{"id":102390,"date":"2026-01-16T17:16:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-16T17:16:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/102390\/"},"modified":"2026-01-16T17:16:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-16T17:16:10","slug":"nydia-velazquez-endorses-brooklyn-borough-president-antonio-reynoso-in-ny-7-congressional-race-brooklyn-paper","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/102390\/","title":{"rendered":"Nydia Vel\u00e1zquez endorses Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso in NY-7 congressional race \u2022 Brooklyn Paper"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\"velazquez\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Outgoing U.S. Rep. Nydia Vel\u00e1zquez endorsed Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso as her successor. <\/p>\n

Photo courtesy of U.S. House Office of Photography\/File photo courtesy of the Office of the Brooklyn Borough President <\/p>\n

U.S. Rep. Nydia Vel\u00e1zquez has endorsed Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso to succeed her in Congress, breaking with Mayor Zohran Mamdani,\u00a0who last week endorsed<\/a> democratic socialist Assembly Member Claire Valdez in the race.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Vel\u00e1zquez, who announced last November that she would not seek reelection in the 7th Congressional District after three decades in office, touted Reynoso\u2019s \u201cdeep connections\u201d to the district in her official announcement Thursday afternoon, which she said would be required to take on ICE and make New York City more affordable.<\/p>\n

It marks the third time in 24 hours that Vel\u00e1zquez has backed a traditional progressive candidate over a candidate backed by the New York City chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) after she endorsed<\/a> Rana Abdelhamid over DSA-backed Diana Moreno in the 36th Assembly District and Brian Romero over the DSA-backed Aber Kawas in the 34th District.<\/p>\n

Valdez has not yet been officially endorsed by the DSA but is widely expected to pick up the endorsement after the party held a candidate forum Wednesday night.
\n\"NydiaVel\u00e1zquez (front) is retiring this year after 16 terms in office. File photo by Gabriele Holtermann\n<\/p>\n

Announcing her endorsement on Thursday, Vel\u00e1zquez described Reynoso<\/a> as a \u201chomegrown progressive leader,\u201d appearing to take shots at Valdez, who moved to New York City from Lubbock, Texas in 2015.<\/p>\n

\u201cAntonio understands the struggles of working families because he has lived them, and he has delivered real change for our communities,\u201d Vel\u00e1zquez said in a statement announcing the endorsement.<\/p>\n

She added that Reynoso will take on President Donald Trump \u201cunapologetically,\u201d fight to abolish ICE and stand up for Puerto Rican self-determination if he is elected to Congress.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cAntonio is the leader this moment demands: courageous, progressive, and grounded in lived experience. As I pass the torch to the next generation, I ask New Yorkers to support him,\u201d Vel\u00e1zquez added.<\/p>\n

Vel\u00e1zquez first announced her endorsement in an interview with the\u00a0New York Times<\/a> on Thursday, where she fired a warning shot at Mamdani for endorsing Valdez in her district. Vel\u00e1zquez, who was the first Congress Member to endorse Mamdani\u2019s mayoral bid, said the Mayor had risked causing a split in the coalition that helped him win election last year.<\/p>\n

She said primaries can provide a \u201cdistraction\u201d to Mamdani\u2019s own agenda, adding that his decision to endorse in the upcoming NY-7 open primary could risk intra-party fights among the coalition he needs to govern effectively.<\/p>\n

She also told the New York Times that she did not initially plan to endorse in the race to succeed her because she assumed a lawmaker that she had personally mentored, including Reynoso, would win easily once they launched their campaign. However, she said Mamdani\u2019s endorsement of Valdez last Friday forced her hand, describing the race to succeed her in the 7th Congressional District as \u201cpersonal.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"assemblyAssembly Member Claire Valdez of Queens launched her campaign last week. Photo courtesy of Assembly Member Claire Valdez\/X<\/p>\n

Mamdani has previously described Vel\u00e1zquez as an \u201cinspiration,\u201d and called her a \u201ctitan\u201d when she endorsed him last June.<\/p>\n

Endorsing Valdez<\/a> last week, Mamdani described the western Queens Assembly Member as someone who will \u201cstand with workers at every single opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Mayor also noted that Valdez was the only elected official to appear at the launch event of his mayoral campaign in October 2024.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cStanding with me then took courage,\u201d Mamdani said. \u201cIt took belief that people who do an honest day\u2019s work deserve to come home and stay in their home.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

However, Valdez and Reynoso are ideologically aligned on a number of key policy issues; both are prominent labor organizers and both have described Israel\u2019s actions in Palestine as a \u201cgenocide.\u201d Valdez, who has been in elected office for just under 12 months, is a movement socialist who had made her experience as a labor organizer central to her campaign, while Reynoso boasts more than a decade of experience in city politics.<\/p>\n

Vel\u00e1zquez appeared to allude to that experience while speaking to the New York Times, stating that she has endorsed Reynoso because she knows him. She added that she doesn\u2019t \u201creally know\u201d Valdez and said Reynoso is the only candidate in the race who has delivered results for their community.<\/p>\n

Vel\u00e1zquez\u2019s office did not respond to a request for comment. She is expected to join Reynoso at an endorsement event in Brooklyn this Saturday.\n<\/p>\n

Reynoso, meanwhile, described Vel\u00e1zquez\u2019s endorsement as the \u201chonor of a lifetime.\u201d
\n\"\"Reynoso said Vel\u00e1zquez\u2019s endorsement was the \u2018honor of a lifetime.\u2019 Photo by Gabriele Holtermann\n<\/p>\n

\u201cFor decades, Nydia has fought relentlessly for our community in Washington, and that\u2019s exactly what I will do in Congress,\u201d Reynoso said in a statement. \u201cWe need more selfless leaders like her who put working people first. I\u2019m committed to carrying her torch forward from Day One, fighting for the working class, building an economy that works for everyone, not the oligarchs, and standing up to Trump and his House Republican enablers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reynoso has also scooped endorsements from a variety of progressive City Council Members, while Public Advocate Jumaane Williams and Make the Road Action, the political arm of influential immigrant non-profit Make the Road New York, have also endorsed his campaign.<\/p>\n

Valdez, on the other hand, has picked up support from Mamdani and the United Auto Workers Union and is expected to pick up the DSA endorsement.\n<\/p>\n

This story first appeared on Brooklyn Paper\u2019s sister site QNS<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Outgoing U.S. Rep. Nydia Vel\u00e1zquez endorsed Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso as her successor. Photo courtesy of U.S.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":102391,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[46849,44086,2898,98,21313,100,99,9440,858,46850,4866,1091,2495,2659,9,24,12,370,29446,63,8004,87,40378,122,46419],"class_list":["post-102390","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brooklyn","tag-2026-primary-election","tag-7th-congressional-district","tag-antonio-reynoso","tag-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn-borough-president-antonio-reynoso","tag-brooklyn-headlines","tag-brooklyn-news","tag-claire-valdez","tag-congress","tag-congressional-race","tag-democratic-primary","tag-democratic-socialists-of-america","tag-dsa","tag-election","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-news","tag-newsletter","tag-ny-7","tag-nyc","tag-nydia-velazquez","tag-politics","tag-qns","tag-queens","tag-u-s-rep-nydia-velu00e1zquez"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102390","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=102390"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102390\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/102391"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=102390"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=102390"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=102390"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}