Congressional candidate Claire Valdez spent the Saturday night before the NY-7 Democratic primary inside six clubs, not a single union hall. She moved through Purgatory, Nowadays, Xanadu, Paragon, Bossa Nova Civic Club, and Mood Ring across Bushwick and Ridgewood, with Mayor Zohran Mamdani along for the night, according to Bushwick Daily. The campaign filmed the whole thing and captioned it “vibes to votes.”
Valdez is the democratic-socialist assemblymember running to succeed retiring Rep. Nydia Velazquez in NY-7, a seat covering Bushwick, Williamsburg, Greenpoint, and parts of Ridgewood and western Queens. The New York City Democratic Socialists of America are backing her. Her main opponent, Borough President Antonio Reynoso, has the Working Families Party’s endorsement and closed out the same weekend in union halls with labor leaders, according to Bushwick Daily. Both are running well to the left, and as Bushwick Daily reported, the race comes down to which wing of the New York left and whose ground game gets to claim the seat.
The six clubs track the Bushwick and Ridgewood nightlife strip where the district’s twenty- and thirty-somethings spend Saturday nights. Turnout among Gen Z and millennial voters in this primary ran at roughly a third of last year’s mayoral race level, according to Gothamist, as cited by Bushwick Daily. Citywide, more than 172,000 Democrats cast early ballots ahead of the June 23 primary, about 5 percent of those eligible and down 55 percent from last year. Bushwick Daily noted the club visits reached young voters where they actually are.
Mamdani’s moves across the venues were documented by Hell Gate. He turned up at the skate club Xanadu and stunned a Bushwig host, then gave a short speech at Paragon. He also joined Valdez and fellow candidates Darializa Avila Chevalier and Brad Lander in a gamely Australian-accented impression of “Love Island” host Iain Stirling.
Featured image: Courtesy bushwickdaily.com
