Nicholas Fandos

But in late November, one of Mamdani's allies in Congress, Nydia Velazquez, who's been there for 30 years, announces unexpectedly that she's going to retire.

And the district that she represents is one of the city's farthest left.

It's also the place that Mamdani ran up the largest margins anywhere in the city.

And so when she retires, he sees a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to put one of his allies into that seat and expand his foothold in Congress beyond just Lander.

It's too good to pass up.

As it happens, Mamdani had someone very particular in mind, a young assemblywoman named Claire Valdez, who had been his first endorser in the race for mayor and a fellow democratic socialist.

Velazquez didn't know her at all.

She felt Mamdani blindsided her and was meddling in the race.

She ends up backing another candidate, the Brooklyn Borough President, Antonio Reynoso.

It's a great question.

And on paper, there's not a huge amount of difference in these two candidates in terms of policy.

They both want to abolish ICE.

They both have called what happened in Gaza a genocide.

They both support raising taxes on the rich, as the mayor does.

But Valdez comes out of the mayor's political movement.

Remember, I said he's a movement guy.

She was with him on day one when very few people were.

And he felt basically, yeah, that guy's progressive.

I like him.

But Claire is my candidate.