Overview (Including DSA Membership) [1]

Born in Lubbock, Texas, on October 12, 1989, Claire Valdez is a dual citizen of the United States and Ysleta del Sur Pueblo — a sovereign, federally recognized Native American nation in El Paso, Texas. As a teenager, Valdez worked a series of fast-food and service jobs at places like Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, and Trader Joe’s. Years later in a 2024 interview, she articulated the dissatisfaction she had felt with the aforementioned jobs: “Everyone was treated like shit, so there was a sense of solidarity even if there was a difference in power and pay scale,” she said.

In 2012 Valdez earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where she studied Painting and Art History. In 2015 she moved to New York City to pursue a career in art, finding employment as a program assistant in Columbia University’s Visual Arts Department.

While working at Columbia, Valdez also became an active member of United Auto Workers (UAW) Local 2110, where she was elected unit chair in 2022.

In 2019, Valdez joined the New York City chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA). According to David Jenkins, a member of DSA’s National Political Committee: “Our goal is liberation. Our goal is Communism. We’re a diverse body of libertarian socialists, libertarian Marxists, anarchists, lefts, Communists, and other schools of thought within the sort of leftwing socialist movement.” Valdez eventually went on to serve as DSA’s New Member Coordinator; among other projects, she worked on the 2020 reelection campaign of Democratic New York State Senator Julia Salazar, also a DSA member.

In 2024, Valdez ran for the 37th District seat in the New York State Assembly, a district representing part of the Borough of Queens. At that time, the incumbent, Juan Ardila, was enveloped by a cloud of scandal when two separate women accused him of having sexually assaulted them.

Valdez’s campaign was endorsed by such notable leftwing stalwarts as Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the Democratic Socialists of America, and the Working Families Party. Regarding Ocasio-Cortez’s endorsement, Valdez said: “I am so proud to be endorsed by Queens comrade and Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Alexandria is a fearless champion for working-class New Yorkers against the corporate interests trying to auction off our future. She inspires everyone to dream bigger and fight harder. Thank you Congresswoman, not only for your belief in this campaign, but for your commitment to building the collective power of our movement.”

Valdez drubbed Juan Ardila by more than 48 percentage points in the Democratic Party primary on June 25, 2024, and then ran unopposed in the November general election.

Joining the NYS “Socialists In Office” Committee

Upon starting her term in the New York State Assembly on January 1, 2025, Valdez proudly joined the state’s Socialists In Office (SIO) committee, an America-hating organization dedicated to promoting far-left policies in a number of legislative areas. The list below enumerates some of those areas, and provides a quote articulating SIO’s position on each:

