Assemblywoman Claire Valdez stunned Democratic Party progressive stalwart Antonio Reynoso in the primary for New York’s 7th Congressional District, as she looked set to replace retiring Rep. Nydia Velázquez on the ticket in November.
Running with Mayor Mamdani’s enthusiastic backing, Valdez romped to an overwhelming win with 58% of the votes compared to just 34% for Reynoso.
“This movement is growing and it won’t stop until working people run the table,” Valdez said. “This victory is not mine, it is ours.”
Mamdani told cheering supporters that their leftist movement won a resounding victory across the city.
“This is your victory,” the mayor told told the crowd. “A year ago it was not the end of a political movement — it was the beginning.”
“We’re calling it, Claire has won!” DSA Co-Chairperson Gustavo Gordillo said to raucous cheers at Valdez’s victory party.
Reynoso, the Brooklyn borough president, and Valdez were expected to be locked in a closer race in the Democratic primary for the ultra-progressive congressional district that was shaping up as a key test of Mamdani’s political muscle.
A victory in the deep blue district’s primary virtually assures a candidate victory in November.
Valdez, a first-term state lawmaker, catapulted to a narrow lead in polls when Mamdani threw his political weight behind her in the district covering parts of northern Brooklyn and western Queens, where he won a whopping 80% of the vote in last year’s mayoral race.
Reynoso was backed by Velazquez, the trailblazing Puerto Rican lawmaker who held the seat for three decades before announcing plans to retire.
Velazquez lashed out at the popular mayor for snubbing her chosen successor in Reynoso. But Mamdani was determined to back Valdez, a fellow Democratic Socialists of America activist who was the first elected official to endorse his then-longshot 2025 campaign for City Hall.
There were few real policy differences between the two candidates, with both stressing their implacable opposition to Israel and President Trump’s immigration crackdown, among a laundry list of progressive stances.
The opponents argued over the influence of outside money in the race, with Valdez winning more small-dollar donors and a super PAC pouring in money for Reynoso late in the race.
Valdez, 37, who lives in Ridgewood, was leaning heavily on backing from an army of DSA volunteers, who boasted of knocking on tens of thousands of doors.
Even though she only moved to New York City from Texas as a young adult, Valdez said her life story closely mirrors that of many young people who struggled with the high cost of living in the Big Apple, especially in the renter-heavy district sometimes dubbed the “Commie Corridor.”
Reynoso, 42, who still lives in the Williamsburg neighborhood where he was born and raised, won the backing of the Working Families Party and a long list of local elected officials.
He got a key boost in the final days of the race when a coalition of Hasidic Jewish groups, who could comprise up to 10% of the electorate in the polyglot district, backed him.
