NY-07: The Congressional Primary Splitting the Mamdani Coalition (Two good candidates IMO) [View all]

Where most other city races have followed a familiar pattern, pitting a united left against the moderate establishment, the primary in New York’s 7th District has turned the left against the lefter.

And on the ground in the Brooklyn and Queens neighborhoods that make up the district, the contest is stirring up uncomfortable questions about race, class and rapid gentrification that the left rarely wants to acknowledge.

On one side is Mr. Reynoso, 43, the Brooklyn-born son of working-class Dominican immigrants, who has helped build the city’s progressive movement for 15 years. Lined up with him are many of the players who, until very recently, were its arbiters: Black and Latino politicians, major labor unions and the Working Families Party.

On the other is Ms. Valdez, 36, a Latina and Native American from Texas who moved to the area alongside other young, college-educated newcomers and concluded that progressives were not thinking boldly enough. She has the backing of Mr. Mamdani and the Democratic Socialists of America, who were emboldened by last year’s mayoral result.



https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/01/nyregion/nyc-primary-antonio-reynoso-claire-valdez-mamdani.html