If you live in Bushwick, Williamsburg, or East New York, three people want to be your next member of Congress, and on June 3 all three of them stood on a Spectrum News NY1 stage and largely agreed with each other. Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso’s campaign sent out a post-debate press release declaring he had “dominated” the field. The sole thing it quoted the candidate himself saying that night was two words: “Go Knicks.”
That says more about the debate than about Reynoso. The hour-long forum between Reynoso, Queens Assemblywoman Claire Valdez, and Queens Council Member Julie Won aired, as several outlets noted, right before tip-off of Game 4 of the NBA Finals, where the Knicks clawed back from a 29-point hole against San Antonio. All three candidates predicted a Knicks series win in five. They split only on the MVP pick: Valdez took Jalen Brunson, Won took Josh Hart, and Reynoso went with Karl-Anthony Towns, citing the Dominican heritage the two men share. All three also said they would back Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for president in 2028, a candidacy that does not exist yet.
The seat is open because Representative Nydia Velazquez, the first Puerto Rican woman elected to Congress, who has held NY-7 since 1992, is retiring. Four Democrats are on the June 23 primary ballot, but the race is functionally a three-way between Reynoso, Valdez, and Won. And because The Cook Political Report rates the general election “Solid Democratic,” the June 23 primary effectively picks the winner. Whoever takes it is almost certainly going to Washington.





