Kawas said in a Labor Day 2015 Tumblr post that “a day off means nothing, because liberation means everything,” the New York Post first reported.

“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 & destruction of our movements,” she wrote at the time.

“Today I do not celebrate a day off, I only recommit myself to a global movement that fights against the death, displacement, and exploitation of people for capital,” the candidate added.

Her campaign for Assembly District 34, which is in Queens, focuses on an “affordability crisis” and she claimed that “immigrants are being attacked while billions are spent to fund Israel’s genocide in Gaza” in an X post from earlier this month, saying on her campaign website that her parents are Palestinian refugees, but she was born in the Big Apple.

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This is not the first time past remarks of hers have come to light, as X user Drew Pavlou posted a clip of her discussing 9/11 as “a terror attack that like a couple of people did.”

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

“The idea we have to apologize for like a terror attack that like 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,” Kawas continued in the clip. The Post reported that she previously interned for the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and has been noted for her work with the group’s New York chapter.

The city’s DSA chapter recently touted its endorsement of Kawas, who posted to X that “proud to be running as a democratic socialist who will fight for freedom and dignity for immigrants, justice for Palestinians, and an affordable NY for all.”

The Daily Wire reached out to the Kawas and Mamdani campaigns for comment.

The New York Daily News reported on Mamdani’s endorsement of Kawas last month, as his nod could potentially be a major deal — in both good and bad ways — as he has become a national figure.

Kawas said in a November 10 Instagram post with herself, Mamdani, and others that people “can’t deny that the last two years of genocide in Palestine was part of what galvanized thousands to throw down for a campaign that represented a new kind of politics.”

If she’s elected to represent Queens in Albany, she might even pose a contrast to the Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul, as she retweeted an October 2023 post from Mamdani criticizing Hochul’s comments on a Gaza hospital strike in the Israel-Hamas conflict. The governor did eventually endorse Mamdani for mayor in September 2025.