In a show of force for the progressive left, all three of the candidates endorsed by NYC Mayor Mamdani won their races • 'We cannot keep paying for Netanyahu's wars with our tax dollars,' the former NYC comptroller Lander told supporters at his victory party.
Former New York City comptroller Brad Lander has been elected as the Democratic nominee for New York's 10th congressional district, having defeated incumbent Representative Dan Goldman in the party primary on Tuesday.
The election comes as part of a show of strength by candidates backed by New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani in several races where the topic of Israel has become a central issue.
Lander won by more than 30 points in a race widely seen as a referendum on U.S.-Israel relations and the role of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a hawkish pro-Israel lobby group, in American politics. Lander made Israel a wedge issue, leaning into the differences between himself and Goldman, both Jewish Democrats.
Goldman, who has longstanding ties with AIPAC but was also endorsed by liberal Jewish organization J Street, has grown more vocal against Israel's government and policies as the campaign progressed, even as he pushed back against making Israel a central issue in the campaign.
Speaking to Haaretz, Lander said that, "Since October 7, I have spent more time organizing together with Israelis and I found it very moving. This idea of shared safety is what we need. I feel very passionately about this. You have to have some humility on what keeps us and our neighbors safe, but the current path is not working."
"I've been talking a lot with Israeli New Yorkers, but I understand again that there are a set of anxieties that folks have about the politics here, and you know that's why I wanted to try to center shared safety," he added. "Democratic voters are speaking loud and clear that they don't want to pay for Netanyahu's wars, but there is plenty of room for that to be a politics that's committed to shared safety, that includes Israelis."
Asked about apprehension of Jewish communities by some in the Democratic Party, including Mamdani, Lander said: "Mayor Mamdani and I differ on issues, like one state versus two. Many American Jews feel the same way. That's a conversation we're going to have to have. These disagreements shouldn't mean we should stop compromising on the humanity of Palestinians and Israelis, that stop compromising on anyone's humanity."
In his victory speech, Lander said that "Democrats are painfully divided by our differences about the U.S. relationship to Israel and Palestine, and we have to face up to it squarely."
"Our party needs to admit that Joe Biden's 'hug Bibi' strategy was a catastrophic mistake. I believe it made us complicit in genocide," he added. "We cannot keep paying for Netanyahu's wars with our tax dollars. Democratic voters are saying this, loud and clear, he added.
New York's 10th Congressional District includes downtown Manhattan and Western Brooklyn, including Park Slope, which has a sizable Jewish population and was at the center of controversy over the boycott of Israeli products by its iconic food co-op.
In his speech, Lander also attacked big money in American elections.
"It is time for the Democratic Party to walk away from dark money - from PACs funded by crypto, Wall Street, AI and AIPAC. People can see through this. They have seen through it for a long time," he said.
The race, which has been contentious, grabbed national headlines in the past few days. At a rally on Saturday in support of New York's progressive slate, Mamdani quoted Italian-Marxist writer Gramsci on living in a "time of monsters," blasting AIPAC for bringing dark money into politics.
A day later, a Brooklyn coffee shop refunded an order from Goldman, posting screenshots of him from security footage and saying that his alleged support of genocide and AIPAC was the reason for his ban.
Lander managed to galvanize the coalition that came out strongly against the war in Gaza, while also engaging with Israeli peace groups like Israelis for Peace, an Israeli expat-led group opposing the Netanyahu government and the occupation.
In his speech, Lander spoke about meeting with Israeli activists who do protective presence in the West Bank: "In Congress, I will try to carry a fraction of the courage that they carry. 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. Those are not two different jobs. They are the same job."
U.S. President Donald Trump mocked Goldman over his loss, calling him a "weak and pathetic Congressman."
Goldman was the lead counself in Trump's first impeachment in 2019. "I guess people didn't like him illegally targeting President Trump," he wrote in a Truth Social post.
This was not the only race in which Israel played a prominent role on Tuesday. In the night's most stunning upset, in New York's 13th congressional district, Mamdani-backed organizer Darializa Avila Chevalier defeated incumbent Adriano Espaillat.
Avila Chevalier is a prominent activist among New York's pro-Palestinian community, helping organize Columbia University's pro-Palestinian solidarity encampment and protesting on behalf of her potential constituent, Mahmoud Khalil, when ICE arrested him after picking him up from his apartment.
Avila Chevalier faced backlash for attending a Democratic Socialists of America-organized Palestinian solidarity rally one day after the October 7 attacks, which was condemned by progressive politicians like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and then-state assemblymember Mamdani.
Espaillat, who is endorsed by AIPAC, accused her of "celebrating the death of innocent people."
In New York's 7th congressional district, assembly member Claire Valdez defeated Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso.
Valdez, who was backed by Mamdani, was arrested at a 2025 protest against weapons sales to Israel outside the offices of Sen. Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand, spoke at a Jewish Voice for Peace protest calling for New York to divest from Israel Bonds, and backed local legislation that would block nonprofits from funding Israeli settlements in the West Bank.
Valdez has also been heavily elevated by pro-Palestinian Super PACs such as Justice Democrats and American Priorities – with such groups ironically putting into practice AIPAC's winning playbook of previous election cycles.
In New York's 12th congressional district, the most heavily Jewish district in the country, Micah Lasher won a crowded field to succeed longtime Jewish representative Jerry Nadler.
Lasher, a long-time aide of Nadler, defeated state assemblyman Alex Bores and Jack Schlossberg, John F. Kennedy's grandson.
Israel played a lesser role in this race, with Lasher, in a recent candidate forum at the non-denominational Bnei Jeshurun synagogue on the Upper West Side, saying he was "exhausted by the obsession" with Israel in the campaign.
In other races across the country, Israel played a less significant role. However, in a race in Maryland's 5th congressional district, state delegate Adrian Boafo defeated his two opponents in a race where AIPAC's United Democracy Project has spent at least $5.7 million in hopes of elevating Boafo.