cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/8137779
cross-posted from: https://news.abolish.capital/post/39706
Sen. Bernie Sanders endorsed socialist New York State Assembly Member Claire Valdez on Thursday in a Democratic primary shaping up as a test of how factions of New York City’s progressive wing will work together under Mayor Zohran Mamdani.
The race to replace retiring Rep. Nydia Velázquez in New York’s 7th Congressional District has put major progressive organizations and figures at odds. Hoping to capitalize on growing national frustration with conservative Democrats and lingering momentum from Mamdani’s win in November, national progressives and their counterparts in New York are fighting to succeed Velázquez with an ally in Congress.
They just haven’t agreed on who it should be.
Sanders, the Vermont independent, is giving a boost to the socialist wing behind Valdez’s campaign, which includes Mamdani and the New York City chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America, the campaign shared with The Intercept.
“Claire Valdez is a union organizer who worked minimum-wage fast food jobs and understands firsthand how this economy fails working people,” Sanders said in a statement to The Intercept. “In my view, Congress needs more voices who come from America’s working class. Claire has the experience and vision we need to take on the oligarchy and fight for unions, Medicare for All, and affordable housing. I’m proud to endorse her campaign for Congress.”
Velázquez has endorsed Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso, Valdez’s main competitor. Reynoso also has backing from leading progressive officials and groups in New York City like Public Advocate Jumaane Williams and the New York Working Families Party.
Already facing losses this cycle in races where competing progressive candidates did not consolidate their support, national progressives like Sanders are picking sides in the battle to define the future of the electoral left under Mamdani.
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Related
Nydia Velázquez Hears Calls for Generational Change, Setting Up a Fight on the Left in New York](https://theintercept.com/2025/11/22/new-york-democrats-nydia-velazquez-retire/)
Velázquez endorsed Reynoso shortly after Valdez launched her campaign in January standing alongside Mamdani and United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain. Some local observers saw Velázquez’s move as a rebuke of the mayor and a harbinger of a fight between factions of New York City’s left, endangering a relationship Mamdani and Velázquez had built since she became the first member of Congress to back his mayoral campaign.
Velázquez left little room to speculate on that question in comments she made to the New York Times in January, when she said Mamdani had opened up conflict between groups in his coalition by involving himself in primaries; that she was unfamiliar with Valdez, who is originally from Texas; and that she was skeptical of newcomers to the city who think they know who should represent New Yorkers in office.
In a statement to The Intercept, Valdez named Sanders as a key inspiration for her political beliefs and career.
“Three things made me a democratic socialist: shitty jobs, the labor movement, and Bernie Sanders’ runs for president,” Valdez said. “His political revolution changed my life — and showed millions of Americans what’s possible when working people organize. I’m grateful for this endorsement and ready to join the fight in Congress against the oligarchs and for economic democracy.”
On Wednesday, the Valdez campaign announced that it had raised $750,000 from 11,200 donors in the filing period that just ended, though the Federal Election Commission has not yet processed and verified the figures. Reynoso had raised just over $317,500 by the end of 2025, before Valdez launched her campaign, according to available FEC data. His campaign has not yet announced its most recent fundraising figures and did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Valdez’s endorsements include PAL PAC, the new pro-Palestine group opposing the American Israel Public Affairs Committee; Justice Democrats; Leaders We Deserve PAC; Jewish Voice for Peace Action; attorney and political advocate Zephyr Teachout; Democratic New York state Sen. Jabari Brisport; and several members of the New York State Assembly.
Reynoso’s backers include Make the Road Action; New York Communities for Change; several powerful local unions including 32BJ SEIU and DC-37; Attorney General Letitia James; New York Democratic Reps. Jerry Nadler and Pat Ryan; and several New York City Council members.
The post Bernie Sanders Backs Claire Valdez in NYC House Race Dividing Left and Progressives appeared first on The Intercept.
From The Intercept via This RSS Feed.
Never holding my nose for these bastards ever again. Been voting third party at every level for a decade and will continue to do so unless the DNC becomes actual leftists (as in anti-capitalism leftists, not just decently right to the center, but left of MAGA).
That’s a totally fine viewpoint to have, but I suppose that makes you not part of the group I refer to, when I say “intraparty”.
Thats fine, then dont count on our votes. I suppose that inevitably makes you republican-lite, same as it always does eh.
