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U.S. House New York District 7
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Claire Valdez
DemocraticU.S. House · NY · District 7
U.S. House New York District 7
U.S. House · NY · District 7
School of the Art Institute of Chicago—BFA
Data last updated 10/27/2026
Claire Valdez represents New York Assembly District 37 in Queens, including Long Island City, Sunnyside, Woodside, Maspeth, and Ridgewood, and was elected in 2024. Her professional background includes work as a union organizer, artist, Program Assistant in Columbia University’s Visual Arts Program, Operations Manager at SculptureCenter, and service jobs at Trader Joe’s and Taco Bell. Through UAW Local 2110 at Columbia University, she served on the bargaining committee, was elected unit chair in 2022, and organized within UAW reform efforts.
Committee Assignments: Committee on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse · Committee on Cities · Committee on Social Services · Committee on Tourism, Parks, Arts and Sports Development · Committee on Transportation · Black, Puerto Rican, Hispanic & Asian Legislative Caucus · Legislative Women's Caucus · Puerto Rican/Hispanic Task Force
Claire Valdez supports a single-payer Medicare for All system and frames health care as a human right, including coverage for medical, dental, vision, hearing, mental health, long-term care, prescription drugs, reproductive care, and gender-affirming care. She also supports protecting Medicare from benefit cuts or privatization, canceling medical debt, and treating substance use as a public health issue rather than a criminal justice issue.
Specific Actions & Proposals
Valdez says she supports Medicare for All as a single-payer national health insurance program covering every resident for medically necessary care with no premiums, deductibles, or co-payments.
SourceValdez says she will back Medicare for All and fight to include gender-affirming care, mail-order hormone therapy, contraception, and PrEP, while also requiring insurers to cover those services in the interim.
SourceValdez opposes premium increases, co-payment increases, benefit cuts, voucherization, and privatization schemes, and supports expanding Medicare to include dental, vision, and hearing coverage.
SourceValdez supports canceling existing medical debt, barring medical debt from credit reports, banning aggressive hospital collection practices, and using Medicare for All to prevent future medical debt.
SourceValdez supports medication-assisted treatment, naloxone distribution, supervised consumption sites where supported by evidence, decriminalizing drug use and possession, and Medicare for All coverage for treatment.
SourceClaire Valdez frames her Economy & Jobs agenda around pro-labor economic policy, stronger unions, higher wages, expanded worker benefits, and direct federal job creation. She supports policies such as strengthening the PRO Act, ending at-will employment, a federal jobs guarantee, a higher minimum wage, a four-day workweek, and labor standards tied to public investment.
Specific Actions & Proposals
Valdez says she will fight to strengthen and pass the PRO Act, support union organizing, penalize union-busting, and end at-will employment.
SourceValdez supports creating a federal jobs guarantee through public investment in areas such as infrastructure, childcare, elder care, and green-economy work.
SourceValdez says she will support raising the federal minimum wage to $17 by 2030 and also supports New York City's push for a $30 by 2030 minimum wage.
SourceValdez supports federal legislation to establish a four-day, 32-hour workweek with no reduction in pay or benefits.
SourceValdez supports attaching strong labor standards to federal housing investments, including prevailing wages, apprenticeship requirements, project labor agreements, and card-check neutrality.
SourceClaire Valdez takes a strongly pro-immigrant, anti-enforcement stance: she supports abolishing ICE, ending for-profit immigration detention, limiting cooperation between local law enforcement and federal immigration authorities, demilitarizing the southern border, and creating new pathways to citizenship for undocumented immigrants.
Specific Actions & Proposals
Valdez says she would fight to dismantle and abolish ICE and pursue broader immigration reform with new pathways to citizenship and more immigration judges and administrators.
SourceIn a voter guide response, Valdez called for investigating ICE agents who broke the law and for immigration reform that creates new citizenship pathways while making the immigration process more efficient.
