The race to replace retiring Representative Nydia M. Velázquez in New York City has already become a closely watched showdown between two candidates, one backed by traditional progressives and the other by democratic socialists.
Now, another hopeful, Councilwoman Julie Won, is joining the fray, positioning herself on Tuesday as an alternative for the district in Brooklyn and Queens by emphasizing her life experience over factional politics.
Her campaign will be an uphill battle. Many of the city’s leading Democrats have already taken sides in what had been a head-to-head fight between Antonio Reynoso, the progressive Brooklyn borough president, and Claire Valdez, a democratic socialist assemblywoman.
But in an interview, Ms. Won, 35, said she believed she could offer voters something different by running as a progressive Democrat, an immigrant who already represents Queens and the only candidate in the race with lengthy corporate experience before she took office.
“People deserve choices,” she said in an interview. “I don’t come from the establishment or the democratic socialists club or whatever that organization is. But I support progressive priorities.”
Ms. Won said her campaign would be centered around winning a federal guarantee for a “lifetime of care,” including universal government-funded child care, guaranteed paid maternal leave and burial assistance.
“It’s now become a luxury to have kids,” Ms. Won said. “I’d love to have a third kid now, but I can’t afford that.”
Ms. Velázquez, a progressive elder stateswoman, surprised even some of her allies when she announced late last year that she would retire after three decades in the House. It initially looked as if the race to succeed her would be sorted out amicably among her many acolytes ahead of June’s primary.
Instead, the contest has veered toward the contentious and already prompted a head-turning break between the congresswoman and Mayor Zohran Mamdani, whom she had supported in last year’s election. But after he ignored her requests to stay out of the race to succeed her and endorsed Ms. Valdez, Ms. Velázquez endorsed Mr. Reynoso and warned Mr. Mamdani against driving wedges between Democratic factions.
All three candidate can stake geographic claims on the Seventh District, which includes Williamsburg and Bushwick in Brooklyn as well as parts of Astoria and Sunnyside in Queens. It is among the most progressive in the city and home to several thousand members of the Democratic Socialists of America. But it is also racially diverse: A third of the voting population is Latino, about 14 percent is Asian and 10 percent are Black voters.
It is not immediately clear which of her opponents Ms. Won’s candidacy may help or hurt. As a progressive rather than a socialist, her politics are somewhat closer to Mr. Reynoso’s, but she has represented some of the same Queens neighborhoods in the Council that Ms. Valdez does in the Assembly.
Mr. Reynoso and Ms. Valdez have already secured the support of some of the biggest political figures and organizations in the district, making the path ahead difficult for Ms. Won.
Mr. Reynoso, a former City Council member and aide, has the backing of several of Ms. Won’s progressive counterparts on the Council as well as support from influential advocacy organizations like Churches United for Fair Housing Action and Make the Road Action. He reported last week that he had raised just over $300,000 in the first four weeks of his campaign.
Ms. Valdez, a former labor organizer, has the mayor’s muscular backing and the endorsement of the D.S.A. She has yet to report fund-raising figures, but her campaign has posted that it turned out more than 120 volunteers for a recent door-knocking launch.
Ms. Won immigrated to New York City from South Korea at age 8, and after college became a consultant for IBM in Washington. In 2021, she won a 15-way primary for a seat representing Long Island City, Sunnyside and nearby communities in the Council. (She won another term last fall.)
Like her opponents, Ms. Won endorsed Mr. Mamdani during the Democratic primary for mayor and has supported his young administration. Like them, she supports abolishing the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.
Ms. Won is married to Eugene Noh, a political operative who managed former Mayor Eric Adams’s re-election campaign before he dropped out of the race last fall. She said that Mr. Noh may volunteer for her congressional campaign, but would not work on it in a paid capacity.
Nicholas Fandos is a Times reporter covering New York politics and government.
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