Tiffany Cabán Sworn Into Vacant Astoria Council Seat

ASTORIA, QUEENS — After months without a local representative, Astorians finally have a new City Council member.

Tiffany Cabán was sworn in on Wednesday as the City Council Member for District 22, which encompasses Astoria, Rikers Island, and parts of Jackson Heights, Woodside and East Elmhurst.

Her swearing-in ceremony comes a month before other newly minted officials start work, since the District 22 seat has been vacant for the past eight months following longtime former Council Member Costa Constantinides' resignation in April.

On the morning of her ceremony, while pondering what to wear on Twitter, Cabán thanked her supporters

"Thank you to every single person who threw down with me to bring our unapologetically transformative vision into the halls of power," she wrote, adding "seriously though, what an insanely surreal moment for a working class Queens kid."

Cabán, who gained name recognition after she narrowly lost the 2019 Queens District Attorney race, won both the June Democratic primary and Nov. general election for City Council by wide margins.

She earned 62 percent of primary votes amid a field of five other Democrats, and won 60 percent of the general election vote against Republican Felicia Kalan and Green Party Candidate Edwin DeJesus.

With many eyeing Astoria as the epicenter of the borough's — and the city's — increasingly ascendent left, Cabán's victory is part of a larger effort to elect progressive Democrats to the city's local government, specifically including socialist candidates.