Democrats dominate NYC races, Hochul re-elected New York governor

Progressive candidates endorsed by New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani have won decisive victories in their campaigns to join the United States Congress.

On Tuesday, New York City politicians Brad Lander, Darializa Avila Chevalier and Claire Valdez secured their seats in the 120th Congress, representing the 10th, 13th and 7th districts, respectively.

All three were considered shoo-ins following the state’s June 23 party primaries. Their districts lean heavily Democratic.

But their wins in the 2026 midterm election solidify a political shift in the New York City area, ushered in by Mamdani’s own victory as a Democratic socialist in the 2025 mayoral race.

“To me, the national story is about this new generation of progressive leaders and getting excited about those who will be inspired by them just as they were inspired by Mamdani,” Adin Lenchner, progressive political strategist for Carroll Street Campaigns, a consulting firm, told Al Jazeera.

“Brad, Darializa and Claire are on their way to help lift up that same vision of progressive leadership in DC.”

All three representatives-elect spoke to the public on Tuesday, addressing, among other things, President Donald Trump’s pledge earlier in the day to cease annual military aid to Israel by the end of the year.

Cutting off such aid was central to all three candidates’ policy platforms, as part of their opposition to Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza.

“I don’t know that we can trust this president to make moral and consistent decisions about our military budget, so we’ll have to see,” Valdez told Al Jazeera outside a polling location in her district late on Tuesday afternoon.

Valdez will head to Congress from the state assembly. Her political career began in the labour movement, and she has pushed to make it easier for unions to organise, as part of her policy platform.

She defeated Republican community activist Melvin Rivera in a largely lopsided race.

US Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a progressive who was first elected in 2018, also handily won her House race for the 14th congressional district.

Other notable wins for the House of Representatives include Micah Lasher, a New York Assembly member who will serve his first term in Congress after defeating Republican challenger Caroline Shinkle.

Incumbent Representative Grace Meng in Queens, New York, also won her re-election bid against Republican challenger Joseph Chou. Meng told Al Jazeera that the larger Democratic sweep in the midterms is “a mandate for us, not just a promotion”.

She said that a goal for the new Congress would be to push back on Trump.

“He has not treated Congress like a third and independent branch of government and is just going around doing whatever he wants,” Meng told Al Jazeera.

New York’s Democrats are also pushing for Hakeem Jeffries — the longtime representative for the state’s 8th congressional district — to be selected by party members for the House speaker role.

Jeffries currently serves as House minority leader for the Democratic Party.

If chosen by his colleagues to lead the House of Representatives, he will be the first Black speaker in the history of Congress’s lower chamber.

“We are going to course-correct, and my good friend Congressman Hakeem Jeffries is set to wield the speaker’s gavel,” New York State Attorney General Letitia James said after her re-election on Tuesday.

The state of New York elected a total of 26 members to the House of Representatives in this year’s midterm race.

But important state and local positions were on the ballot as well.

In the gubernatorial race, for instance, incumbent Democrat Kathy Hochul secured another term in Albany. She won her race against Republican Bruce Blakeman, a lawyer and executive for Nassau County who ran on a platform of tax cuts and immigration reform.

With Tuesday’s results, Hochul and Adrienne Adams have become the first all-woman ticket to win election as governor and lieutenant governor in the Empire State’s history.

Hochul has served in her post since 2021. Adams previously served on the New York City Council.

In her victory speech, Hochul took aim at Trump, who campaigned heavily for Republicans ahead of the midterm elections.

“Just a few weeks ago, Donald Trump came to New York and told voters to pretend he was on the ballot,” Hochul said. “Well, Mr President, you got your wish.”

Hochul’s new term officially begins on the first day of January. The new congressional leaders will be sworn in on January 3, 2027.