Diamant Hysenaj, GOP businessman and immigrant from Kosovo, to challenge AOC

A Republican city real-estate developer says his experience with war in his native Kosovo will help him topple Democratic Socialist Rep.Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.“I came here as a young kid and had to make my way in a tough neighborhood in The Bronx,” said congressional hopeful Diamant Hysenaj, a 42-year-old Albanian immigrant and president of the construction and building firm DCG New York, to The Post.“My life could have gone another direction, but I worked hard, tried to fit in as best I could as an outsider and achieved the American Dream: a successful business, a beautiful family and a calling to serve,” the GOPer said.Hysenaj said his upbringing growing up on a farm in Kosovo, then experiencing war and the break-up of the former Yugoslavia, also prepares him to fight to represent the immigrant-heavy 14th House District encompassing parts of The Bronx and Queens — a bid considered a long shot against the popular progressive AOC.“Imagine a story that runs through nearly half of NY-14 — immigrants, dreamers like me,” Hysenaj said.

“It begins on a dusty farm in Kosovo, 1982.“Thirty-six of us — cousins, aunts, uncles — crammed into three weathered houses, alive with laughter and my nana’s cooking.

My parents, hands rough from factory shifts in the old Yugoslav regime, carved out a life that felt golden to me.I was a kid then, chasing chickens, oblivious to the war creeping closer— shielded by love, by family, by a world they kept steady just for us.

“That was my beginning,” Hysenaj said.“Then, 1991.Fade to black.

A dictator’s grip tightens, and we’re gone—my parents, my sister, me, a suitcase of hope — landing in The Bronx.The streets hit hard: gangs lurking, a skinny kid scrapping to belong.

No welfare, just work.”He earned an associate degree from SUNY Westchester Community College.“I rebuilt from zero once, found my passion in real estate.Bronx, Queens, Brooklyn, Manhattan —homes, restaurants, buildings — I ...