{"id":48181,"date":"2025-11-22T02:11:09","date_gmt":"2025-11-22T02:11:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/48181\/"},"modified":"2025-11-22T02:11:09","modified_gmt":"2025-11-22T02:11:09","slug":"rep-nydia-velazquez-wont-seek-reelection-to-deep-blue-house-seat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/48181\/","title":{"rendered":"Rep. Nydia Velazquez won’t seek reelection to deep-blue House seat"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rep. Nydia Velazquez (D-New York) has announced she won\u2019t seek reelection in 2026<\/a> to her deep-blue congressional seat, ending a more than three-decade career in Congress for the trailblazing progressive lawmaker who was the first Puerto Rican woman ever elected to Congress.<\/p>\n

Velazquez, affectionately dubbed \u201cLa Luchadora,\u201d or The Fighter, says she will step aside next year after 16 terms<\/a> representing her predominantly Latino NY-07 district that encompasses parts of northern Brooklyn and western Queens.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe time is right for me to move on and for a new generation of leaders to step forward,\u201d Velazquez, 72, said in a statement posted on social media.<\/p>\n

Potential candidates could include Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso and<\/a> State Sen. Julia Salazar<\/a>, although many other prominent Latino political leaders might be interested<\/a> in running.<\/p>\n

There is virtually no chance of a Republican winning<\/a> the heavily Democratic district, meaning Velazquez\u2019s successor will almost certainly be chosen by Democratic voters in a primary likely to be held in the spring.<\/p>\n

\"Rep.Rep. Nydia Velazquez during day two of the Democratic National Convention in 2008. (Mark Wilson\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Velazquez is the longest-serving Latina in Congress and is often cited as a powerful mentor by younger leaders including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-New York) and Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom the bottom of my heart, thank you La Luchadora,\u201d Mamdani tweeted.<\/p>\n

The NY-07 district was drawn with the goal of giving Latino voters a chance to elect the candidate of their choice<\/a> under both state and federal voting rights laws, meaning it would likely remain a strongly Latino district for the foreseeable future. That would give would-be candidates the hope that the winner could hold the seat for years or even decades, as Velazquez did.<\/p>\n

Born and raised in a poor sugar cane-growing village<\/a> on Puerto Rico\u2019s southeast coast, Velazquez came to New York City as a graduate student and put down deep political roots in her adopted hometown.<\/p>\n

At age 39, she won a crowded Democratic primary in 1992 to represent a version of her current district, which includes parts of Williamsburg, Bushwick and Long Island City, and never faced another serious political challenge.<\/p>\n

\"Rep.Rep. Nydia Velazquez gestures during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington on June 26, 2009. (J. Scott Applewhite\/AP)<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you had told that little girl she would one day become the first Puerto Rican woman elected to Congress, she would never have believed it,\u201d Velazquez said.<\/p>\n

Velazquez played a key and sometimes controversial role in advocating for greater political power for Puerto Ricans<\/a> both on the mainland and on the island.<\/p>\n

She is a longtime critic of statehood for the island<\/a> and has supported forms of enhanced self-government that could give Puerto Ricans more power over their affairs.<\/p>\n

Velazquez has also said pushing for statehood is a waste of time because Republicans will never accept a Latino 51st state that could also boost Democrats in Congress and the electoral college.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rep. Nydia Velazquez (D-New York) has announced she won\u2019t seek reelection in 2026 to her deep-blue congressional seat,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":46688,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[878,98,100,99,858,10881,27216,21322,9,24,63,8004,27215,122,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-48181","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-brooklyn","8":"tag-alexandria-ocasio-cortez","9":"tag-brooklyn","10":"tag-brooklyn-headlines","11":"tag-brooklyn-news","12":"tag-congress","13":"tag-democratic","14":"tag-latina","15":"tag-latino","16":"tag-new-york","17":"tag-new-york-city","18":"tag-nyc","19":"tag-nydia-velazquez","20":"tag-puerto-rican","21":"tag-queens","22":"tag-zohran-mamdani"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48181","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=48181"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48181\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46688"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48181"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48181"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48181"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}