![\"MixCollage-21-Nov-2025-03-18-PM-7642\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/MixCollage-21-Nov-2025-03-18-PM-7642.jpg\" "\\"Why")
\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Retiring U.S. Reps. Nydia Vel\u00e1zquez (left) and Jerry Nadler.<\/p>\n
File Photos by Lloyd Mittchel<\/p>\n
A changing of the guard is underway within New York City\u2019s predominantly Democratic congressional delegation, with several members either retiring or facing primary challenges in 2026.\n<\/p>\n
U.S. Rep. Nydia Vel\u00e1zquez, whose district covers parts of north Brooklyn and western Queens, became the second longtime incumbent in the New York City delegation to announce she will not be seeking reelection<\/a> next year on Thursday night. Both Vel\u00e1zquez and U.S. Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-Manhattan), who made the same announcement in September<\/a>, cited the need to pass the torch onto a new generation of party leaders.<\/p>\n At the same time, no fewer than four other incumbents \u2014 House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries<\/a> (D-Brooklyn), and Reps. Adriano Espaillat<\/a> (D-Manhattan\/Bronx), Dan Goldman<\/a> (D-Manhattan\/Brooklyn), and Ritchie Torres (D-Bronx) \u2014 are facing primary challenges from their left.<\/p>\n The apparent shakeup comes shortly after democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani defeated the Democratic Party establishment pick<\/a>, former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, in both the party\u2019s primary and the general election. Though establishment Democrats mostly coalesced around Mamdani for the general election, it has not quelled the insurgency from the left \u2014 and from the young and restless of New York politics.\u00a0<\/p>\n It also speaks to the broader internal fight that Democrats have been engaged in nationally for more than a year, since President Donald Trump defeated former Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election.<\/p>\n Angst over the outcome of that election, and dissatisfaction with how Democratic congressional leaders such as Jeffries and US Sen. Chuck Schumer<\/a> have responded to Trump\u2019s agenda at times, have fueled that fight over the party\u2019s future, with both the 2026 midterms and the 2028 presidential race top of mind.<\/p>\n Youth movement among NYC Democrats<\/p>\n Age isn\u2019t just a number; it is also a factor in the current sea change, according to progressive political strategist Camille Rivera.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n She pointed to New York\u2019s Congressional delegation skewing older and the fact that its members have cultivated a group of younger pols who can continue their work. The retiring Nadler is 74; Velazquez is 72. Both have been in Congress for more than 30 years.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have a lot of Congressional leaders and electeds that are older and are taking into consideration when it\u2019s time for them to move on,\u201d Rivera told amNewYork. \u201cMany of them feel like they have created a good bench, in particular in Democratic strongholds that no matter what, the district will be represented well.\u201d<\/p>\n Rivera pointed specifically to the pols that Vel\u00e1zquez has mentored<\/a>. That group includes Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso as well as City Council Members Jennifer Guti\u00e9rrez (D-Brooklyn) and Lincoln Restler (D-Brooklyn).<\/p>\n \u201cI love this work and I love my district, but I believe now is the right moment to step aside and allow a new generation of leaders to step forward,\u201d Vel\u00e1zquez told The New York Times,<\/a> which first broke the news on Thursday. \u201cAfter devoting so much energy and so much time to help elect young leaders, I feel at ease.\u201d<\/p>\n While it is still unclear who will run for Vel\u00e1zquez\u2019s seat, some of those who are reportedly considering it<\/a> include Reynoso, Guti\u00e9rrez, and state Sen. Julia Salazar (D-Brooklyn).<\/p>\n The wild and crowded 12th District race<\/p>\n Nadler has similarly mentored younger lawmakers and is backing one prot\u00e9g\u00e9 who is seeking to replace him: Upper West Side Assembly Member Micah Lasher. Additionally, many of the other candidates who have already launched campaigns for Nadler\u2019s seat are either millennials or part of Gen Z.<\/p>\n No fewer than 10 candidates are vying to replace Nadler, including Assembly Member Alex Bores<\/a>; City Council Member Erik Bottcher<\/a>; Jack Schlossberg, grandson of President John F. Kennedy;<\/a> and Cameron Kasky<\/a>, a podcaster and co-founder of the March for Our Lives PAC formed in the wake of a mass shooting at a high school Parkland, FL in 2018.<\/p>\n Basil Smikle, a former head of the state Democratic Party and a professor at Columbia University, posited that Vel\u00e1zquez\u2019s and Nadler\u2019s retirements are part of a larger recognition by the Democratic coalition that it is changing.<\/p>\n \u201cWith that comes a recognition by some electeds that maybe it\u2019s their turn with this younger generation, sort of pushing up,\u201d Smikle said. \u201cAnd the larger important point that the party itself needs to find a way to not only capture the enthusiasm and the momentum from these young voters, but have more electeds that represent their interests and are reflective of their communities.\u201d<\/p>\n The taxing toll of the Trump era<\/p>\n John Mollenkopf, a political scientist and director of CUNY\u2019s Center for Urban Research, speculated that another reason why Vel\u00e1zquez and Nadler may be looking to step aside now is that being a longtime incumbent Democrat in Congress has hardly ever been tougher.<\/p>\n He pointed to the difficulty of serving in the Democratic minority under Republican President Donald Trump, who has sought to erode many of the policy wins they have notched over the years.\n<\/p>\n \u201cWhy would you want to persist in a job where all your past efforts have been stymied and the future doesn\u2019t look immediately promising, especially when you\u2019re in your 70s?\u201d Mollenkopf said.<\/p>\n When it comes to the new wave of primary challenges against incumbents, Mollenkopf said those are \u201chealthy\u201d for Democracy.\n<\/p>\n However, he noted that Jeffries and Espaillat are likely to overcome their younger left-leaning challengers: Brooklyn City Council Member Chi Oss\u00e9<\/a> and Harlem organizer Darializa Avila Chevalier<\/a>, respectively.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s hard to imagine that a political science graduate student from Columbia is going to knock off one of the more impressively rising, certainly the most important, Dominican-origin politicians in New York City and down in Washington,\u201d Mollenkopf said of Avila Chevalier\u2019s chances against Espaillat.<\/p>\n \u201cBut it\u2019ll lead to a healthy debate around what the Democratic Party establishment is or isn\u2019t doing for their constituencies,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Retiring U.S. Reps. Nydia Vel\u00e1zquez (left) and Jerry Nadler. File Photos by Lloyd Mittchel A changing of the…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":399939,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5122],"tags":[76379,5229,117862,189499,101909,189500,405,403,5226,5225,5228,5227,189501,189502,67,586,132,5230,68,189503,189504,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-399938","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-2026-midterms","9":"tag-america","10":"tag-basil-smikle","11":"tag-camille-rivera","12":"tag-house-minority-leader-hakeem-jeffires","13":"tag-mayor-elect-zohran-mamdani","14":"tag-new-york","15":"tag-new-york-city","16":"tag-newyork","17":"tag-newyorkcity","18":"tag-ny","19":"tag-nyc","20":"tag-rep-nydia-velazquez","21":"tag-u-s-rep-dan-goldman","22":"tag-united-states","23":"tag-united-states-of-america","24":"tag-unitedstates","25":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","26":"tag-us","27":"tag-us-rep-adriano-espaillat","28":"tag-us-rep-jerry-nadler","29":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115601175566227697","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399938","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=399938"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399938\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/399939"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=399938"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=399938"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=399938"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}