Brad Lander, Jewish Mamdani ally and Israel critic, wins NYC Congressional primary

Leftist ousts incumbent Dan Goldman in election for 10th Congressional District in Lower Manhattan and parts of Brooklyn

NEW YORK — Brad Lander, a leftist Jewish ally of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, won his primary race for New York’s 10th Congressional District on Tuesday, ousting the centrist incumbent Dan Goldman.

The winner of the primary race in the district, covering lower Manhattan and part of Brooklyn, is the presumed winner of the general election and next US House representative in the Democratic district.

The Associated Press called the election for Lander soon after polls closed at 9 p.m. With 80% of the vote counted, Lander had 66%, compared to Goldman’s 33%.

Lander and Goldman are both Jewish, but Lander ran further to the left in the race, in which Israel was a major issue.

Lander accused Israel of genocide and apartheid and attacked pro-Israel lobbying, while acknowledging that the attack line made him “queasy” because it played into antisemitic tropes.

Goldman has been harshly critical of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government and the war in Gaza, but is more in line with the Democratic Party center and the mainstream Jewish community.

In his victory speech, Lander again accused Israel of genocide and said the US was “paying for Netanyahu’s wars with our tax dollars.”

“I will be one of the Jewish members of Congress most willing to stand up for Palestinian human rights, and I will stand firmly against bigotry aimed at Jews,” he said.

Lander was a member of the New York City Council and became the city comptroller, the second-highest elected position in city government, in 2022.

He stepped down as comptroller to make a run for mayor in 2024 and later allied with Mamdani during the mayoral campaign, contributing to Mamdani’s upset victory.

Lander has maintained his alliance with Mamdani since and the mayor backed his run for Congress.

Lander has long been affiliated with leftist Jewish groups in the city, such as Jews for Economic and Racial Justice, which celebrated his primary victory on Tuesday night.

“This race was about more than a single seat in Congress. It was a fight for both the future of the Democratic Party, and the future of the Jewish community,” JFREJ said in a statement.

Lander identifies as a “liberal Zionist,” and his pairing with the anti-Zionist Mamdani was sometimes awkward.

Those tensions cropped up during voting on Tuesday when Lander refused to defend, or condemn, Mamdani’s comments this week likening the pro-Israel lobby to “monsters,” an attack widely seen as antisemitic, even from some of Mamdani’s Jewish allies.

Also Tuesday, Mamdani’s wife, Rama Duwaji, urged her millions of followers to vote for Mamdani’s two other Congressional picks, notably leaving Lander off of her endorsement.

Lander’s win bolsters the far-left, anti-Israel political movement in the city, home to the world’s largest Diaspora population, along with other leftist victories on Tuesday night.

In New York’s 7th Congressional District, Mamdani pick Claire Valdez won her primary. Valdez is a member of the far-left Democratic Socialists of America, Mamdani’s home base, while Lander is not.

And Darializa Avila Chevalier ousted centrist incumbent Adriano Espaillat in the 13th Congressional District, in upper Manhattan and parts of the Bronx.

Meanwhile in the 12th Congressional District, covering the Upper East Side, Upper West Side and Midtown Manhattan, Jewish centrist Micah Lasher won the Democratic primary.

The Associated Press declared Lasher the winner. With 87% of votes counted, Lasher had 39%, while his leading opponent, fellow centrist Alex Bores, had 35%.

Bores conceded to Lasher in a statement. “This is not the outcome we hoped for, but I want to congratulate Micah Lasher, who will represent this district well in Congress,” Bores said.

Pro-Israel US Congress members Ritchie Torres and Grace Meng were also declared the winners of their primaries in New York City.

Torres, the incumbent in New York’s 15th Congressional District in the Bronx, trounced his leftist opponent, Michael Blake. With 88% of the vote counted, Torres had 72%, compared to Blake’s 22%.

Meng, the incumbent in New York’s 6th Congressional District in Queens, led Chuck Park 57% to 43%, with 84% of votes counted.

Outside New York City, the pro-Israel House representatives George Latimer, in Westchester County, and Tom Suozzi, on Long Island, won their primaries.

Latimer won an uncontested vote while Suozzi had 80% with nearly all votes counted.