Queens Assembly Member Claire Valdez on Thursday launched her congressional campaign in NY-7, where she hopes to replace the soon-to-retire U.S. Rep. Nydia Velázquez.
A Democratic socialist with ties to Mayor Zohran Mamdani, Valdez said she is building a “working-class campaign rooted in labor organizing, economic justice, and opposition to war and genocide.”
The Assembly member was elected to represent AD37 — which includes Long Island City, Woodside, Sunnyside, Maspeth and Ridgewood — in 2024. Her district overlaps significantly with NY-7, which also includes the northern Brooklyn nabes of Bushwick, Williamsburg, Greenpoint, Clinton Hill, Fort Greene, and Downtown Brooklyn.
Valdez, who is expected to be endorsed by Mamdani and the DSA, will face off against Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso in the Democratic primary come June. Reynoso was the first person to declare his candidacy in NY-7 after Velázquez announced she would retire late last year.
A former union organizer, Valdez told Brooklyn Paper she came to politics “through being a worker, not through kind of the traditional electoral ambition route.”
While working more traditional low-wage service jobs, Valdez said, she felt she “didn’t have a lot of power.” But when she started working at Columbia University in a position represented by United Auto Workers Local 2110 and began to serve on the union’s bargaining committee, she “found [her] power.”
“I think that’s something that is a common experience in workers all over this country and certainly in NY-7,” she said. “What we need right now is a labor organizer in Congress to win back the working class and to really fight for an agenda for working class people.”
As an Assembly member, Valdez said she has prioritized taxing the rich, securing universal healthcare and childcare, and workers’ rights — particularly for workers who are “at the margins,” like contractors, gig workers and immigrant workers, who often don’t receive the same protections as full-time employees.
She has introduced bills meant to limit workplace surveillance, require employers to provide just cause for termination, and provide paid family leave and unemployment benefits for certain employees; and penned legislation to cap initially-regulated rents and set a time frame for landlords to return security deposits to former tenants.
Safe and affordable housing and affordability in general are significant issues for NY-7, Valdez added. Nearly 80% of the district’s constituents are renters, and many struggle with their monthly rent. Healthcare is similarly unaffordable for many, she said.
“Healthcare should be a human right, and we have the ability to provide preventative care, maternal care, gender-affirming care for everyone, regardless of their immigration status, regardless of their employment status,” she said.
Valdez is relatively inexperienced in politics — before she was elected to the Assembly, she had never held political office — but said she set her sights on Congress because some issues can’t be addressed adequately on the state level.
“In the Assembly, we’ve been stymied in some legislation certainly around universal healthcare and immigration in particular, and labor legislation, too,” she said. “Those fights happen at the federal level. Passing the PRO Act to make it easier for workers to organize will happen at the federal level. Abolishing ICE happens at the federal level.”
“We need a fighter in Congress who’s going to stand up to this fascist administration to protect New Yorkers,” she added.
Velázquez, who has represented the area for more than 30 years, leaves “big shoes to fill,” Valdez said. Nicknamed “La Luchadora,” Velázquez has been outspoken in her support for human rights and advocacy for working-class New Yorkers, and has been a frequent critic of President Donald Trump and his administration.
The district is quickly becoming one of the most left-leaning in the city, which Valdez attributed to its large population of immigrants, working-class families and artists who have been facing issues related to affordability and displacement for decades.
“The spirit of resistance and organization throughout the district, I think is a result of the conditions people have been living and surviving in for generations, and makes them want to fight for the life that we all deserve,” she said.
Though support from Mamdani and the DSA would boost Valdez, she faces stiff competition in Reynoso, a more experienced politician who also previously represented parts of the district on the City Council. He was a close mentee of Velázquez and is expected to receive her endorsement, and has the backing council members Lincoln Restler, Sandy Nurse, Jennifer Gutiérrez, and Shekar Krishnan.
