The race to succeed retiring Rep. Nydia Velázquez in New York’s 7th Congressional District has become one of the most closely watched Democratic primaries in Brooklyn and Queens this year, and at its center is a fight between two very different visions of progressive politics: Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso, who has assembled a wall of labor unions and elected Democrats behind him, and state Assemblymember Claire Valdez, the democratic socialist backed by Mayor Zohran Mamdani and the New York City chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America. The only public poll of the contest so far, a May 16-17 Emerson College survey for PIX11, put Valdez at 23 percent and Reynoso at 21 percent, with City Council Member Julie Won at 13 percent and 43 percent of likely primary voters undecided. The Democratic primary is June 23, and in a district this heavily Democratic, whoever wins it is almost certain to go to Washington. This guide draws on the candidates’ own campaign materials and on independent reporting and public records — FEC filings, the New York State Assembly, Emerson polling, and outlets including Hell Gate, City & State, Gotham Gazette, The Intercept, Queens Daily Eagle, Brooklyn Paper and CBS News; where a claim rests only on a campaign’s own account, it is attributed as such.
NY-7 is an open seat for the first time in more than three decades. Velázquez, who in 1992 became the first Puerto Rican woman elected to Congress and is known among supporters as “La Luchadora,” announced on November 20, 2025 that her current term would be her last. “After much reflection, I have decided that this will be my last term in Congress,” she said. The district was drawn to give New York’s Puerto Rican community real congressional representation, and it stretches across heavily Latino and immigrant sections of Brooklyn — including Williamsburg, Bushwick, the Southside and parts of Greenpoint — into Queens. It is also one of the most left-leaning districts in the city: by NYC-DSA’s accounting, NY-7 voters favored Mamdani over former Gov. Andrew Cuomo by 43 points in the 2025 mayoral primary. That tilt is the backdrop for everything that follows.
Reynoso, the borough president and a former city councilman from the Williamsburg-Bushwick area, entered the race as the front-runner and has campaigned as a lifelong organizer who came up through the neighborhood. Widely known to supporters as “Hijo de Los Sures” — a son of Williamsburg’s Southside — he is the son of Dominican immigrants who grew up in Section 8 housing; he now has two sons in New York City public schools. By his campaign’s account, Reynoso started as a union organizer for childcare workers, beat the Brooklyn Democratic machine to win a City Council seat at 30, co-chaired the Council’s Progressive Caucus, led efforts to curb illegal NYPD searches and worked to remove ICE from Rikers Island in 2014. As borough president, the campaign says, he helped more than 6,000 immigrants obtain work authorization and launched a $45 million maternal health initiative at the city’s public hospitals.
