Representative Nydia M. Velázquez, a Democratic trailblazer who was the first Puerto Rican woman elected to Congress, said on Thursday that she would not seek re-election in 2026 at the completion of her 16th term.
Ms. Velázquez, 72, cited the calls for generational change in her party, acknowledging that she had considered retiring for the last few years. But after Zohran Mamdani’s success in the November mayoral election, she felt confident that a new cohort would continue her efforts.
“I love this work and I love my district, but I believe now is the right moment to step aside and allow a new generation of leaders to step forward,” she said in an emotional phone interview from her office in Washington. “After devoting so much energy and so much time to help elect young leaders, I feel at ease,” she added, pointing to Mr. Mamdani’s election.
Her move to step down is the latest in a volatile string of developments among New York Democrats as the 2026 midterm cycle approaches. Representative Jerrold Nadler, one of the foremost liberal voices in Congress who also held his seat for more than three decades, said in September that he would not run for re-election. And three other House members from the city — Daniel Goldman, Adriano Espaillat and Hakeem Jeffries — have drawn primary challenges from the party’s left flank.
The open seat in the Seventh Congressional District is likely to kick-start another crowded and competitive primary contest. Stretching across northeast Brooklyn into Queens, Ms. Velázquez’s district includes a handful of the city’s most Democratic neighborhoods, including Bushwick and Greenpoint in Brooklyn and Sunnyside and Long Island City in Queens. The area overwhelmingly supported Mr. Mamdani in November, with more than eight in 10 voters casting ballots for him in some precincts.
Ms. Velázquez, who has mentored dozens of lawmakers and organizers in her more than 30 years in politics, declined to name a possible successor ahead of the primary. She expressed confidence in the district’s cadre of elected officials, and said that she would consider an endorsement closer to the June election.
Whoever picks up the mantle, she said, will hopefully adopt the same progressive agenda that she has spent her career fighting for.
“The debate has to be based on meeting the challenge. People are suffering.” she said. “So this is a challenge for everyone, a public servant, to look at how can we best address the anxiety that exists among people that are working hard like never before.”
A Spanish-speaking political lightning rod nicknamed “la luchadora,” or the fighter, for her no-holds-barred approach to politics, Ms. Velázquez was considered the vanguard of a new face of Latinos in politics. At 39, she won a primary challenge against a nine-term congressman, defeating him and four other Latino candidates. She was elected to Congress in 1992, her status as the body’s first Puerto Rican woman attracting considerable prejudice.
In Congress, she was known for her advocacy on behalf of working-class and low-income New Yorkers and her efforts to promote further enfranchisement of Puerto Rico and its residents. She is the highest-ranking Democrat on the House Small Business Committee, a role she has used to push for more small-business protections. Ms. Velázquez was among the leading voices supporting the appointment of Justice Sonia Sotomayor, a longtime ally, to the Supreme Court and pointed to it as one of the highlights of her political career.
She has thrown her support behind young progressives for a range of offices, with mixed results. She was one of the first members of Congress to endorse Mr. Mamdani when she supported him in April and before that endorsed a long-shot candidate, Carlina Rivera, in New York’s redrawn 10th Congressional District. Ms. Rivera lost the crowded race to Mr. Goldman.
She also served as an early mentor to Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and the two have collaborated on legislation and other initiatives.
Ms. Velázquez said she planned to spend the last year of her congressional term continuing her work nurturing the next crop of Democratic leaders and advancing policies related to environmental protections in the city and improving conditions in her district’s public housing units. She also hopes to advance her work on Puerto Rican self-determination.
Asked about her legacy in congress and the district, Ms. Velázquez said she was heartened by the possibility of new faces to lead it.
“I feel good that the district will be represented by a good public servant,” she said. “And that is what leadership is all about.”
Maya King is a Times reporter covering New York politics.
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