Valdez was the overwhelming winner of the District 37 race in June 2024
through Instagram @claireforqueens
Claire Valdez, a democratic socialist representing components of Ridgewood, Sunnyside and Lengthy Island Metropolis within the State Meeting, has launched a marketing campaign for U.S. Rep Nydia Velázquez’s soon-to-be-vacant seat in Congress.
Valdez, a member of the New York Metropolis chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) who has represented the thirty seventh Meeting District since early 2025, introduced her marketing campaign to exchange Velázquez early Thursday morning and is extensively anticipated to select up the DSA nomination within the race.
Velázquez introduced in November that she wouldn’t be looking for re-election for New York’s seventh Congressional District having served 16 phrases in Congress. A trailblazer who grew to become the primary Puerto Rican girl to ever serve in Congress, Velázquez represents one of the vital left-leaning districts in your complete metropolis, together with components of North Brooklyn and Western Queens.
A DSA candidate had lengthy been anticipated to announce a run for the seat, with Valdez and Astoria Council Member Tiffany Cabán each reportedly expressing curiosity in operating for a district that broke for Mayor Zohran Mamdani by 51% final 12 months.
Asserting her candidacy on Thursday morning, Valdez mentioned her marketing campaign was rooted in “labor organizing, economic justice and opposition to war and genocide.”
Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso, a progressive however extra conventional Democratic candidate, had already launched a marketing campaign to exchange Velázquez in Congress. Each Reynoso and Valdez share plenty of similarities; each are outstanding labor organizers and each have described Israel’s actions as a genocide.
Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso speaks at a rally in help of Amazon staff in Woodside in December. Valdez was additionally current on the occasion. Photograph by Shane O’Brien
A former Metropolis Council Member, Reynoso boasts greater than a decade of presidency expertise, whereas Valdez has little authorities expertise however is ideologically aligned with the DSA. She can be a staunch Mamdani ally, giving a rousing speech at a marketing campaign occasion in Forest Hills Stadium final October the place she proclaimed the significance of the DSA motion in combating wealth inequality within the metropolis.
“Zohran didn’t come out of nowhere,” she mentioned final October. “He came out of our movement, our movement that has been fighting for workers and tenants and immigrants and our trans siblings, our movement that believes that, in the richest country this world has ever seen, no one should go without housing and health care.”
Launching her marketing campaign on Thursday, Valdez mentioned there was little query that Democrats would win a majority within the seventh Congressional District however mentioned questions stay over what they “do with it.”
“We need a labor organizer in Washington who will turn Democratic power into a real opposition—one that confronts oligarchy and fascism, opposes genocide and war, and offers a real economic agenda that empowers working people and expands social rights,” Valdez mentioned in an announcement saying her run for Congress.
Valdez grew up in Lubbock, Texas, earlier than shifting to New York in 2015 the place she grew to become an administrative assistant at Columbia College. There, she grew to become a union organizer with United Auto Employees Native 2110 and was elected to the union’s bargaining committee.
She pointed to a profession of low-wage customer support jobs earlier than coming into politics and mentioned the labor motion had drawn her to politics slightly than the “party machine” or “career ambition.”
Valdez has outlined “Union for All, Housing for All and Medicaid for All” as three central parts of her congressional marketing campaign, pledging to pay for the progressive platform by elevating taxes on rich people and companies.
She has additionally pledged to eschew donations from company PACs through the marketing campaign, stating that her marketing campaign will likely be “powered exclusively” by small donors and grassroots volunteers.
Valdez, in the meantime, has tapped plenty of political aides who suggested Mamdani throughout his profitable mayoral marketing campaign, together with Mamdani’s closest political advisor Morris Katz and former communications director Andrew Epstein.
She was the one elected official to seem at a launch occasion for Mamdani’s then-long-shot mayoral marketing campaign, and the New York Instances has reported that the Mayor has encourged Valdez to run for the soon-to-be-vacant seat.
Valdez is predicted to select up the DSA nomination when the group begins contemplating a proper endorsement subsequent month, which may show important in a congressional district with extra DSA members than every other.
Alternatively, Reynoso has picked up endorsements from plenty of Metropolis Council Members, together with Shekar Krishnan, Jen Gutierrez and Sandy Nurse. He’s additionally anticipated to select up an endorsement from Velázquez, in response to a number of studies.
