dubbed by some<\/a> \u2014 including progressives \u2014 as “the Commie Corridor.”<\/p>\nDemocratic Socialist Mayor Zohran Mamdani won overwhelmingly in the district and has already made waves in it by endorsing Democratic Socialists of America candidate \u2014 Assembly Member Claire Valdez \u2014 instead of Congresswoman Velazquez’s preferred successor, Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso.<\/p>\n
Velazquez campaigned energetically for Mamdani during his 2025 campaign.<\/p>\n
“I’m not a DSA member,” Reynoso told NBC New York. \u201cThe mayor is a DSA member and is going to fall in line and continue to support DSA candidates,” he said.<\/p>\n
Won is also not a member of the DSA.<\/p>\n
“If you look at my voting history, I’m aligned with a lot of the ideology and the values, but I have not personally been part of that group,” Won said, emphasizing her record of approving new housing and bringing free Wi-fi and cable to all the NYCHA developments in her district.<\/p>\n
Amid speculation that Won’s presence in the race could split the non-DSA vote and make it easier for Valdez to win, Reynoso said it was unclear what impact Won would have, adding “I have the utmost respect for Councilmember Won and what she’s done.”<\/p>\n
Won, Valdez and Reynoso all endorsed Mamdani.<\/p>\n
Valdez has been organizing volunteers \u2014 Mamdani-style \u2014 to go out and knock on doors, including during 1-degree temperatures over the weekend.<\/p>\n
“We need some rank and file energy in Congress,” Valdez told NBC New York. “To organize within Congress, and to push back against this administration.”<\/p>\n
Won released a campaign video Monday highlighting her status as an immigrant who came from South Korea at age 8 knowing no English.<\/p>\n
Calling herself “a child of war,” Won said immigrants must receive better treatment. That included in the migrant shelters in her district, where a young father took his own life in 2023.<\/p>\n
“My grandfather was a South Korean refugee assimilating into life in Hiroshima, Japan, when the nuclear bomb was dropped. My great-grandmother died instantly upon contact,” Won said, adding that she believes there needs to be an end to the war in Gaza and that a ceasefire must continue.<\/p>\n
“Look, I believe in democracy and people deserve choice, and for me, I’m the only immigrant in the race. The only mother in the race,” she said.<\/p>\n
Since the split with Mayor Mamdani over who should succeed her, Velasquez has brought up the subject of the three-decade-old fight to create this very district, in large part to give Latino voters a greater voice in Congress.<\/p>\n
Reynoso acknowledged that the demographics have changed since then. <\/p>\n
“This is not the majority Latino district which it was drawn to be,” he said. <\/p>\n
Reynoso said he was focused on his plans to develop housing and “abolish ICE,” which is also part of Won’s platform.<\/p>\n
Reynoso said he passed meaningful police reform when he was in the City Council and voted to push ICE out of Rikers Island.<\/p>\n
Describing the diversity of the district, Won said donors have committed to more than $700,000 in contributions so far. She denied that she would function as a spoiler in the race and committed to Velazquez, “If elected I would carry on her legacy and her policy.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Queens City Councilmember Julie Won is throwing her hat into an already contentious race to succeed Congresswoman Nydia…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":120841,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[98,9,24,55,54,56,87,122],"class_list":{"0":"post-120840","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-city","8":"tag-brooklyn","9":"tag-new-york","10":"tag-new-york-city","11":"tag-new-york-city-headlines","12":"tag-new-york-city-news","13":"tag-ny","14":"tag-politics","15":"tag-queens"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120840","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=120840"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120840\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/120841"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=120840"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=120840"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=120840"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}