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 to unseat New York City Councilwoman Shahana Hanif in New York City's 39th City Council district.
Early life and education.
Kornberg is originally from Northern California. She is the daughter of Roger D. Kornberg, a Nobel laureate in Chemistry, and the granddaughter of Arthur Kornberg, a Nobel laureate in Medicine.
As a student at Stanford University in 2013, she received a fellowship award to study in Israel for the summer. She had previously studied for a year at the Nahshon academy at Kibbutz Shoval in the northern Negev, where she started an environmental initiative mobilizing pre-military academies to lobby the Knesset.
She received a BA from Stanford University, an MPA from Columbia University and a PhD from Oxford University.
Academic career.
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. 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. 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.
in 2023, Kornberg published the book "Inside Congressional Committees: Function and Dysfunction in Lawmaking," in which she argues for the importance of Congressional committees and calls for reinvigorating committee procedures to make Congress more effective. Although she initially did not intend to focus on gender in her research, she realized that women in Congress are not only underrepresented but also lack influence, with limited opportunities for committee leadership roles.
2025 New York City Council campaign.
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.
She calls herself a "pragmatic progressive" and has expressed that education, health care, transportation, and affordable housing are the issues she sees as important. She views Hanif as prone to protest moves and political posturing rather than forming relationships to accomplish goals. Like Hanif, she supports immigrant rights and reducing the cost of child care, but differentiates herself on public safety, which she says Hanif does not sufficiently prioritize.
She opted into NYC public financing and, as of March 6, 2025, her campaign was funded by 383 donors, with an average donation of $164. 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. 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 Republicans in the past. The group also noted that Kornberg had closer ties with Blavatnik than she had previously acknowledged to the press.
Kornberg received support from several PACs, some of which formed specifically to challenge Hanif. These include real estate groups, the Madison Square Garden and James L. Dolan-backed Coalition to Restore New York, and an Uber-funded PAC, which Hanif attributes to her own advocacy for gig workers.
On the night of the primary, with more than 90% of votes counted, Kornberg trailed Hanif, who had nearly 70% of the vote.
Personal life.
Kornberg is a resident of Park Slope, Brooklyn, living in the borough for more than six years. She has a son. In addition to English, Kornberg speaks Arabic and Hebrew.