A deli order may be one of the few topics on which candidates in the 7th Congressional District Democratic primary race were in real disagreement.
For Councilwoman Julie Won, it’s a chopped cheese with jalapeños on a roll. For Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso, it’s bacon, egg and cheese on a roll with ketchup and mayonnaise – with “a little bit” of salt and pepper.
Assemblywoman Claire Valdez had a similar order, but simpler: egg and cheese with a “little” pepper on a roll.
Public defender Vichal Kumar had a more adventurous order: pepper turkey, pepperjack cheese, lettuce, tomato, onion, salt, pepper, oil and vinegar (no bread specified).
The deli disagreements were of special note because other than their sandwich preferences, the candidates were in sync on most of the policy questions raised Wednesday evening at a forum co-hosted by Sunnyside Community Services and Epicenter NYC.
They’re vying to replace Rep. Nydia Velázquez, who decided not to run for reelection after holding the House seat since 1993. Velázquez, who has been one of the more progressive members of Congress, has endorsed Reynoso as her successor. He’s been one of her “godchildren,” as she’s called the group of young politicians she’s supported.
The other candidate with notable backing is Valdez, who’s been endorsed by Mayor Zohran Mamdani.
All four candidates argued that while city and state leaders are doing what they can, the real fights right now are in Washington: over federal funding cuts, immigration enforcement and a cascade of Trump administration policies hitting New York directly. The candidates were largely in lockstep on the major issues raised, calling for single-payer health insurance, expanding affordable housing, protecting immigrant communities and strengthening labor organizing.
On immigration enforcement, Kumar was the most forceful, calling outright for ICE to be dismantled. Valdez focused on pathways to citizenship and ending family separation. Reynoso, notably, didn’t address enforcement directly.
Reynoso distinguished himself on the healthcare front, saying he would call for congressional investigations of health insurance companies.
“These insurance companies are the ones that care more about their bottom line than they do about your health,” said Reynoso. “And they have a system by which they keep you sick in an effort to continue to make money from your visits to the doctor, the prescription drugs that you buy at the pharmacy.”
Won joined the others in saying she’d sign onto the Medicare For All single-payer proposal and called out what she described as an unprecedented move by the Trump administration to strip Medicare from 100,000 immigrant seniors.
“These are not even just low-income people, but seniors. It is unbelievable, and we have to fight,” said Won.
When asked what they’d prioritize in office, all four candidates touched on housing–but differed in approach. Reynoso pushed for creating transit-oriented development around the Interborough Express, a new light rail project that will connect Queens and Brooklyn. Kumar said he’d push to expand Section 8, noting that the city’s waitlist for units under the program has notoriously been frozen for years at a time. Won and Valdez both called for cleaning up the Newtown Creek Superfund site and improving New York City Housing Authority developments.
Valdez said she would work on “recommitting to cleaning up Newtown Creek, remediating the Superfund site, and making sure that the communities along the creek that have been impacted by green asphalt, by Exxon oil spills in the past get the real environmental benefits that they deserve.”
Candidates were also asked about the wave of federal funding cuts that have hit nonprofits and community organizations across the city. Kumar noted that his organization, Partners for Justice, was affected. Won, who has worked with Sunnyside Community Services, said she’d support the Older Americans Act, which provides community social and nutrition services for seniors.
The candidates were the most animated when asked about whether or not they supported regulating artificial intelligence. All four said yes, but differed on approach. Won announced she had introduced a bill that same afternoon to establish an office of AI consumer protection, so that residents could report complaints to the government rather than bear the cost of individual lawsuits against tech companies.
Valdez backed Sen. Bernie Sanders’ proposed moratorium on AI data center construction, citing threats to jobs and the environment. Kumar said he would support a federal AI agency to oversee the technology, pointing out the data firm Palantir’s role within ICE and how it uses facial and speech recognition software to monitor immigrant communities.
“We saw after 9/11 how we had analogue surveillance all over this country. South Asians, Muslims being targeted,” said Kumar. “AI is that surveillance all over again.”
The four candidates will face off in the June 23 primary. Early voting begins June 13 – more information on voting deadlines here.
