Brad Lander, the chief fiscal officer of New York City, announced Wednesday that he is challenging U.S. Rep Dan Goldman in a Democratic primary for a liberal district covering lower Manhattan and parts of brownstone Brooklyn.<\/p>\n
A longtime fixture of the city\u2019s progressive wing, Lander launched his bid with endorsements from Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani<\/a> and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, promising \u201ccourageous leadership in the face of Donald Trump\u2019s attacks on New Yorkers.\u201d <\/p>\n \u201cWhile the oligarchy drives the affordability crisis, they shouldn\u2019t be able to buy a seat in Congress,\u201d Lander said in a campaign video, an apparent reference to Goldman, who is an heir to the Levi Strauss denim fortune.<\/p>\n He then touted his relationship with Mamdani, whom Goldman had declined to endorse in the mayor\u2019s race, in part because of differences in their views toward Israel<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cOur mayor can have an ally in Washington instead of an adversary in his own backyard,\u201d Lander said. \u201cI\u2019m running for Congress because the challenges we face can\u2019t be solved with strongly worded letters or high-dollar fundraisers, and not by doing AIPAC\u2019s bidding.\u201d<\/p>\n Mamdani\u2019s endorsement of Lander marked the mayor-elect\u2019s most high-profile incursion into national politics since his stunning victory. It comes as other progressives are hoping to capitalize on that momentum with a spate of challenges to moderate Democrats in 2026. <\/p>\n \u201cBrad\u2019s unwavering principles, deep knowledge, and sincere empathy are what make him a true leader,\u201d Mamdani said. \u201cHe has been a trusted ally and partner of mine and I\u2019m proud to support him as I know he\u2019ll continue delivering for those who need government to show up for them the most.\u201d<\/p>\n Lander\u2019s term as city comptroller ends on Dec. 31 after he decided not to seek reelection.<\/p>\n Lander and Mamdani endorsed one another during the mayoral primary in an effort, under the city\u2019s ranked choice voting system<\/a>, to join forces against former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who at the time was the front-runner.<\/p>\n The partnership appeared to help them both. Mamdani\u2019s support boosted Lander among the progressive base, while the backing of a high-profile Jewish candidate helped Mamdani as he faced attacks over his criticism of Israel\u2019s war in Gaza<\/a>.<\/p>\n Lander, who is also a former city council member, has been eyeing a challenge to Goldman since losing the Democratic mayoral primary<\/a> to Mamdani this summer.<\/p>\n Both Lander and Goldman have been vocal critics of the federal government\u2019s deportation agenda<\/a>, appearing at a high-profile immigration court in Manhattan to observe proceedings over the last several months.<\/p>\n Lander was arrested there<\/a> twice and faces a misdemeanor obstruction charge<\/a> stemming from one of the incidents.<\/p>\n Goldman, a two-term congressman, is a former federal prosecutor who was lead counsel for Trump\u2019s first impeachment. While in Congress, Goldman has supported raising taxes on wealthy people as well as the Green New Deal climate change proposal. He is a supporter of Israel but has been heavily critical of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and has condemned settler violence. <\/p>\n Maddy Rosen, a spokesperson for Goldman\u2019s campaign, said \u201cDan is focused on stopping the Trump administration from what they\u2019re doing to immigrant families in his district right now. He\u2019s proud of his progressive record in Congress and will deal with Brad and other challengers in the new year.\u201d <\/p>\n In his campaign video, Lander also evoked the late children\u2019s TV host Fred Rogers, singing \u201cWould you be mine? Could you be mine? Won\u2019t you be my neighbor?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI know it\u2019s corny, but I love the idea that democracy is just neighbors working together to make our lives in common better,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n ___<\/p>\n Associated Press writer Dave Collins in Hartford, Connecticut, contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Brad Lander, the chief fiscal officer of New York City, announced Wednesday that he is challenging U.S. Rep…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":341688,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,10764,5620,8634,123224,171448,12,1070,132587,793,171449,4227,2005,1999,3,111,795,21,19,22,20,25,24,10766],"class_list":["post-341687","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-america","tag-andrew-cuomo","tag-benjamin-netanyahu","tag-bernie-sanders","tag-brad-lander","tag-dan-goldman","tag-donald-trump","tag-elections","tag-fred-rogers","tag-general-news","tag-maddy-rosen","tag-manhattan","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-news","tag-politics","tag-u-s-news","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa","tag-zohran-mamdani"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/341687","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=341687"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/341687\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/341688"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=341687"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=341687"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=341687"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}