• Climate: “As capitalism and fealty to corporate profits plunge us deeper into climate crisis, we are fighting to ensure a sustainable future through policies that move us off fossil fuels now and transfer ownership of our energy system to the public.”
• Criminal Legal Reform: “The criminal legal system has created and implemented racist policies and practices that disproportionately impact people of color and low income communities, all supported by an interconnected web of laws and institutions. These laws must be dismantled by the legislature, and affirmative steps must be taken to end the decades-long trauma caused by the criminal legal system, police brutality, and mass incarceration.”
• Voting Rights for Incarcerated People: “Disenfranchisement of people because they have felony convictions or are incarcerated is an ugly and stark vestige of chattel slavery and Jim Crow in this country.”
• Economic Justice: “We must increase taxes on the wealthy and promote the equal distribution of wealth, ownership, and control in order to bring about true democracy: economic democracy.”
• Education & Child Care: “Past generations fought for—and won—free education for all children in public schools because they recognized that education is a basic right that cannot be left to market forces or reserved solely to those who can afford it. Today, that same struggle continues for early childhood education through higher education.”
• Ending Charter School Expansion: “Our public education system is at risk of being privatized, and transformed into a for-profit system. Wealthy individuals have spent years promoting privatized ‘charter schools,’ and making strategic campaign donations to try to accelerate this troubling trend.”
• Universal Child Care: “[E]xpand New York State’s capacity over a period of four years and create a system where child care is truly universal and free at the point of service—just like our public school system—and where early childhood educators are paid adequate wages that are at parity with that of public school teachers.”
• End the Failed “War on Drugs”: “The drug war is also the main fuel behind our mass incarceration and over-policing crisis, with drug possession as the most-arrested offense in the U.S. and Black people disproportionately targeted. Our socialist vision for ending the drug war rejects all carceral approaches, is rooted in compassion, and respects the autonomy and dignity of people who use drugs.”
• Healthcare Coverage for Illegal Immigrants: “Today, 154,000 New Yorkers are uninsured because of their immigration status. Federal programs like Medicaid currently exclude undocumented immigrants. As a result, many delay care or avoid it altogether. Coverage for All would create a state-funded Essential Plan for all New Yorkers making up to 200% of the Federal Poverty Level, irrespective of immigration status.”
• Housing: “We believe that all New Yorkers should have a safe, stable, and affordable place to live. In order for this to happen, the power of the real estate industry must be reduced, and tenants must be empowered to organize for improved conditions and resident control. This requires investments in public and supportive housing, funding for rental assistance, and key tenant protections.”
• Immigration: “All people deserve an equal, dignified existence and the ability to live free of the harassment of state authorities—regardless of their immigration status. Centuries of capitalism and imperialism, and their continuance today, have created a global system of unequal development which manifests in social, political, and economic instability. Climate change caused by capitalist industry is destroying ecosystems and ways of life worldwide. Those who come to the United States are refugees from the brutal conditions that are in large part the consequence of our country’s policies. We are fighting for legislation that expands rights and protections to all, regardless of when they migrate, to end the stratification of workers on the basis of citizenship status.”
• Minimum Wage Hike: “[Raise the wages of] food service workers to $15/hour.”
• Abolish Prison Slavery: “The 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution banned slavery over 150 years ago, but with a major exception – prison slavery. New York has continued to exploit incarcerated workers, for example by paying such workers pennies to manufacture hand sanitizer during the pandemic. This is an abomination.”
• Reproductive Justice: “The Socialists In Office believe in a woman’s right to an abortion without any stigma or apology, as well as the development of robust services and programming networks to further codify reproductive healthcare protections.”

Campaign for the U.S. House

On January 8, 2026, Valdez announced her candidacy for New York State’s 7th Congressional District seat, whose longtime incumbent representative, Nydia Velázquez, had already announced her plan to retire without seeking reelection. Valdez’s campaign was endorsed by such political luminaries as New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders, and by organizations like the New York City DSA, Justice Democrats, and the United Auto Workers union.

Winning the Democratic Primary

In the Democratic Party primary of June 23, 2026, Valdez garnered 58.1% of all votes, easliy defeating Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso (32.5%) and Queens Councilwoman Julie Won (7.5%).

Because a pair of additional DSA-affiliated congressional candidates — Darializa Avila Chevalier and Brad Lander — likewise won their respective Democratic Party primaries on June 23, the DSA boasted that its rapidly rising influence represented an unstoppable trend that was destined to continue gaining momentum. As Osman Chaudhary, co-chair of the New York City DSA Electoral Working Group, put it: “We have a Democratic socialist mandate in New York City.” To anyone contemplating the possibility of mounting a challenge against the DSA’s preferred candidates, Chaudhary said: “Don’t even try it. We control these areas; we won by massive margins.”

After she won the primary, Valdez was expected to easily win the November 2026 general election in New York’s 7th Congressional District, where Democrats outnumbered Republicans by a whopping 25%.

Positions & Track Record on Key Campaign Issues

Israel

At the January 9, 2026 launch party for Valdez’s congressional campaign, she was introduced to political supporters by activist Mahmoud Khalil, the former Columbia University student whom federal immigration authorities had arrested and detained for the prominent role he played in a series of June 2023 rallies in New York City – events where, in the Trump administration’s calculus, his presence and advocacy posed “serious adverse foreign policy consequences” for America.  The Trump administration was further vexed by the fact that Khalil had:

• willfully omitted information about his prior work history and organizational memberships on his green card application;
• defended protesters’ chants of “From the River to the Sea” – a call for the complete eradication of the state of Israel, which is situated between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea;
• likewise defended protesters’ chants of “Globalize the Intifada,” a term denoting violent, deadly uprisings by Islamic extremists;
• maintained that the First Palestinian Intifada and the Second Palestinian Intifada were “largely a mass civil resistance against Israel[i] apartheid and Israeli occupation”; and
• repeatedly refused to condemn Hamas in the aftermath of its October 7, 2023 terrorist attacks that resulted in the murder of more than 1,200 Israelis.

