The 2026 New York City Primary Election Day is less than three weeks away, and News 12 is keeping a close eye on the major races in the region. <\/p>\n
In New York\u2019s 7th Congressional District, Queens Assembly Member Claire Valdez is running to replace long-time Rep. Nydia Vel\u00e1zquez, who will vacate her seat at the end of this term. <\/p>\n
“It’s possible to take on corporate greed, and that’s what I want to do in Congress,” said Valdez. <\/p>\n
The democratic socialist currently serves Queens in the 37th Assembly district — a position she’s held for just over a year. <\/p>\n
“I know what it’s like to have to work seven days a week, paycheck to paycheck,\u201d said Valdez. \u201cBut I also know what it’s like to join a union and transform your life.” <\/p>\n
Valdez is a Texas native who has experience as a union organizer. <\/p>\n
“Unions are a way for us to address the affordability crisis, to build power for working-class people,” said Valdez. <\/p>\n
Her platform also includes making Medicare and housing more accessible and affordable.<\/p>\n
“So many of our taxpayer dollars are going to fund illegal wars and genocide, rather than building hospitals and housing right here in NY-7,\u201d said Valdez. \u201cIt’s what we heard across the district.” <\/p>\n
Some of her major endorsements include Mayor Zohran Mamdani and U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders. <\/p>\n
“When I’m going into negotiation around housing and thinking about housing, I’m not thinking about the donors who helped in this campaign,\u201d said Valdez. \u201cI’m thinking about the working-class people who have been a part of it.” <\/p>\n
News 12 requested interviews with all the top-funded candidates in the district race. <\/p>\n
You can go to the “Power and Politics” section of news12.com to check them out.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The 2026 New York City Primary Election Day is less than three weeks away, and News 12 is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":257008,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[98,100,99,9,24,63],"class_list":["post-257007","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn-headlines","tag-brooklyn-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257007","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=257007"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257007\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/257008"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=257007"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=257007"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=257007"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}