A progressive group with a three-letter acronym, fueled by on-the-ground organizing, just helped deliver back-to-back primary upsets to install democratic socialists in City Hall and send two of their own to the U.S. Congress — and it’s not the Democratic Socialists of America.
The United Auto Workers, which in New York primarily represents academics and workers in the arts, bucked the trend in an otherwise disappointing night for labor. For the second consecutive year, the union bet early on long-shot candidates, putting themselves in opposition to their allies in labor — and won big.
Now two of its rank-and-file members, Queens Assemblymember Claire Valdez and political newcomer Darializa Avila Chevalier, are poised to cruise to Congress in November after winning their Democratic primaries on Tuesday. The union was also an early backer of Zohran Mamdani’s mayoral bid — endorsing him months before any other union did and when he was polling in the single digits.
Valdez launched her campaign in January flanked by the UAW and Mamdani, and the union endorsed Avila Chevalier in late April, weeks before the mayor threw his support behind her.
“I think last year was the big shift, with the mayoral election, and I think this year proves that that politics is sustainable,” said Brandon Mancilla, the regional director for New York’s UAW Region 9A. “Within our own ranks, there is energy and leadership that can take the next step, not just to union office, but to now federal office.”
Without the financial resources enjoyed by New York’s largest unions, UAW’s rank-and-file members got to work the old-fashioned way.
They volunteered for door-to-door canvasses in force — out-organizing much larger unions to carry Valdez to victory against Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso, who was backed by the Working Families Party and most other unions in the city including 32BJ SEIU and 1199 SEIU.
The UAW also endorsed Brad Lander, who trounced incumbent Rep. Dan Goldman in New York’s 10th Congressional district spanning lower Manhattan and parts of brownstone Brooklyn. It also backed one losing House candidate, east side Assemblymember Alex Bores, who lost to Assemblymember Micah Lasher.
State Sen. Michael Gianaris wears a UAW shirt in support of congressional candidate Claire Valdez while she campaigned in Sunnyside on Democratic primary day, June 23, 2026. Credit: Alex Krales/The City Reporter
The union bragged about its primary night performance in a lengthy email it sent to its New York members on Wednesday afternoon that was obtained by The City Reporter: More than 500 of its members canvassed and phone banked, reaching more than 50,000 voters. It nearly swept its slate of U.S. House and New York state Assembly endorsements and swept all five of its state Senate picks.
“Yesterday, there was not a single UAW member in Congress. We changed that, and come November we will elect two UAW Region 9A members to Congress!,” read the memo. “We learned that if our members not only support but fully identify with our endorsements (since they are a part of the process), that they will go to work for our candidates.”
Union endorsements are highly coveted by campaigns because of their ability to reach huge swaths of voters — both within their own membership and by providing an army of volunteers to push people to the polls — and because of their considerable financial resources.
Last year, most of the city’s largest unions endorsed former Gov. Andrew Cuomo over Mamdani, in part because Cuomo led the polling in the lead-up to election day.
This year, major unions spent millions supporting Bores, the east side Assembly member, over Lasher, who beat a crowded field to succeed retiring Rep. Jerrold Nadler. After Mamdani endorsed Avila Chevalier in May, more than a dozen labor groups such as the New York State AFL-CIO and the Hotel Trades and Gaming Council rallied with Espaillat in Harlem in a show of force. None of it proved to be enough for those candidates to prevail.
Candidates From the Rank and File
Though a powerhouse union nationally, UAW locals in New York City have a fraction of the membership and resources of the city’s mightiest unions like 32BJ SEIU or the Hotel Trades and Gaming Council.
In New York City, the UAW is better known for representing legal workers, museum staff and graduate students — a membership that is young, highly educated and skews left, with a bent for social justice issues. Its members in the region routinely rally against ICE, and it was the first union in the country to call for a Gaza ceasefire in 2023 — all ideological overlaps with the Democratic Socialists of America, of which Mancilla, the UAW regional director, is a dues-paying member.
Mancilla credits the UAW’s success in cultivating candidates who come from the rank and file. Valdez was a union organizer before she ran for state Assembly with the union’s full support. For her victory speech on Tuesday night, she wore a UAW t-shirt beneath her suit, and her party closed out with a rendition of the union anthem “Solidarity Forever.”
Avila Chevalier was a researcher at a public defender provider and graduate student at CUNY’s Graduate Center when she decided to run for office. The UAW didn’t endorse her right away, but rank-and-file members observed her campaign gaining momentum in the spring and voted to endorse her in April.
Democratic Congressional candidate Darializa Avila Chevalier speaks in Brooklyn during a Get Out The Vote rally ahead of New York’s primary election, June 18, 2026. Credit: AP Photo/Ryan Murphy
The union also endured some disappointments on Tuesday. Another rank-and-file member, public defender Conrad Blackburn, lost his primary bid against Harlem Assembly member Jordan Wright, the son of the Manhattan Democratic Party chair. He was the only candidate endorsed by both the UAW and the DSA who lost his contest.
But some outside political observers have said both entities are a force to be reckoned with. Eli Valentin, an expert on Latino politics in New York, recently wrote a column making the case that the DSA has done more to boost Latino electoral power and representation than any other group in recent memory, despite having a predominantly white membership.
He says the UAW is heading in the same direction. “The UAW is the labor group to watch because of their willingness to challenge these systems, and because of their ability to organize the right way,” he said. “It’s been potent for them and for the people that they’ve supported.”
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