Congressional candidates spar in NY-7 debate

Of all the candidates in the race for the 7^th Congressional District in Queens and Brooklyn, Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso has the deepest roots in the district.

In Wednesday night’s debate on NY1, he leaned into his background being raised by working-class Dominican immigrants in Williamsburg.

“I was a child that was extremely poor, and in just one generation my family is able to see me here standing before you running for Congress,” Reynoso said.

First-term Queens Assemblywoman Claire Valdez, who’s running with the support of Mayor Zohran Mamdani and the New York City chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America, is a relative newcomer to the city. But the former union organizer said she understands people’s economic struggles.

“I share the experience of so many people in NY-7 who have had jobs where they worked long hours on their feet, day after day, no end in sight, seven days a week, and really struggling to come up with rent at the end of the month,” she said.

Queens Council member Julie Won, meanwhile, tried to carve out her own lane.

“I come from a non-traditional background of tech,” Won said. “I worked at IBM for 10 years, and I only pivoted to government to make sure that our low-income neighbors, especially our public housing neighbors, had free internet and cable TV.”

The candidates were largely in agreement when it came to issues like opposing ICE; providing more support for public housing; and backing the proposed IBX light rail project. Disagreements were few, though Valdez was questioned about the support of a super PAC designed to counter the pro-Israel lobby.

“Could you help me understand how you could want to end Citizens United and no longer have super PAC funding our campaigns, yet take super PAC money yourself for your campaign?” Won asked her during the cross-examination portion of the debate.

“I would never accept money from corporate PACs, fossil fuel PACs, the real estate industry,” Valdez said.

Valdez later asked Reynoso why he wasn’t more active in opposing Israel.

“As far as I can tell, I don’t believe you’ve ever called for a ceasefire,” she told him. “And the first time you called it a genocide was when you launched this Congressional campaign.”

Reynoso responded: “The timing of when we come to a decision on what we want to call the atrocities that are happening in Gaza, which are a genocide, is not more important than being able to follow through on what you say.”

Mamdani has loomed large over the race; two of the candidates said they would not join him in lobbying President Donald Trump on the Sunnyside Yard housing project.

“I don’t think we should be visiting the White House and talking to Trump. This guy is terrorizing our neighbors, is committing crimes, war crimes,” Reynoso said.

“Neither Donald Trump or Zohran Mamdani are kings of this city,” Won said. “And we have to make sure that there’s a fair process legally.”  

Valdez, who moved to the city in 2015, is drawing support from younger, more left-leaning voters – many of whom are transplants themselves.

Near the end of the debate, the candidates were asked how many years one has to live in New York to be considered a New Yorker.

“I am an immigrant,” Won said, “and I believe that anybody who wants to call New York home that is here, to me you’re a New Yorker.”

Valdez said: “If you live here, if you call this city your home, if you love it, you’re a New Yorker.”

Reynoso said you’re a New Yorker “the minute you get here, if you respect the people that helped build the foundation of where you’re living.”