John,
My name is Claire Valdez. I’m a union organizer, Assemblymember, and proud democratic socialist running for Congress in New York’s 7th district to fight for the working class.
Justice Democrats have helped show what’s possible when we fight alongside working people and raise expectations about what politics can be. I’m proud to have their support as we keep building a movement that takes on the billionaire class and wins real power for working people.
We need a Democratic Party with a real agenda for the working class—one that organizes to govern and governs to deliver. In Brooklyn and Queens this year, the question isn’t whether Democrats win a majority—it’s what we do with it. Will we settle for procedural complaints and a return to a broken status quo?
Or will we build a real opposition to Trumpism—one that takes on oligarchy, confronts the roots of fascism, opposes genocide and war, and delivers a real economic agenda for working people?
I’m running to make it easier to join a union, to build affordable housing and protect tenants, and to finally pass Medicare for All—paid for by taxing the rich. I’m running because working people deserve social rights, not market rationing.
Our solidarity doesn’t stop at the shop floor or the border. It means standing with working people with and without citizenship, supporting Puerto Rico’s right to self-determination, opposing apartheid and genocide in Palestine, rejecting violent regime-change wars abroad, and abolishing ICE here at home.
I didn’t come to my politics through party machines or ambition. I came through low-wage customer service jobs—and I found my power organizing my union. That’s the perspective I’ll bring to Congress, because winning back the working class and winning real power requires organizers who know how to fight and win.
But I can’t do this without you.
In solidarity,
Claire
