{"id":263492,"date":"2026-06-11T18:27:50","date_gmt":"2026-06-11T18:27:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/263492\/"},"modified":"2026-06-11T18:27:50","modified_gmt":"2026-06-11T18:27:50","slug":"claire-valdez-pitches-herself-as-fresh-voice-for-workers-and-tenants-in-ny-07","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/263492\/","title":{"rendered":"Claire Valdez pitches herself as fresh voice for workers and tenants in NY-07"},"content":{"rendered":"

Like legions of young adults before her, Claire Valdez moved to New York in 2015 looking for a better life<\/a> and a creative outlet for her budding career as a visual artist.<\/p>\n

Valdez quickly realized she had to find an apartment, get a job and pay the rent (and hopefully change the world<\/a>, too).<\/p>\n

A decade later, the 36-year-old single cat-owner from Lubbock, Texas<\/a> is a sitting Democratic state assemblywoman and a frontrunner in a race for Congress.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t have a story that\u2019s very different from so many other people who have come to New York,\u201d Valdez told the Daily News. \u201cI found really high rent and jobs with really bad pay and a real struggle to pay my bills.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even when she landed a decent administrative job at Columbia University, she had to take three subway lines (M to the B\/D to the 1) just to get to work and got lucky by snagging an apartment she could afford without a roommate.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe bare minimum seemed so out of touch. That\u2019s an experience I bring with me to everything I do,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Valdez, who has Mexican and Native American heritage, credits her activism in a union of Columbia clerical workers and political involvement with the Democratic Socialists of America<\/a> with giving her a sense of power and control over her own life.<\/p>\n

In 2024, she won an open seat in the state assembly representing her Ridgewood, Queens, neighborhood, and was a very early supporter<\/a> of Mayor Mamdani\u2019s mayoral campaign.<\/p>\n

Valdez pitches herself as fresh voice for hard-pressed workers and tenants in fast-changing NY-07<\/a>, which is heavily Latino and one of the most progressive districts in the nation.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m newer in the city,\u201d she said, \u201cbut you don\u2019t have to live here all your life to see the problems working people face.\u201d<\/p>\n

Many analysts say Valdez is a surprising frontrunner in the June 23 primary<\/a> against Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso, even though Reynoso, 43, boasts a long record of progressive achievements and has lined up an impressive string of endorsements including incumbent Rep. Nydia Velazquez, who is retiring.<\/p>\n

A recent independent poll showed a narrow edge for Valdez<\/a> over Reynoso with Councilwoman Won far behind.<\/p>\n

Whoever wins in the June 23 primary is virtually certain to replace Velazquez in Washington, D.C.<\/a> representing one of the most heavily Democratic districts in the nation.<\/p>\n

The elephant in the deep-blue district is Mamdani, who won about 80% of the district\u2019s vote in his 2025 mayoral campaign. He\u2019s endorsed Valdez, sparking a spat with Velazquez and Reynoso, who called Hizzoner \u201cdisloyal\u201d<\/a> for snubbing him.<\/p>\n

Valdez is hoping to recreate the magic of Mamdani\u2019s landslide in the district including neighborhoods like Williamsburg, Bushwick, Greenpoint and Ridgewood, where she says the cost of living unifies long-time residents with roots in Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic and newcomers from too many places to name.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe mayor\u2019s campaign really showed what a wonderful city we live in,\u201d Valdez said. \u201cIt\u2019s a beautiful and dynamic place but we need to unite and fight hard to make it better for all of us.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Like legions of young adults before her, Claire Valdez moved to New York in 2015 looking for a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":249564,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[2898,98,9440,858,10881,1091,153,75,84,83,20196,9,24,63,122,2613,7978,3543,82],"class_list":["post-263492","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-manhattan","tag-antonio-reynoso","tag-brooklyn","tag-claire-valdez","tag-congress","tag-democratic","tag-democratic-socialists-of-america","tag-donald-trump","tag-manhattan","tag-manhattan-headlines","tag-manhattan-news","tag-midterms","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-queens","tag-ridgewood","tag-tenants","tag-union","tag-zohran-mamdani"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263492","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=263492"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263492\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/249564"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=263492"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=263492"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=263492"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}