If you’re part of the group that thinks that the Democrats aren’t saveable no matter whether people like Tlaib, AOC, Sanders, Mamdani etc. take power, that makes you not part of the Democrat party, simple as that. There’s a spectrum of Democrats, from Republican-lite as you say (extract money for the rich from the working class but put it in rainbow inoffensive words) to Democratic Socialist. You can’t pick out just any random person from the Democrats and assume they are on one end of that spectrum. Has that wing of the party had control of it for too long? I believe so, but I also believe that it can change, it has in Japan’s uniparty, it has in Canada and it has elsewhere.
Rentlar, I’ve had people – actual dems even-- tell me (a progressive with most of a lifetime voting straight blue) constantly that I am or am not a “democrat” before, and what that means I must do. Thats not up to you or anyone else to declare, nor do I care to consider your gatekeeping opinions on the subject.
Looking over your comments pattern, you’re not a democrat yourself. You’re not even an American. You’re a Canadian living in Vancouver who thrives on what you see as edgy comments and your own youthful armchair politcal ‘strategery’. Thanks I guess but you’re not being helpful here. So you can leave your dictating who is or isnt a democrat and what the future of the party must be to the actual people suffering in it and who have a much larger stake in it than you do. Maybe you should fix your own countries politics if this sort of thing casually entertains you so much.
I will tell you I love and respect Canada and its people having lived all around the border for most of my life, but I wouldnt go into Canadian political discussions dictating what is and isnt. Because cultural context matters in this particular discussion. And you dont have it.
I try to come at these discussions rationally, you’re welcome to comment on Canadian politics if you wish or that of anywhere else, just bring an understanding of it or a set of relevant facts to justify your opinions if you want to be taken seriously.
In a general sense, I simply state that if it is indeed your belief a party can’t be fixed no matter what you do, then what good is it to you continuing to affiliate yourself with it in the primaries or the election? My initial argument was that primaries are one of the biggest venues of enacting that change within the party unlike elections. I have received rebuttals to that argument with sound reasoning, like the instances the party apparatus messed with the primaries, or the concern about vote splitting within the primary selection process itself. An ad hominem argument isn’t as compelling to me. Call yourself a Democrat or whatever you like, don’t listen to what I say about that. Perhaps you have a mental image of where you would like the Democratic Party to be, which you are or would be affiliated with, but if that is the case, my question is what will you do to try and realize that vision? I describe below what I try, anyway.
I could ignore US politics like a good subset of apathetic Canadians, but US politics does not ignore me and affects our daily lives too. If it’s taboo in the US for any non-American or non-Democrat to make either of the arguments I made, my apologies, but there’s no such restriction here. Or if it feels to you I’m treating it too casually by trying to offer my solutions or suggestions to American political problems, again my apologies to you. I’m not trying to hide the instance in my handle. You also now know how close I am to the US border (and most Canadians are within 100km/67mi) so I have a great interest in your house being in order as much as our own.
My aim with my comments is to present a broader international context to say that just because it has only worked a certain way in the USA, that it doesn’t have to be the only way it will work. And I will support you in the ways I can from outside your country as you try to overcome your fascist regime, as that will help Canada as much as it will help the USA.
To give you some current Canadian political context, Canada’s New Democrat Party just recently completed their leader election signalling a major shift leftward, after their center-left positioning on mostly social issues was shown not to be a compelling answer to Trump, Conservative Maple MAGA and a pragmatic Liberal rebranding. I couldn’t see myself represented in the NDP before then, but now I am considering it.
Cool. So you’re one of many responsible for current shitshow.
The only ones responsible for this are the ones in charge. The Dems could have kicked Biden to the curb instead of trying to run his old and decrepid ass again. Hell they shouldn’t have even run him in 2020 considering even a grain of sand would win in that environment and most likely wouldn’t have gone around Congress to make sure Israel was completely funded and weaponized.
I wonder who puts them in charge🙃
Considering they both work to make sure we have as little actual say as possible by not allowing for fair primaries and suing to keep third parties off the ballot. Helps that none of them want to actually change the system to get rid of FPTP or dismantling the electoral college.
Why you keep enabling this then?🙃
The only people enabling this are the supporters of the major parties and those that refuse to allow violence at protests. Dems have more in common with Conservatives than they do us and they like to keep it that way.
🤝