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Maya Kornberg | |
|---|---|
| Personal details | |
| Born | 1991 (age 33–34) |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Children | 1 |
| Relatives | Roger D. Kornberg (father) Arthur Kornberg (grandfather) |
| Education | Stanford University (BA) Columbia University (MPA) Oxford University (PhD) |
| Website | Campaign website |
Maya Kornberg (born 1991) is an American political scientist and commentator. A senior research fellow and manager in the Brennan Center's Elections and Government Program, she is the author of Inside Congressional Committees: Function and Dysfunction in Lawmaking, published by Columbia University Press. In 2025, Kornberg ran an unsuccessful campaign in the Democratic Primary in New York City's 39th City Council district.
Kornberg is originally from Northern California. [1] She is the daughter of Roger D. Kornberg, a Nobel laureate in Chemistry, and the granddaughter of Arthur Kornberg, a Nobel laureate in Medicine. [2] [3]
Kornberg has received many fellowships and grants including the Schultz fellowship, the Karten fellowship, the Norman Chester Fund grant and more. [4] Before college, she was active in environmental activism. [3]
She received a BA from Stanford University, an MPA from Columbia University and a PhD from Oxford University. [5]
Kornberg is Senior Research Fellow and Manager at the NYU Brennan Center for Justice, where her research focuses on information and disinformation in politics, democratic governance, and political violence. [6] [1] She has worked on democratic governance issues at several organizations and institutions. She has held positions at the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), NYU Govlab, and Public Agenda. Kornberg has also taught undergraduate and graduate political science courses at NYU, Georgetown, Oxford, and American University. [5] [7] Kornberg's commentary has appeared in The Washington Post, NPR, BBC, CSPAN, and Newsweek , and her work has been cited in The New York Times, Bloomberg News, and MSNBC. [8] [ unreliable source? ]
in 2023, Kornberg published the book Inside Congressional Committees: Function and Dysfunction in Lawmaking, [5] [9] in which she argues for the importance of Congressional committees and calls for reinvigorating committee procedures to make Congress more effective. [10] [11] Her work and scholarship also focus on building political power for women. [12]
On December 3, 2024, Kornberg announced her intention to run for the New York City's 39th City Council district seat against the incumbent, Shahana Hanif in the June 2025 Democratic primary. [13] [7]
She calls herself a "pragmatic progressive" and has expressed that education, health care, transportation, and affordable housing are the issues she sees as important. [1] [14] As part of her pragmatic progressive approach, she values coalition building rather than protest. [1] Like Hanif, she supports immigrant rights and reducing the cost of child care. [1] [15]
She opted into NYC public financing and, as of the end of the campaign, it was funded by 604 donors, with an average donation of $161. [1] [16] Her campaign has received support from public figures including Leonard Stern, Alice Tisch, Daniel S. Loeb, and Len Blavatnik, who donated the maximum for council campaigns, $1,050. [17] [18] A local progressive group, Indivisible Brooklyn, which endorsed Hanif, criticized Kornberg's acceptance of money from two donors, Loeb and Blavatnik who have also significantly supported both Republicans and Democrats in the past. [18] The group also claimed that Kornberg had closer ties with Blavatnik than she had previously acknowledged to the press. [18] Kornberg refuted this claim in an interview with the New York Times. [15] [19]
Several PACs were involved in the race, some of which formed specifically to challenge Hanif, and some of which supported Hanif. These include real estate groups, [20] the Madison Square Garden and James L. Dolan-backed Coalition to Restore New York, Abundant New York (a real estate group supporting Hanif) and an Uber-funded PAC that spent on many council races. [6]
On the night of the primary, with more than 90% of votes counted, Kornberg won over 11,000 votes and lost to Hanif, who had nearly 70% of the vote. [21]
Kornberg is a resident of Park Slope, Brooklyn, living in the borough for more than six years. [1] [22] She has a son. [23] In addition to English, Kornberg speaks Arabic, Spanish, and Hebrew. [15]