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On Saturday morning, some of the Working Families Party’s heavyweights came out to rally for Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso in his ongoing primary fight to represent New York’s 7th Congressional District.
New York state Attorney General Letitia James and U.S. Rep. Nydia Velázquez stood with other elected officials and labor leaders to cheer on Reynoso, their chosen candidate in an ongoing primary fight.
Last year, a very similar scene played out when the WFP embraced the meteoric rise of then-Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani, a democratic socialist who’s now New York City’s mayor.
But this time, instead of a rally with Mamdani, Saturday’s event amounted to a rebuke of the mayor’s endorsed candidate, Assemblymember Claire Valdez, a fellow democratic socialist, in the Democratic primary for the 7th congressional district. The seat opened up after Velázquez announced her retirement last year. City Councilmember Julie Won is also on the ballot.
For the WFP and its allies, the race is about showing working people, labor unions and community organizations that they are still the leaders of the left. Jasmine Gripper, who now leads the New York State WFP solo after her cochair joined the Mamdani administration, said the 7th Congressional District “belongs to the left.”
It’s one of two marquee Democratic congressional primaries the WFP is focused on this cycle. The other is in the 10th Congressional District, a seat covering part of Brooklyn and Lower Manhattan where the WFP seeks to oust incumbent Democratic Rep. Dan Goldman in favor of former city Comptroller Brad Lander, a longtime WFP stalwart.
“These are two communities where the party brand is really strong, where voters are used to listening to the party, and we have a lot of influence in the outcome,” Gripper said in an interview.
She said the left-leaning, labor-based third party is adopting a “block and build” strategy to help Democrats retake the U.S. House of Representatives in November. That means blocking Republicans in districts where they are viable, and sending progressive champions to fight for workers in solidly blue seats.
Assemblymember Claire Valdez has received Mayor Mamdani's endorsement for NY-7.
Reynoso played up his union bona fides at the rally on Saturday.
“I am a union baby. 1199 knows what’s up,” Reynoso said in a nod to his mother, who was a member of the healthcare workers union, and some of his own early organizing work. “What I fight for isn’t something that I saw on TV. What I’m fighting for is something that I’ve lived … I’m doing it because the union saved my life. The unions gave me food on the table and a roof over my head, and I'm going to spend every single day in Congress making sure that I pay that back.”
But Reynoso is not the only candidate claiming union cred, which also underscores the increasing complexity for the WFP on the left.
Valdez’s leadership within UAW Local 2110 is one of her calling cards. She also brings with her the electoral turnout machine that helped make Mamdani the mayor, and she’s leaning into that organizing might across the district.
"Over 1,600 workers — union and non-union — have signed up to volunteer for this campaign because they know we can only beat the corporate establishment if we organize together,” Valdez said in a statement. “I'm looking forward to earning the votes of the deliveristas, teachers and restaurant workers who make this district run."
Gripper said the WFP is knocking on doors to tell voters who the WFP-endorsed candidates are and added that the party’s brand still carries weight in these districts. When asked whether the WFP would be willing to use its ballot line in races it doesn’t win, Gripper did not rule out the possibility.
“ We can cross that bridge when we get there. It's really hard to say at this point,” Gripper said. “Right now, our goal is to win the Democratic primary.”
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This week in New York politics
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