SourceValdez told the Jim Owles Liberal Democratic Club she would work to abolish ICE, establish pathways to citizenship for all undocumented immigrants, dismantle the for-profit immigration detention industry, stop military use for immigration enforcement, prevent ICE-local law enforcement cooperation, and demilitarize the southern border.
SourceICT reported that Valdez is running on a platform that includes abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
SourceIn an interview with Vital City, Valdez described the detention of a teenager after an immigration hearing as a federal policy issue that Congress must address.
SourceClaire Valdez supports an aggressive climate and energy agenda centered on a Green New Deal, public renewable power, lower utility bills, climate resilience, and environmental justice. Her platform emphasizes federal investment, public ownership or public power, regulation of energy-intensive AI data centers, and a rapid transition away from fossil fuels.
Specific Actions & Proposals
Valdez supports ushering in a Green New Deal to create union jobs, make energy cleaner and more affordable, and build climate-resilient infrastructure for homes and neighborhoods.
SourceValdez supports creating a federal public power authority, freezing residential electricity rates, and establishing a national clean energy standard requiring utilities to reach 100% clean energy.
SourceValdez supports a moratorium on AI data center expansion unless safeguards address worker protections, energy prices, and climate impacts, and she backs requiring data centers to pay their grid infrastructure costs.
SourceValdez said she favors public ownership of utilities and investments in public renewable energy such as solar, wind, and geothermal over long-term private fossil-fuel infrastructure.
SourceValdez supports federal funding for building retrofits, cooling and clean-air centers, natural flood protections, public climate-risk data, Superfund cleanup accountability, fossil-fuel plant retirement by 2035, and federal heat-safety standards for workers.
SourceClaire Valdez’s education platform treats higher education as a public good, backing tuition-free access for undergraduate and technical degrees, broader federal support for attendance and living costs, labor protections for education workers, and restrictions on generative AI in schools. She also links education infrastructure to climate resilience by supporting federal investments to modernize public school buildings.
Specific Actions & Proposals
Valdez supports guaranteed access to tuition-free higher education for students pursuing undergraduate or technical degrees.
SourceValdez supports redirecting federal grant funds to participating public institutions, private colleges, regional schools, and rural universities to cover attendance costs and necessary living expenses without means-testing or restrictive eligibility rules.
SourceValdez supports legislation to ensure educators, including adjuncts and contingent faculty, receive fair compensation, job security, and collective bargaining rights.
SourceValdez supports a moratorium on generative AI use in early and developing education, arguing that removing AI from schools would protect cognitive development, reduce bias risks, and safeguard student privacy.
SourceValdez supports federal funding to transition public school buildings to clean energy, modernized cooling and air filtration, and greener schoolyards that reduce flood and heat risks for students and communities.
SourceClaire Valdez frames public safety around demilitarization, immigrant protection, safe streets, and diplomacy rather than expanded policing or military force. Her platform supports abolishing ICE, ending U.S. weapons transfers and military aid to Israel, opposing wars and unilateral military interventions, and redirecting transportation funding toward safer streets and public transit.
Specific Actions & Proposals
Valdez says she would fight to dismantle and abolish ICE, end for-profit detention and deportation contracts, demilitarize the border, and investigate deaths and abuse in ICE custody.
SourceValdez supports ending U.S. weapons sales and military aid to Israel, backing an arms embargo, and opposing further military funding until Israel complies with international law.
SourceValdez says she would support War Powers action to end hostilities, oppose funding for war, and prioritize mediation through the United Nations rather than military intervention.
SourceValdez supports redirecting federal transportation dollars toward public transit, pedestrian and cycling projects, direct city funding, and local control that emphasizes safe streets and pedestrian priorities.
SourceValdez supports cleaning up environmental contamination from decades of military activity in Puerto Rico and investing in resilient infrastructure to withstand hurricanes, flooding, and other climate-related disasters.
