On Monday, Vel\u00e1zquez\u2019 chosen successor, Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso<\/a>, plans to unveil a detailed six-page policy platform tackling some of the most pressing issues in Puerto Rico, from supporting a referendum on the island\u2019s status to repealing century-old federal trade laws that drive up the costs of goods and services there.<\/p>\n He also supports abolishing the fiscal oversight board, authorized under a 2016 federal law, that has essentially run the territory\u2019s finances and many of its day-to-day operations for the last decade.<\/p>\n \u201cWe need to move Puerto Rico to a place where we could see it thrive versus what\u2019s happening now, with the deterioration of the island because of imperialism,\u201d said Reynoso.\u00a0<\/p>\n Vel\u00e1zquez, who worked with Reynoso to craft his Puerto Rico platform, said she has the \u201cassurance that he has a good grasp of the issues that are important to us and that we need to tackle in Congress.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cPuerto Rico is a colony of the United States,\u201d Vel\u00e1zquez told THE CITY. \u201cCongress has total jurisdiction over Puerto Rico, so it is the responsibility \u2014 the moral obligation \u2014 of any member of Congress to also tackle the issues of Puerto Rico, because we, the Congress, own Puerto Rico.\u201d<\/p>\n In a phone interview with THE CITY, Reynoso said it was the Puerto Rican community in Williamsburg\u2019s Los Sures section that embraced his parents when they immigrated in the 1970\u2019s from the Dominican Republic, helping them and other Latino immigrants adjust to lNew York. He said he does not take lightly the \u201cresponsibility\u201d of carrying on the area\u2019s Puerto Rican legacy.<\/p>\n Reynoso and his chief rival, Assemblymember Claire Valdez of Queens, have highlighted Puerto Rico in their campaign platforms since launching their bids to replace Vel\u00e1zquez, the first Puerto Rican woman elected to the House of Representatives.<\/p>\n Another candidate, Queens Councilmember Julie Won, intends to roll out a full foreign policy platform this week that will include Puerto Rico issues, her campaign said.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Puerto Rican seat?\u00a0<\/p>\n But neither candidate has Puerto Rican roots \u2014 Reynoso was born in Brooklyn<\/a> to Dominican parents and Valdez is of Mexican and Native American descent \u2014 a reflection of the state of the district in 2026. For decades, New York\u2019s 7th congressional district was considered solidly Puerto Rican, but forces ranging from redistricting to gentrification and time-worn demographic shifts have cut up the district and diluted Puerto Ricans\u2019 presence in it.\u00a0<\/p>\n The district \u201cis no longer a Puerto Rican district, and it hasn\u2019t been for quite a bit of time,\u201d said Eli Valentin, an expert on Latino politics in New York, adding that it has experienced \u201cmore demographic changes than perhaps anywhere else in the city in the last 15 or 20 years.\u201d<\/p>\n The three leading candidates\u2019 near identical ideological overlap \u2014 they both support abolishing ICE<\/a>, universal healthcare and universal childcare<\/a>, for example \u2014 also extends to Puerto Rico.\u00a0<\/p>\n Like Reynoso, Valdez and Won support<\/a> self-determination for Puerto Rico. In an interview with THE CITY, Valdez described Vel\u00e1zquez\u2019s retirement as a \u201creal loss\u201d for the Puerto Rican community and said it is important for them to have a voice in Congress \u2014 on issues beyond its political status, too.<\/p>\n \u201cWe need to make sure that people on the island have real dignity and equity, real Medicaid parity, and that the energy grid is reliable and the energy is affordable,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Vel\u00e1zquez was elected in an upset in 1992, after the district was controversially redrawn<\/a> in order to create a new majority Latino district bringing together Puerto Ricans from lower Manhattan and in Brooklyn, from Williamsburg to Sunset Park; the district was known as the \u201cbullwinkle\u201d<\/a> due to its unusual shape.<\/p>\n At the time, Puerto Ricans were underrepresented in New York and in Congress, said Juan Cartagena, a lecturer at Columbia Law School who was involved in the fight to create and preserve the district.<\/p>\n As the district\u2019s Puerto Rican population waned in the following decades, Vel\u00e1zquez continued pushing on Puerto Rican issues \u2014 alongside former Rep. Luis Guti\u00e9rrez of Chicago \u2014 while embracing other hot-button issues, immigration in particular.