National Progressives Side With Mamdani in House Race Splitting NYC Left

Justice Democrats is wading into a high-profile congressional race in New York City, where a competition between the progressive Brooklyn borough president and a socialist first-term State Assembly member is testing competing visions for the future of the electoral left under Mayor Zohran Mamdani. 

The group is endorsing Claire Valdez, a State Assembly member from Queens and member of the Democratic Socialists of America, to replace retiring Rep. Nydia Velázquez in New York’s 7th Congressional District. Valdez launched her campaign last week alongside Mamdani and United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain, two of her highest-profile backers, in a signal that the race could prove divisive among the most influential figures in the Democratic Party’s left flank.

Several prominent New York City groups and progressives, including Public Advocate Jumaane Williams and City Council Members Sandy Nurse and Lincoln Restler, are endorsing Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso, a longtime ally and disciple of Velázquez who announced his candidacy to replace her early last month. 

Reynoso and Valdez may appear difficult for voters to distinguish on many fronts. They share several stated policy priorities — like Medicare for All, abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and ending U.S. military support for Israel —  and both have backgrounds in labor organizing. Reynoso served as a city council member from 2014 to 2021 before being elected borough president in 2021. Valdez was first elected to the State Assembly in 2024. Prior to that, she worked in visual arts at Columbia University and was an organizer with UAW.

“We need a Democratic Party with a real agenda for the working class — one that organizes to govern and governs to deliver,” Valdez said in a statement to The Intercept. “Justice Democrats have helped show what’s possible when we fight alongside working people and raise expectations about what politics can be. I’m proud to have their support as we keep building a movement that takes on the billionaire class and wins real power for working people.”

Valdez is the ninth congressional candidate Justice Democrats has endorsed so far this cycle in what the group, which rose to prominence backing fellow New York Democrat Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, describes as a national campaign to end the Democratic Party’s submission to corporate PACs and billionaire donors.

“At a time when working class communities nationwide are being screwed over by corporations and billionaire bosses, we need leaders like Claire in Congress who will bring the whole might of organized, worker power to Washington DC,” said Justice Democrats spokesperson Usamah Andrabi. “With her experience in both the labor movement and State Assembly, this is a real opportunity to transform Congress from a corporate establishment that exploits labor into a tool for workers to take their power back from the billionaire class.”

Reynoso’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment.

The 7th District encompasses some of the city’s most left-leaning neighborhoods in North Brooklyn and Queens, and Valdez’s DSA membership could bolster her candidacy among an emboldened socialist bloc. Mamdani’s decision to buck some of his progressive allies in the city drew attention when he endorsed Valdez, especially after the then-mayor-elect declined to support City Council Member Chi Ossé’s short-lived primary against House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, urging the local DSA chapter to do the same.

Valdez’s campaign has pledged to reject corporate PAC money and is centering her campaign around her background as a labor organizer. Asked about differences between her and Reynoso, Valdez has pointed to her early leadership on Palestinian human rights issues amid the genocide in Gaza.

“I look forward to hashing out our differences over the course of this primary. What I want to bring to Congress is the experience and perspective of a union organizer and proud democratic socialist who’s been a longtime leader in the movement that elected Zohran Mamdani as our Mayor,” Valdez said. “And I’ve been a vocal and consistent opponent of the Israeli genocide in Gaza and the system of apartheid that denies freedom for all Palestinians.”