SourceBallotpedia
https://ballotpedia.org/New_York%27s_7th_Congressional_District_election,_2026Fetched: biography
New York State Assembly
https://www.assembly.ny.gov/mem/Claire-Valdez/bio/Fetched: biography, location
VOTE411
https://onyourballot.vote411.org/m/candidate-detail.do?id=73188926Fetched: education, biography
FEC API
https://api.open.fec.gov/v1/candidate/H6NY07214/totals/Fetched: totalRaised, totalSpent, cashOnHand
Elections in USA
https://electionsinusa.com/2026/candidates/claire-valdez-ny-7/Fetched: campaignFinance
Claire Valdez for Congress endorsements page
https://clairevaldezforcongress.com/en/endorsementsFetched: endorsements
Actors' Equity Association endorsement announcement
https://www.actorsequity.org/news/PR/2026/10/01/actors--equity-association-endorses--darializa-avila-chevalier--brad-lander-and-claire-valdez-for-united-states-congressFetched: endorsements
NYC-DSA endorsement announcement
https://socialists.nyc/press/nyc-dsa-endorses-claire-valdez-for-congress-in-ny-7-and-samantha-kattan-for-assembly-district-37Fetched: endorsements
Turning Point Action scorecard: Claire Valdez
https://www.tpaction.com/scorecard/legislators/clairevaldezFetched: ratings
Claire Valdez for Congress Queer and Trans Liberation Memo
https://clairevaldezforcongress.com/issues/memo/queer-and-trans-liberationFetched: issuePositions
Candidate questionnaire PDF
https://56f64b14-ffe6-4621-8122-3cad3d64154d.filesusr.com/ugd/17be27_1b95c63dbfdb47e0a895e46d03c95371.pdfFetched: issuePositions
Claire Valdez for Congress - Issues
https://clairevaldezforcongress.com/issuesFetched: issuePositions
Claire Valdez for Congress - Unions for All
https://clairevaldezforcongress.com/issues/memo/unionpowerFetched: issuePositions
Claire Valdez for Congress - Housing for All
https://clairevaldezforcongress.com/issues/memo/housingFetched: issuePositions
Claire Valdez for Congress
https://clairevaldezforcongress.com/issues/memo/immigrationFetched: issuePositions
VOTE411 Voter Guide
https://onyourballot.vote411.org/m/candidate-detail.do?id=73188926Fetched: issuePositions
Jim Owles Liberal Democratic Club
https://jimowles.squarespace.com/news/candidate-answers-to-joldc-claire-valdez-for-us-congress-ny-07-2026Fetched: issuePositions
ICT
https://ictnews.org/politics/election-2026/is-another-indigenous-woman-headed-to-congress/Fetched: issuePositions
Claire Valdez for Congress - A Livable Planet for All
https://clairevaldezforcongress.com/issues/memo/climateFetched: issuePositions
Vital City - Claire Valdez on Mamdani, AOC and Her Campaign for Congress in New York's 7th District
https://www.vitalcitynyc.org/claire-valdez-on-mamdani-aoc-and/Fetched: issuePositions
Public Power NY - Public Power Champs Headed to Albany and Washington D.C.
https://publicpowerny.org/press-releases/public-power-champs-headed-to-albany-and-washington-d-c/Fetched: issuePositions
Claire Valdez for Congress Climate Platform
https://clairevaldezforcongress.com/issues/memo/climateFetched: issuePositions
Claire Valdez for Congress — Immigration platform
https://clairevaldezforcongress.com/issues/memo/immigrationFetched: issuePositions
Claire Valdez for Congress — Foreign policy platform
https://clairevaldezforcongress.com/issues/memo/nowarFetched: issuePositions
Claire Valdez for Congress — Issues page
https://clairevaldezforcongress.com/issuesFetched: issuePositions
Claire Valdez for Congress — Transportation platform
https://clairevaldezforcongress.com/issues/memo/transportationFetched: issuePositions
Claire Valdez for Congress — Puerto Rico platform
https://clairevaldezforcongress.com/issues/memo/puerto-ricoFetched: issuePositions