Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso.
Picture courtesy of Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso
U.S. Rep. Pat Ryan is ready to endorse Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso on Thursday within the Democratic major for New York’s seventh Congressional District, New York News has realized.
The Hudson Valley-based Congressman is backing retiring Rep. Nydia Velázquez’s most well-liked successor over Queens Meeting Member Claire Valdez, the candidate supported by Mayor Zohran Mamdani.
The endorsement provides to Reynoso’s rising listing of high-profile backers within the race to exchange Velázquez. Reynoso has additionally secured backing from U.S. Rep. Jerry Nadler, New York Lawyer Common Letitia James, the Working Households Celebration, Make the Highway Motion, and, most lately, Citizen Motion of New York, a progressive grassroots political group, which included Reynoso in its newest 2026 slate of candidates.
Mamdani, in the meantime, has lined up behind fellow Valdez, a fellow democratic socialist, together with the New York Metropolis chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) and the United Auto Employees.
Although the 2 candidates share related positions on many key points, Reynoso has argued that his greater than 10 years in elected workplace units him aside within the race to characterize a district spanning western Queens and north Brooklyn — an space dubbed the “Commie Corridor” after Mamdani’s dominant exhibiting there in final 12 months’s mayoral race.
Ryan (NY-18) has developed a broader profile as a realistic progressive Democrat from a extra average Hudson Valley district who’s prepared to raise progressive voices elsewhere within the state, final week showing with U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for a city corridor in outgoing Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik’s district within the North Nation.
He beforehand backed Mamdani within the basic election for mayor however was notably left off the then-mayor-elect’s 100-member elected advisory committee. Within the race to exchange Velázquez, nevertheless, Ryan is siding with the congresswoman — whom he has referred to as “his friend” and a “living legend” — fairly than with Mamdani.
“Antonio Reynoso is a fierce fighter for his community and a New Yorker through and through,” Ryan stated in an announcement to New York News. “I can’t think of anyone better to carry on the legacy of my friend, the indomitable Nydia Velázquez, and know he’ll work every day to deliver for the people of NY-07.”
Ryan added that Congress wants “more fighters – more parents, more working people living the same reality as the families we represent.”
Reynoso referred to as the endorsement an honor and praised Ryan as “a fearless voice in Congress for protecting our democracy, defending our freedoms, and standing up to MAGA extremism.”
The break up on town’s left traces again to the fallout from Velázquez’s retirement. After privately discussing doable successors with Mamdani, Velázquez was reportedly caught off guard when he moved to again Valdez, a call she warned might fracture the left, based on The New York Occasions. Velázquez then threw her assist behind one in every of her personal protégés, Reynoso.
Since changing into mayor, Mamdani has moved rapidly to show his political capital right into a broader endorsement operation. He beforehand endorsed Diana Moreno, his handpicked successor in Queens, within the particular election to exchange him within the Meeting — a race she went on to win. Mamdani’s involvement within the race NY-7 has gone past an ordinary endorsement. As Metropolis & State famous on Wednesday, he has boosted Valdez each on and off the marketing campaign path – showing together with her publicly, becoming a member of a fundraising attraction and lending her shut political advisers.
Reynoso and Valdez are additionally going through off in opposition to Council Member Julie Gained within the Democratic major. Gained formally launched her marketing campaign final weekk and is in search of to grow to be the primary Korean-American ever elected to Congress in New York State. Council Member Shanel Thomas-Henry, State Sen. John Liu, and Meeting Member Ron Kim offered Gained with the primary main endorsements of her marketing campaign.