During her tenure in the New York State Assembly, Valdez was a co-sponsor of the Not on Our Dime Act, legislation originally introduced in 2023 by then-Assembly Member Zohran Mamdani. The bill sought to authorize the State Attorney General’s office to strip charities of their nonprofit status if, in the AG’s estimation, they were guilty of: (a) facilitating illegal Israeli “occupations” in Judea and Sumeria, or (b) “genocidal operations” and “war crimes” in Gaza.

In 2025, Valdez, who advocated the termination of all U.S. military aid to Israel, was arrested outside the Midtown Manhattan offices of Democrat U.S. Senators Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand, when she took part in a demonstration – organized by Jewish Voice for Peace – protesting the senators’ opposition to a Resolution advocating the termination of American arms sales to the Jewish state.

Valdez supports the Boycott, Divestment, & Sanctions (BDS) movement, a Hamas-inspired initiative aiming to lay the psychological and rhetorical groundwork for:

• creating the impression that Israel has usurped large swaths of land that rightfully belong to the Palestinians;
• depicting Israel as a habitual human-rights violator guilty of subjecting its Palestinian neighbors to brutal campaigns of “apartheid,” “ethnic cleansing,” “crimes against humanity,” and “genocide”;
• likening Israeli public officials and soldiers to “Nazis”;
• comparing Gaza  to a “concentration camp” or “ghetto”;
• delegitimizing Israel’s very right to exist as a sovereign state; and
• promoting the idea that this illegitimate Jewish state should either be replaced by an Arab-majority alternative, or joined by a newly created, independent Palestinian counterpart.

In an X post on June 3, 2026, Valdez said: “Two and a half years ago, Israeli leaders clearly stated their intent to carry out a genocide in Gaza. And that’s exactly what they did. I was in the streets with so many New Yorkers protesting our complicity and to free Palestine.”

Accusing the U.S. government of having “funded and supported Israel” throughout the brutal campaign of “apartheid,” “military occupation,” and “genocide” it had directed “against the Palestinian people,” Valdez and her 2026 congressional campaign vowed to:

• “cosponsor the Block the Bombs Act,” designed to “halt the sale and transfer of worst-offender weapons to Israel being used to commit genocide in Gaza and carry out violence against Palestinians”;
• “push for a full suspension of U.S. military funding and arms transfers to Israel until it complies with international law and ends its campaign of violence against Palestinians”; and
• “advocate for policies that recognize Palestinian statehood” and “oppose illegal [Israeli] settlements and annexation.”

Immigration

During a June 2026 congressional campaign event, Valdez said the following about America and its treatment of immigrants: “We hear all these, you know, white conservative men talk about who does, and does not, belong here. And look, this this nation was founded on genocide and the mass displacement of people. This is, it’s just the history. And to say that some people cannot belong here, it’s like, come on. So, this is the thing. They’re not, they’re not in favor of, uh, immigration and illegal immigration and protecting illegal immigrants.”

Valdez has called for the abolition of United States Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE), describing it as a “fascist agency” guilty of “terrorizing” immigrants and “kidnapping” people. “This fascist [Trump] administration is kidnapping our neighbors from their immigration court check-ins,” she said in a 2025 post to X.

