Antonio Reynoso defends calls suggesting Mayor Zohran Mamdani's support in NY's 7th District race

Dave Goldiner, New York Daily News on May 27, 2026

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NEW YORK — Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso is defending organizers’ phone calls to voters that suggest Mayor Zohran Mamdani supports him in the Democratic primary for the NY-07 congressional district, when the mayor actually backs rival Assemblywoman Claire Valdez.

Reynoso says he sees nothing wrong with the calls from the left-leaning Working Families Party urging voters to volunteer for his campaign to help “get support in Congress for Zohran (Mamdani),” even though the mayor has endorsed Valdez in their June 23 primary.

“No. Lies. Told,” Reynoso tweeted about the phone messages.

Ritti Singh, a spokesperson for the Valdez campaign, accused Reynoso of piggybacking on the popularity of Mamdani and his progressive agenda in the deep-blue district.

“It’s not surprising our opponent is invoking Mayor Mamdani and his agenda, as both are extremely popular,” Singh said. “But there’s only one candidate Zohran has endorsed in this race and that’s Claire Valdez.”

Valdez’s campaign did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the brewing Zohran-o-drama. The WFP calls were first reported by political blogger Timmy Facciola on his Judge Street Journal substack.

Reynoso says he supports Mamdani, but called the new mayor “disloyal” in a recent interview for picking Valdez over him in the NY-07 progressive-on-progressive cage fight.

Valdez is the surprising leader in the district that snakes through northern Brooklyn and western Queens, including some of the most progressive neighborhoods in the entire nation.

Former Rep. Nydia Velazquez, who is retiring after representing different iterations of the district for more than three decades, is backing Reynoso to succeed her. The WFP also lined up behind Reynoso, along with several progressive community groups.

Valdez, a first-term lawmaker who moved to New York as a young adult, has the backing of Democratic Socialists of America and Mamdani, who swept the district by an overwhelming landslide in his City Hall victory.

A recent independent poll showed a narrow edge for Valdez over Reynoso with Councilwoman Julie Won far behind. It showed an extraordinary nearly 80% of Democratic voters approve of the job Mamdani is doing.

Whoever wins in the June 23 primary is virtually certain to replace Velazquez in Washington, D.C. representing one of the most heavily Democratic districts in the nation.