Sunset Park overwhelmingly backs progressive NY-10 challenger

The New York primaries took place at the end of June. Across the city, a number of left-leaning candidates won the Democratic primaries.

Among them was Brad Lander, former New York City comptroller and former mayoral candidate who lost the 2025 primary to Zohran Mamdani. Mayor Mamdani endorsed Lander’s run for Congress in New York’s 10th Congressional District, which includes Sunset Park.

Two members of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) won their respective primary races — Claire Valdez in the 7th Congressional District and Darializa Avila Chevalier in the 13th Congressional District.

Brad Lander is not currently a member of the DSA, although he was until 2023. His platform still generally aligns with those of DSA candidates: abolishing ICE, advocating for the construction of more housing and supporting public housing, taxing the rich, supporting labor organizing and establishing Medicare for All, among other proposals.

Local and national media outlets have pointed to the wave of victories by DSA and DSA-aligned candidates as an indication of a leftward movement within the Democratic Party.

Lander, in a statement to the Sunset Post, pointed not to partisan politics but to solidarity across many groups as the reason for his win — especially for his numbers in Sunset Park.

“Sunset Park is a neighborhood full of hard-working families, including many generations of immigrants, who have their neighbors’ backs. We won here by running a campaign rooted in solidarity — building bridges across differences, taking on corporate interests on behalf of working people, focusing on affordable housing, health care, and good jobs, fighting to protect our immigrant neighbors, and refusing to compromise on anyone’s humanity, here or around the globe,” Lander said.

Turnout for the primaries was low. As of Saturday, June 27, with about 90% of the expected vote reported, fewer than 84,000 votes had been counted in the 10th Congressional District. However, Lander received between 60% and 80% of the vote in Sunset Park election districts.

Alexa Avilés, Sunset Park’s City Council member, endorsed Brad Lander’s candidacy.

“I proudly endorsed Brad Lander for Congress because we haven’t had anyone fighting for our working-class communities in Congress. Brad’s track record on fighting for immigrant protections speaks for itself. I look forward to working with Brad to support our community members as he enters office,” Avilés said.

Some locals, including a longtime Sunset Park business owner who requested anonymity to avoid alienating potential customers, were not pleased with the victories of progressive and democratic socialist candidates.

“I’m no fan of socialism. I just think there are better options out there,” he said.

He did say he understands that there are market forces at work that explain why some might look to these kinds of candidates for hope.

“You just can’t afford to live in Brooklyn any more. You can’t afford a home. If we didn’t own this building, we wouldn’t be able to survive. Education too is an issue — I have a grandson who goes to school in [another country], and the education there is so much better than anything he could get here,” he said.

Based on New York City’s electoral history, the candidates who won these Democratic primaries are strongly favored to be elected in November.

How much attention Brad Lander gives to the issues facing Sunset Park voters remains to be seen.

In late 2024, Dan Goldman moved his Brooklyn office to Industry City. Insofar as voting numbers reflect satisfaction with Congressman Goldman’s record in Sunset Park, the results suggest that proximity did not equal attention to voters’ needs.