Valdez co-sponsored the New York For All Act (NYFAA), a 2026 legislative proposal to bar ICE from: (a) using state or local resources in New York for civil immigration enforcement; (b) dispatching its agents to non-public areas of state and local properties in New York; or (c) procuring sensitive information about illegals in New York without first obtaining a judicial warrant. As NYassembly.gov summarizes, the NYFAA:

“prohibits and regulates the discovery and disclosure of immigration status; prohibits police officers, peace officers, school resource officers, probation agencies, state entities, state employees, and municipal corporations from questioning individuals regarding their citizenship or immigration status; regulates the disclosure of information relating to immigration status; [and] prohibits an educational agency, higher education agency, school employee, school safety personnel, or third-party contractor from collecting information about a person’s citizenship, immigration status, nationality, or country of origin, unless required by law or necessary to administer a public program or benefit sought by such person.”

On September 28, 2025, Valdez was arrested while attempting, along with a number of other activists and agitators, to enter the ICE office on the tenth floor of the Jacob K. Javits Federal Building at 26 Federal Plaza in Manhattan, a 41-story government complex that houses the New York City Field Office for ICE, the local U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), and the Federal Plaza Immigration Court. The groups that organized this gathering on the tenth floor included Jews for Racial and Economic Justice (JREJ), Jewish Voice for Peace, the Democratic Socialists of America’s New York City chapter, the Sunrise Movement, Make the Road New York, the National Day Laborer Organizing Network, and the Immigrant Defense Project. CityAndState.comNY reported that according to a JREJ spokesman, “The elected officials arrested inside the building had requested access to the 10th floor to determine whether ICE was complying with a recent court order requiring the agency to provide detainees with meals, sanitary products like soap and bedding, and access to attorneys.” Valdez and the others were charged with violating a Class C misdemeanor law that prohibited “unreasonably obstruct(ing) the usual use of entrances, foyers, lobbies, corridors, offices, elevators, stairways, or parking lots.”

Asserting that President “Donald Trump’s violent and inhumane immigration policy has created a national emergency,” Valdez’s 2026 congressional campaign website charged that “ICE is killing people in detention and in the streets, ripping families apart, and sowing distrust and fear in cities across the country.” Thus, “we must abolish ICE,” which “has become a rogue agency that sows terror” in the hearts of immigrants. The campaign site further explained that “we must address the root causes of migration,” which include “bipartisan imperialism, punitive trade policy, and an accelerating climate crisis driven by extractive capitalism” – a problem to which Republicans have traditionally responded by “redirecting the justified anger of working-class Americans toward a convenient scapegoat: undocumented immigrants.”

To address these various issues, Valdez and her campaign promised that they would fight to:

• “provide a clear path to lawful permanent residence for our undocumented neighbors, for immigrants who were unjustly deported, and who chose to self deport rather than face the harsh and punitive Trump administration”;
• “raise the historically low cap of refugees accepted and … make sure asylum seekers are able to live and work in the U.S. while their cases are pending decisions”;
• “reintroduce the DREAM Act without the strict education requirements, allowing childhood arrivals to apply for citizenship and work in the U.S.”;
• “dramatically expand [the number of] immigration judges and processing staff so cases move quickly and fairly”;
• “invest in wraparound legal and social support for those who have experienced violence, mistreatment, or have been separated from their families at the hands of ICE”;
• “protect immigrant workers’ right to organize their workplaces by passing the PRO Act, which would guarantee all workers, including undocumented workers, damages if their labor rights are violated”;
• “end destructive wars and targeted military operations that fuel political instability and displacement across the globe”;
• “push for decisive and brave action to combat the climate crisis, centered around a Green New Deal,” on the premise that “climate change is now one of the single largest drivers of displacement worldwide”;
• “roll back restrictive U.S. trade policy that has … pried open developing economies to a flood of subsidized American exports,” actions that “have only served to fill the pockets of a handful of corporations, while undermining local farmers, hollowing out economies, and accelerating the very migration that politicians use to stoke fear”; and
• “cut back U.S. support for authoritarian regimes that exacerbate ethnic conflict or perpetuate the systematic oppression of minorities and dissidents.”

