Brad Lander defeated Dan Goldman in New York's 10th congressional district on Tuesday, finishing with 65.7% of the vote to Goldman's 34.1% as most ballots were counted. The loss ended a rough night for the two-term incumbent and gave Zohran Mamdani-backed candidates a clean sweep across the city races that were watched most closely.
For Goldman, the result was a sharp reversal for a lawmaker first elected to Congress in 2022 after leading the first impeachment inquiry of Donald Trump in 2019. His defeat came in a race that drew attention far beyond the district because Lander, who was also endorsed by Bernie Sanders, said voters wanted leadership ready to fight, not fold, against authoritarianism. After the vote, Donald Trump called Goldman weak and pathetic and said he just lost, BIG!
The primary election results mattered because they were not just one upset. Claire Valdez unseated Antonio Reynoso in New York's 7th district, and Darializa Avila Chevalier topped Adriano Espaillat in New York's 13th district after he had held it for five terms. Together, the wins gave Mamdani's allies a sweep on Tuesday and signaled that the left wing of the Democratic Party can still organize effective challenges in New York.
The 10th district race also exposed the party's split over the Israel-Gaza war. Lander has accused Israel of genocide in Gaza, while Goldman was backed by pro-Israel groups, a contrast that made the contest a test of where Democratic primary voters wanted the party to land on the issue. Goldman said he had called Lander to congratulate him and respected the voters' decision, even as Poetica Coffee later deleted a post saying he was not welcome there after he visited with his seven-year-old daughter on Sunday.
What comes next is simpler than the fight that produced it: Lander moves forward as the winner, Goldman moves on from a district he no longer represents, and the broader question is whether Tuesday's primary election results can hold together as a governing message or remain a set of hard-fought local verdicts.
