We will usher in a golden age for organized labor to battle back the new gilded age that is upon us.
Assemblymember Claire Valdez is a union organizer, artist and proud democratic socialist. A dual citizen of the Ysleta del Sur Pueblo Nation and the United States, she worked low-wage customer service jobs through high school, college and after. As a worker at Columbia University, she joined UAW Local 2110, was elected to the bargaining committee, and organized to democratize her union. A longtime leader in NYC-DSA, Claire serves in the New York State Assembly, where she has fought to tax the rich, protect tenants, and empower working people.
New York’s 7th Congressional District spans North Brooklyn and Western Queens, neighborhoods shaped by both struggle and creativity. From the industrial polluters of the 19th and 20th centuries to the real estate speculators of today, powerful interests have long sought to extract wealth here at the expense of working people. But this district is also a place of deep resilience and extraordinary diversity, where immigrants, artists, workers, and families have built lasting communities and helped define the cultural life of New York City.
I didn’t come to politics through party machines or electoral ambition. I learned how this system really works in low-wage customer service jobs and found my power in a union.This district has also long stood on the frontlines of progressive political change. It was here that the daughter of a sugarcane worker took on the political establishment and became the first Puerto Rican woman elected to Congress. Nydia Velázquez went on to spend decades fighting for workers, immigrants, and small businesses against corporate power. This district delivered the single largest margin of victory for Zohran Mamdani in the Democratic primary for mayor. It’s a district that doesn’t just want strongly-worded letters but a real economic vision to win the working class away from Trumpism. That’s what Claire will deliver.
No dark money group or corporate PAC would ever consider giving me money. And I would never take it. But they will spend it against us.
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Unions are how we build power and expand democracy. Organized workers win higher wages and stronger benefits, work in safer conditions, and exercise more control over their time and their lives. They are more secure at work, more engaged in their communities, and more likely to vote. That's exactly why oligarchs spend billions trying to crush collective bargaining—because organized workers threaten their power.
In Congress, Claire will champion the PRO Act to make it easier for people to form unions, hold bosses accountable, and stop corporations from retaliating against people who demand dignity on the job. She will use her office to stand shoulder to shoulder with workers organizing across our city—on picket lines, at bargaining tables, and wherever working people are fighting for their rights. It's exactly what she has done throughout her adult life.
Housing is a human right—but Congress has chosen to side with landlords and speculators instead of working people. Claire will fight to guarantee safe, affordable housing for all, because housing is not a commodity. It's a necessity.
As a tenant, Claire knows what it means to be one crisis away from losing your home. In NY-07, more than seven in ten residents rent, but the establishment has allowed displacement and skyrocketing costs to hollow out our communities. That's not inevitable—it's a political choice.
Claire will be a voice for tenants in Congress and work to pass the Homes Act, championed by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, to create a public option for housing and break the private market's stranglehold. She will fight to fully fund the New York City Housing Authority and repeal the Faircloth Amendment so we can build beautiful public housing again. Claire will take on a housing system designed to reward speculation and scarcity—and fight for a New York where working people can afford to stay.
While major health insurance corporations post obscene profits, tens of thousands of people in New York's 7th District remain uninsured—and many more are underinsured. Working people delay care, ration medication, and face financial ruin from a single hospital visit. This is not inevitable. It's the result of a system designed to put profit before patients.
In Congress, Claire will sponsor Medicare for All on Day One and fight the insurance companies that profit from denying care and driving up costs. No one should lose their health care when they lose a job, and no one should have to choose between seeing a doctor and paying rent. Health care is a human right.
Employer-based insurance gives bosses power over workers' lives—holding care hostage to keep wages down and trap people in jobs they can't afford to leave. Nearly half of NY-07 residents rely on employer coverage, and tens of thousands more are at risk of losing insurance because of new work and verification requirements. We will not fix this crisis with half-measures. Claire will fight to pass Medicare for All, paid for by taxing billionaires and corporations that have rigged the system, and deliver universal health care for every New Yorker.
Claire will oppose funding for genocide and forever wars, and will fight ICE and the systems that cage migrants and terrorize working families. She stands with Palestine and with Puerto Rico for freedom and self-determination—because no working class is disposable, and justice cannot stop at the water's edge.
Claire Valdez stood with me on day one because she understands how change is won—by building power, raising expectations, and delivering for working people. She comes from the labor movement and knows how to turn struggle into real gains on housing, healthcare, and workers’ rights. That’s the kind of partner I need in Congress, and why I’m proud to endorse her.
Corporations and billionaires are doing everything they can to crush the working class. The only way we can take on the crises in front of us is if we have more workers representing us in the halls of power. That is why I am proud to stand with UAW member Claire Valdez in her run for Congress. Claire will fight like hell for dignity, fairness, and justice for all workers. This is exactly how the labor movement can fight back against corporate greed and inequality: by electing more of our own. UAW is excited to send Claire to Congress to deliver for the working class.