Transgenderism

Claiming that “Trump and right-wing extremists have made it their mission to vilify queer and trans people and strip them of basic protections,” Valdez and her 2026 congressional campaign vowed to help:

• “pass national-level protections and undo federal attacks against queer and trans people”;
• “win a Medicare for All health care system that includes full coverage for gender-affirming care,[2] contraception, and PrEP” (pre-exposure prophylaxis); and
• “pass the Equality Act, the Transgender Health Care Access Act and a Transgender Bill of Rights to codify permanent protections into law – protections that would include “the right to comprehensive, gender affirming medical care; the right to update any and all government documents so they accurately reflect your gender; [the] right to use bathrooms, locker rooms, and other public facilities that align with your gender; [the] right … to participate fully in school life, including sports; and [the assurance] that no federal agency, school, employer, or healthcare provider can use gender identity or sexual orientation as a basis for exclusion or discrimination.”

During a May 2026 interview, Valdez called for “enshrining” into law a “Trans Bill of Rights” that would authorize the use of taxpayer dollars to fund sex-change surgeries and related procedures. “We have to hold the line on trans rights,” she added. “… It’s absolutely essential, because the minute we start saying, ‘Oh, maybe health care, but not for this group of people. Maybe health care, but not for immigrants or trans folks.’  That’s the minute we let fascists win.”

In that same interview, Valdez also used the term “absolute cowards” to describe Democrats who tried to distance themselves from pro-transgender activism.

Unions

Lamenting that “oligarchs and bosses” have waged a “decades-long and strategic assault on unions” – resulting in “an era marked by extreme inequality, world-historic wealth concentration, and deepening alienation among working people” – Valdez on her 2026 congressional campaign website pledged that in Congress she would:

• work to “ensure [that] everyone has the freedom to live a good life by guaranteeing a job with a living wage, paid parental and sick leave, quality health care, and a dignified retirement”;
• “strengthen and pass the PRO Act, which would “make union certification easier, allow the [National Labor Relations Board] to penalize employers for violating contracts and union busting, and speed up the collective bargaining process”;
• “introduce legislation to provide robust public funding and support for new union organizing … and to cut off federal contracts and subsidies to any company that engages in union busting”;
• “end ‘at-will’ employment for all workers,” which allows employers to fire people “for any reason, or no reason at all”;
• strive to “legalize strikes for federal workers”;
• “fight for a federal job guarantee” that would “giv[e] every worker permanent job security so they can quit any job where they aren’t provided competitive wages and conditions”;
• “sponsor legislation to implement a 4-day, 32-hour work week with no change in pay or benefits”;
• “cosponsor The Raise the Wage Act to raise the federal minimum [hourly] wage to $17 by 2030,” and “continue to support New York City’s push for a $30 … minimum wage [by 2030]”;
• “guarantee universal paid family and medical leave, along with paid vacation and bereavement time, so that no one has to choose between a paycheck and living a full life”; and
• “fight for a return to defined-benefit pensions that guarantee lifelong monthly income, reversing the post-2007 shift toward 401(k)-style systems that place risks with workers” — on the premise that “retirement should be a collective guarantee, not an individual gamble.”

Housing

Asserting that “housing should be a human right, not a commodity or source of profit for landlords and developers,” a web page from Valdez’s 2026 congressional campaign said “we can’t rely on the private market to solve” the housing “affordability crisis” that “it created.” “The federal government needs to step in,” the page continued, “to protect tenants from exploitation, to remove the barriers that have blocked construction for decades, to build permanently affordable homes directly, and to give working people democratic control over where we live. Permanently affordable, union-built, beautiful homes for everyone.”

Some additional housing-related proposals, as enumerated and discussed by Valdez’s 2026 congressional campaign website::

