Progressive candidates endorsed by New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani have won decisive victories in their campaigns to join the United States Congress. On Tuesday, New York City politicians Brad Lander, Darializa Avila Chevalier and Claire Valdez secured their seats in the 120th Congress, representing the 10th, 13th and 7th districts, respectively. All three were considered shoo-ins following the state’s June 23 party primaries.
Their districts lean heavily Democratic. But their wins in the 2026 midterm election solidify a political shift in the New York City area, ushered in by Mamdani’s own victory as a Democratic socialist in the 2025 mayoral race. Cutting off such aid was central to all three candidates’ policy platforms, as part of their opposition to Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza.
Valdez will head to Congress from the state assembly. Her political career began in the labour movement, and she has pushed to make it easier for unions to organise, as part of her policy platform. She defeated Republican community activist Melvin Rivera in a largely lopsided race.
US Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a progressive who was first elected in 2018, also handily won her House race for the 14th congressional district. Other notable wins for the House of Representatives include Micah Lasher, a New York Assembly member who will serve his first term in Congress after defeating Republican challenger Caroline Shinkle. Incumbent Representative Grace Meng in Queens, New York, also won her re-election bid against Republican challenger Joseph Chou.
Meng told Al Jazeera that the larger Democratic sweep in the midterms is “a mandate for us, not just a promotion”. She said that a goal for the new Congress would be to push back on Trump. New York’s Democrats are also pushing for Hakeem Jeffries — the longtime representative for the state’s 8th congressional district — to be selected by party members for the House speaker role.
Jeffries currently serves as House minority leader for the Democratic Party. If chosen by his colleagues to lead the House of Representatives, he will be the first Black speaker in the history of Congress’s lower chamber. The state of New York elected a total of 26 members to the House of Representatives in this year’s midterm race.
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