Antonio Reynoso, the Brooklyn borough president, said on Thursday that he would run for a New York City House seat being vacated by Representative Nydia M. Velázquez, setting the stage for a potential clash with a growing democratic socialist movement.
Mr. Reynoso, 42, is the first major candidate to declare a campaign for the left-leaning district. While not a socialist himself, he has a long progressive record, a high-profile role in the city’s most populous borough and a close relationship with Ms. Velázquez.
In an interview, Mr. Reynoso said he was motivated to run to check President Trump’s attempts to curb immigration and federal safety net programs, and that he would seek to “decorporatize the Democratic Party.”
“I want to be a voice to push the party to the left,” he said.
Yet in a sign of the party’s rapidly shifting mores, Mr. Reynoso appears to be headed for a showdown with the Democratic Socialists of America, a farther-left faction that has been emboldened by Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani’s victory in November. Now, the group and Mr. Mamdani himself are eager to test their political muscle — and have privately signaled that Mr. Reynoso is not their choice.
The Brooklyn and Queens district, New York’s Seventh, may provide one of the best opportunities to grow the D.S.A.’s ranks in Congress. It contains neighborhoods like Greenpoint, Williamsburg, Bushwick and Ridgewood where young voters have regularly elected socialists to state and local office in recent years. The district, which is more than a third Latino, also voted overwhelmingly for Mr. Mamdani, a D.S.A. member.
Several democratic socialist lawmakers are actively exploring runs, including Councilwoman Tiffany Cabán, State Senator Kristen Gonzalez and Assemblywoman Claire Valdez. (State Senator Julia Salazar, one of the New York City D.S.A. chapter’s first officeholders, also contemplated running for the seat but said she had ruled it out.)
The local chapter, which counts 3,000 members in the district, is expected to vote in January to endorse one of them and put its formidable field operation behind the pick.
Ms. Velázquez, 72, stunned New York’s political class last month when she announced she would retire after 16 terms in the House. The first Puerto Rican woman elected to Congress, she had spent decades cultivating a younger generation of political leaders on the left, including several of her potential successors, and said it was time to let them take over.
The fight for her seat is far from the only one roiling Democrats in New York, as voters in the city and nationally grapple over the party’s direction amid Mr. Trump’s aggressive maneuvering.
In the heart of Manhattan, roughly 10 candidates are vying to succeed Representative Jerrold Nadler, including a Kennedy scion. In a neighboring district that also includes parts of Brooklyn, Brad Lander, another progressive ally of Mr. Mamdani, is preparing to launch a primary campaign against Representative Dan Goldman, a more traditional liberal. And challengers from the left have also picked primary fights with Representatives Ritchie Torres in the Bronx and Adriano Espaillat in Upper Manhattan.
More than the other contests, the race to replace Ms. Velázquez pits different factions of the left against one another.
The son of working-class Dominican immigrants, Mr. Reynoso began his career organizing child care providers to join the teachers’ union. He helped found New Kings Democrats, an organization dedicated to uprooting the more moderate Brooklyn political machine. And as a city councilman, he served as a co-chair of the body’s Progressive Caucus.
He was elected borough president in 2021, succeeding Eric Adams, the current mayor. The role comes with a visible platform but limited power. In 2023, he announced he would invest his office’s entire capital budget for a year, about $45 million, in maternal health programs.
In the interview, Mr. Reynoso said he had dreamed of becoming a member of Congress since he was a college student, and that he was particularly motivated to try to protect programs like food stamps and Section 8 housing vouchers that his family had relied on.
He stressed that though he was not a socialist, he was not antagonistic toward the D.S.A. and had backed Mr. Mamdani as one of three preferred primary candidates in April.
“I have been doing this work as a reformer, as a progressive, for a long time before the D.S.A. had a single candidate they were supporting,” he said, adding that he hoped to build a broader coalition in the diverse district.
He rolled out his campaign on Thursday with the support of three progressive City Council members whose districts overlap with the congressional district: Lincoln Restler, Shekar Krishnan and Jennifer Gutiérrez.
Mr. Reynoso met with D.S.A. leaders in recent weeks to gauge if they might support his candidacy, but he said it was clear the group wanted to run one of its own members.
For the socialist group, the race is a big opportunity and a test at a moment when it is at its highest visibility in decades. Mr. Mamdani’s come-from-nowhere victory has popularized many of its positions, including strong opposition to Israel, tax increases for the rich and ambitious climate action.
But the group’s influence in New York still outpaces its size. There are just three democratic socialists serving in the House, including Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, and most primary voters in June will not be self-identified socialists.
And even though several state and local elected officials in the group — all young Latina women from western Queens — have signaled interest in the race, Mr. Reynoso’s early declaration gives him a head start.
“We know that moving quickly can sometimes give you an upper hand, and you have to sacrifice some of that to move together,” said Grace Mausser, the co-chair of the D.S.A.’s New York City chapter, adding that “this was a surprise opportunity, and we’re moving as quickly as we can while still being as cohesive and collective as we can.”
Ms. Cabán, 38, is perhaps the best known potential entrant. A former public defender, she narrowly lost a race for Queens district attorney in 2019.
Ms. Gonzalez, 30, is in her second term in the State Senate, representing parts of Brooklyn, Queens and Manhattan.
Ms. Valdez, 36, is a former labor organizer with the United Auto Workers who took office only this year.
Ms. Gonzalez declined to comment, as did representatives of the other two officials.
Mr. Mamdani, for his part, has not shied away from wading into city politics since his victory, encouraging Mr. Lander to challenge Mr. Goldman while personally lobbying fellow D.S.A. members not to back a primary challenge to Representative Hakeem Jeffries, the House Democratic leader.
The mayor-elect appears to have taken an active interest in the Seventh District as well. He has indicated to allies that he believes Ms. Valdez would be the best candidate, but has been more circumspect in public, according to two people familiar with his thinking who were not authorized to discuss it.
Morris Katz, a progressive strategist and top adviser to Mr. Mamdani, praised Ms. Valdez.
“Claire would be an incredibly strong candidate,” he said, “and someone who understands deeply that the path to a dignified life for every New Yorker is to empower workers and unite with organized labor to deliver an affordability agenda for our city.”
Nicholas Fandos is a Times reporter covering New York politics and government.
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