\u00a0<\/p>\n The final blow to the district\u2019s Puerto Rican bonafides came earlier this decade, when Manhattan\u2019s Lower East Side and the Brooklyn neighborhoods of Red Hook and Sunset Park were swallowed up by the 10th district, represented by Democratic Rep. Dan Goldman<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n Vel\u00e1zquez\u2019s retirement leaves two more New York House members with Puerto Rican roots \u2014 Ritchie Torres<\/a> and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez<\/a>, both of The Bronx<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n Torres\u2019 15th district holds a historic and demographic edge over Ocasio-Cortez, though he and Vel\u00e1zquez are far apart on the issue of Puerto Rican self-determination. As a young woman, Vel\u00e1zquez supported independence<\/a>, but she moderated her position as she entered public service, and in 2021 introduced legislation<\/a> with Ocasio-Cortez to lay the groundwork for a binding referendum to allow Puerto Ricans to vote for independence, statehood or continuing as a U.S. territory. (Torres, meanwhile, is bullish<\/a> on Puerto Rico becoming the 51st state.)<\/p>\n There are around 670,000 Puerto Ricans across New York City, according to a 2025 analysis<\/a> of the 2020 American Community Survey by THE CITY and Puerto Rico\u2019s Center for Investigative Journalism. The South Bronx and certain neighborhoods along the borough\u2019s northeast, from Castle Hill to Throggs Neck in Ocasio-Cortez\u2019s district, are some of the most densely populated by Puerto Ricans today.<\/p>\n Vel\u00e1zquez has taken Ocasio-Cortez under her wing since her election in 2018, pushing the progressive star to get more involved on issues affecting the island. In 2024, they both endorsed<\/a> Juan Dalmau, who ran with the island\u2019s pro-independence party, for governor.\u00a0<\/p>\n After Vel\u00e1zquez retires, only time will tell whether Torres, Ocasio-Cortez, or whomever prevails in the 7th district will carry her mantle on Puerto Rico issues. But having a leader who builds lasting relationships with the diaspora community and leaders on the island matters much more than token representation, said Councilmember Alexa Avil\u00e9s<\/a>, who represents Sunset Park.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Reynoso-Valdez race is one of the most closely-watched of this heated midterm cycle<\/a>, presenting a rare open seat after Vel\u00e1zquez announced in November that she would retire after 17 terms in the House. Along with Rep. Jerrold Nadler<\/a> of Manhattan, who is also retiring, Vel\u00e1zquez is one of the longest-serving members of Congress in New York City today.<\/p>\n Ideological Twins<\/p>\n Vel\u00e1zquez\u2019s district sits at the epicenter of what some political observers have dubbed the \u201cCommie Corridor\u201d \u2014 a Democratic Socialists of America<\/a> stronghold that, if Valdez is elected, would give the movement a coveted trifecta of democratic socialist officials at the local, state and federal level.<\/p>\n That proxy war has been at the heart of a race where the leading candidates are, ideologically, almost identical.\u00a0<\/p>\n Vel\u00e1zquez, an early supporter of Mamdani\u2019s 2025 bid for mayor, publicly rebuked him after he endorsed Valdez before Vel\u00e1zquez had chosen a successor; she quickly endorsed Reynoso and has been a leading force in his race ever since.<\/p>\n Reynoso, a two-term Council member before his election as Brooklyn borough president in 2021, held the lead<\/a> in a January poll \u2014 the only public poll of the race to date \u2014 and is endorsed by major unions and the Working Families Party.<\/p>\n![\"Congressional](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/050226_bushwick_hosp_protest-3.jpg\")
U.S. Rep. Nydia M. Vel\u00e1zquez (D-Brooklyn\/Queens), speaks at a rally outside Wyckoff Heights Medical Center after a clash between protesters and the NYPD following federal agents tasing a man, May 4, 2026. Vel\u00e1zquez is backing Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso to succeed her. Credit: Ben Fractenberg\/THE CITY<\/p>\n![\"Mayor](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/051526_mamdani_library_funding-6.jpg\")
Mayor Zohran Mamdani the Democratic Socialists of America are backing Assemblymember Claire Valdez in the race for New York\u2019s 7th district. Credit: Alex Krales\/THE CITY<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/071621_35_heat_2.jpg\")
The 7th Congressional district, including Williamsburg, was once defined by a significant population of Puerto Rican New Yorkers. Credit: Hiram Alejandro Dur\u00e1n\/THE CITY<\/p>\n