• Universal Rent Control: “Rent control works. It is the most direct, immediate tool we have to keep working people in their homes – slowing or even stopping rent increases while everything else gets more expensive…. Rent control must be expanded not just to every New York tenant but to every tenant in the country.”
• Build Homes for All: “We need to build millions of homes, but the private market won’t solve this on its own. We need the government to lead.”
• Prioritize Transit-Oriented Development: “[F]ederal housing investment [should be conditioned] on transit connectivity so that new homes are built where people can actually get around without a car.”
• Build with Union Labor: “Claire will fight for federal housing investments that include strong labor standards: prevailing wage, apprenticeship requirements, project labor agreements, and card check neutrality.”
• Preserve Public Housing. “Claire supports a Green New Deal for Public Housing that fully funds repairs, removes mold and lead hazards, modernizes aging infrastructure, and transforms public housing into high-quality, energy-efficient social housing for the future.”
• Fully Fund Vouchers: “Claire will fight to fully fund vouchers so every qualifying household gets the support they need to stay housed, protect mixed-status families [i.e., families that include at least one illegal alien] from being pushed out of housing programs, and crack down on landlords who illegally discriminate against voucher holders.”
• Pass National Good Cause Eviction: “Across the country … landlords are able to evict tenants for any reason, or no reason at all. Claire will fight to pass a national good cause eviction law that requires landlords to prove a tenant violated their lease before they can be removed.”
• Take Properties away from Absentee Landlords: “When absentee landlords are not able or willing to improve conditions, the federal government should purchase properties or use eminent domain to convert them to social housing in public or community ownership.”

Global Cooperation on Climate Change

Stating that “we must shift our defense focus away from a policy of global domination to treating climate change as the central, global threat that it is,” Valdez’s 2026 congressional campaign website promised that Valdez would:

• “push to rejoin and strengthen the Paris Agreement,” a position rooted in Valdez’s claim that the U.S., being “the largest emitter of greenhouse gases in history,” “has a clear obligation to lead, both by rapidly reducing its own emissions and by scaling up financial support for mitigation and adaptation efforts in vulnerable countries”;
• promote legislation designed to “retire all fossil fuel-burning power plants by 2035”; and
• advocate for a reduction in the number of foreign-based U.S. military bases, whose comined “emissions footprint exceeds that of many countries.”

Valdez and her 2026 campaign further vowed to “push for renewed climate diplomacy with China and advocate for a broader framework of cooperation among the world’s largest emitters” of pollution. While praising China for having “deployed record levels of solar and wind power“ in an effort to produce the type of “renewable energy necessary to avoid catastrophe,” Valdez and her campaign condemned “the cold war posture the U.S. has adopted toward China” as “incompatible with the level of cooperation the climate crisis demands.”

Puerto Rico

Valdez and her 2026 congressional campaign called for “let[ting] the people of Puerto Rico determine their own political future” on matters such as statehood inthe U.S., “by reintroducing the Puerto Rican Self Determination Act.” “Claire will fight for full forgiveness of Puerto Rico’s Wall Street debt,” said the campaign website, “ending the reign of predatory Wall Street speculators that make huge profits by slashing public services, selling government assets, and undermining the island’s ability to recover economically.”

Transportation

According to Valdez and her 2026 congressional campaign, “working people deserve a public [transportation] system that gets them where they need to go, cheaply and reliably, without depending on a private vehicle they may not be able to afford or want.” Such an objective would necessitate “significant, unapologetic public investment in transit” and a willingness to “redirect federal dollars away from road expansion and toward the infrastructure of shared public life.”

Abortion

Valdez and her 2026 congressional campaign vowed that they would “fight to codify the right to an abortion nationwide, and make sure everyone has access to sexual and reproductive health care under Medicare for All.”

Higher Education

Valdez and her 2026 congressional campaign explicitly spoke out in support of “guaranteed access to tuition-free higher education.”

Footnotes:

[1] https://ballotpedia.org/Claire_Valdez
https://jacobin.com/2026/01/claire-valdez-union-organizing-congress

[2] The Daily Wire explains: “Gender-affirming care is a phrase used by transgender activists and media to mask the more grisly sounding transgender top and bottom surgeries, including removing a biological woman’s breasts, removing a biological man’s genitals, sculpting a fake penis on a biological woman, and more. Social affirmation, puberty blockers, and hormones also fall under the ‘gender-affirming care’ umbrella.” According to DoNoHarmMedicine.org, “gender-affirming” care is “based on the dangerous premise that any child who has distress that he or she thinks is related to their sex should automatically be treated with social transition to the sex of their choice followed by hormonal interventions and then possibly surgery to remove healthy body parts,” while “underlying mental health problems are usually not addressed.”