May 12, 2023
Anna Kaplan, a former Democratic state senator in New York, has filed papers to challenge scandal-plagued Republican Rep. George Santos next year.
Kaplan, who fled Iran as a girl, presents herself as a stark contrast to the incumbent, who has lied about his grandparents fleeing anti-Jewish persecution during World War II.
Santos recently announced his reelection bid despite facing congressional and federal investigations into a host of issues, including campaign finance issues, a sexual misconduct accusation and top-to-bottom lies about his personal history.
He was indicted on several federal charges in mid-May after Kaplan announced her candidacy.
Kaplan joins several Democrats who have already launched campaigns for Santos’ seat, which he won in a big upset last fall.
Born Anna Monahemi in Tabriz, Kaplan’s parents sent her to the US for safety when she was 13, during the Iranian revolution. After arriving in Brooklyn as part of an international effort to protect Iranian Jewish children, she lived with a foster family in Chicago and learned English. The US government granted her political asylum.
Kaplan, now 57, settled in Great Neck, on Long Island, New York, and In 2018, became the highest-ranking Persian-Jewish elected official in the state as a state senator.
After serving two terms, she lost her reelection bid in last year’s midterms.
This is not Kaplan’s first race for the US House. In 2016 she ran for a seat held by Rep. Steve Israel after he announced his retirement, but came in fourth place in the Democratic primary, losing to former Rep. Tom Suozzi, who retired last year.
Santos repeatedly referred to his Jewish ancestry during last year’s campaign, calling himself a “Latino Jew.” He claimed his grandparents fled anti-Jewish persecution in Ukraine and then Belgium during World War II. But a review of genealogy records by the Jewish Forward newspaper, showed that both of his maternal grandparents were born in Brazil before the Nazis rose to power. In February, Santos suggested his grandparents falsified documents when they arrived in Brazil to show that they had been born there.
Jews make up 11 percent of the congressional district’s population, according to David Pollock, associate executive director of the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York.
Several other Democrats have already launched challenges for the seat, which also includes parts of the borough of Queens, in New York City.
But Santos will first have to win the Republican nomination. The local GOP committee has strongly opposed him and has been demanding he resign. He is expected to draw much primary opposition. His best chance of winning the primary is likely to be if he draws lots of opposition and they split up the anti-Santos vote.
