Brad Lander unseats Dan Goldman in New York Democratic primary

Brad Lander defeated two-term incumbent Rep. Dan Goldman in New York’s 10th Congressional District, turning a Lower Manhattan and Brooklyn primary into a sharp rebuke of Democratic establishment muscle. Early returns showed Lander ahead 64% to 36%, enough for NY1 to call the race quickly and send him to the November 3 general election as the party’s nominee.

The result underscored how much New York City Democratic power is shifting inside neighborhoods that now anchor the district’s post-redistricting identity. NY-10 stretches from Lower Manhattan into parts of Brooklyn, including brownstone Brooklyn, and the contest became a test of which message would move voters there: Goldman’s ties to party leaders and organized labor, or Lander’s sharper break with the pro-Israel donor network and his campaign around immigration and criticism of U.S. policy on Israel.

Lander’s win also showed the reach of Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who endorsed him, along with Sen. Bernie Sanders. Goldman had the opposite advantage on paper, with endorsements from Gov. Kathy Hochul, House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, and key New York City labor unions. He also leaned on his personal wealth and on the credibility that came with first winning the seat in 2022 after serving as lead counsel during President Donald Trump’s first impeachment trial.

The race exposed the depth of Democratic divisions over Israel at a moment when many city voters were already weighing the party’s direction. Lander refused to take money from AIPAC, a position that helped define him against Goldman in a district where progressive voters in Lower Manhattan and Brooklyn have increasingly rewarded candidates willing to confront the party’s traditional donor and institutional alliances. CNBC described the contest as a test of Mamdani’s pull and of the New York Democratic Party’s long-standing bond with organized labor, and the result gave that argument a clear answer.

Lander’s victory marks a dramatic turnaround from just last June, when he finished third in the New York City mayoral primary after cross-endorsing Mamdani in the ranked-choice contest. Now he has converted that progressive alignment into a congressional upset in a district Democrats are favored to keep, signaling a deeper appetite for local-progressive governance over establishment clout in one of the city’s most closely watched seats.