Our Endorsement: Brad Lander for Congress

Brad Lander is not just an able candidate for the US House of Representatives. He is a necessary candidate. It is for this reason that The Nation enthusiastically endorses Lander’s candidacy in the June 23 Democratic primary for New York City’s 10th Congressional District.

There is a good chance that Democrats will retake the House in November. If they do, they will immediately be faced with the two-fold challenge of checking and balancing Donald Trump’s chaos while presenting a bold vision for how the United States must address critical economic, social justice, environmental, and foreign policy issues.

To a dramatically greater extent than the Democrat he is taking on in the primary, two-term incumbent Dan Goldman, Lander is up to the challenge.

Goldman represents the business-as-usual wing of a Democratic Party that has missed too many opportunities because of its refusal to break from a centrist status quo that is timid and timorous.

Lander is the opposite. He knows that this is a time for Democrats to nominate and elect fierce progressive champions who are willing to drain the swamp in Washington, and to upend the pervasive pay-to-play corruption that is turning billionaires into trillionaires while working people struggle to get by.

Lander’s vision is rooted in the deep experience that makes him the sort of transformative leader that Congress desperately needs in this 250th year of the American experiment.

From his earliest days as the leader of the Fifth Avenue Committee, a community-based affordable housing organization, Lander has been a prescient and dedicated progressive warrior. He was focused on “affordability” before it became a political buzzword. As a multi-term city councilman and later as city comptroller, he embraced and advanced efforts to pass paid sick leave (over the veto of Mayor Michael Bloomberg), divest from fossil fuels, protect tenants from eviction, require stable schedules workers, and provide living wages and protections against wage theft for contingent workers.

The list goes on and on, because for decades, Lander has been a legislative and executive leader who has proven that it is possible to build progressive power—precisely the experience that will be necessary if Democrats take the House with a narrow majority or, perish the thought, they remain in the minority on Capitol Hill.

Like other progressives who have come to Washington with significant governing experience—such as Representative Jamie Raskin (D-MD), Mark Pocan (D-WI), Pramila Jayapal (D-WA), and Ayanna Pressley (D-MA)—Lander recognizes the importance of developing “inside/outside” coalitions to challenge entrenched interests. It was Lander who enlisted the Working Families Party and other allies to build the Progressive Caucus on the city council. It was Lander who helped start Local Progress, the immensely creative national network of progressive local leaders that shares ideas and strategies from communities nationwide. It was Lander whose masterful leadership as city comptroller grew pension funds to nearly $300 billion with strategies that ensured retirement security for tens of thousands of workers and retirees. And it was Lander who established groundbreaking standards for socially responsible investment that divested city funds from fossil fuels, invested in affordable housing, and secured dramatically stronger corporate governance rules to protect worker rights at companies in which the city’s funds have been invested.

This record made Lander an appealing candidate for mayor of New York in 2025, and while Lander did not win that election, his partnership with Zohran Mamdani transformed the politics of the city. When Lander and Mamdani, a Jew and a Muslim, cross-endorsed (under the city’s ranked choice voting system) and campaigned together before last year’s Democratic mayor primary, they proved that powerful alliances can be built across what many others had seen as lines of division.

Mamdani and Lander, both contributors to The Nation, opened a deep well of solidarity based on values that changed perspectives and a breakthrough victory for progressive politics that resonated far beyond New York City. It continues, with Mamdani’s endorsement of Lander in the District 10 race.

This is an example of how Lander practices politics. He is always developing relationships, building loyalty, and forging coalitions. When Lander was roughly arrested last year during an ICE crackdown at federal immigration court facility last year—as he was trying to accompany asylum seekers, literally putting his body on the line for his neighbors—he did so as part of a team of activists and organizations that were bearing witness in the tradition of nonviolent resistance. And his was not a one-off “for the cameras” protest. He returned regularly to the courthouse and accompanied more asylum seekers.

Equally compelling is Lander’s commitment, as a progressive Jew, to call out the perils of Israeli apartheid and the genocide in Gaza. In Congress, he will fight for a new Democratic foreign policy that will seek to terminate America’s endless wars, curb Trump’s preposterous military spending, and rebuild the country’s commitment to the global alliances that are needed to address real security challenges such as climate change, pandemics, the development of AI, and more. He will emphasize global peacemaking over militarism and cooperation over divisive scheming. Lander believes New Yorkers’ hard-earned tax dollars should not be going to fund forever wars and human rights violations—whether by foreign leaders or US presidents.

Lander’s activist commitment and global vision form key parts of the argument for what he would contribute to Congress. But that is not the only argument. His unique experience as comptroller gives Lander a knowledge of budgets and financial markets that will be invaluable in House efforts to curb Wall Street’s profiteering and to renew a commitment to humane and necessary public investment. He champions fresh ideas to use federal resources to empower communities on affordable housing, public banking, and more.

At every turn, Lander is prepared to lead and to get things done. Contrast that with Goldman who has been unable or unwilling to use his congressional seat as a base from which to forge fundamental change.

NY-10 voters need a representative who shares their sense of urgency and their values. Is that an incumbent who has reportedly made more than 520 trades worth at least $10 million in industries he’s meant to oversee as a member of Congress? Or a representative who voted to censure progressive Michigan Democrat Rashida Tlaib? Or a representative who keeps voting to send 2,000-pound bombs to Benjamin Netanyahu to continue Israel’s war on Palestinians.

Goldman deserves credit for his efforts to impeach Trump before he was a member of Congress. But Goldman’s record since his election exemplifies the failure of Democratic centrists to comprehend the threat posed by growing inequality, a corrupted political system, and Trump’s many usurpations.

New York’s 10th District has an opportunity to send a strong leader to Congress. That’s not Dan Goldman. That’s Brad Lander. On issue after issue, Lander has done the work and put in the time. He believes that the government’s job is to actually make lives better—in New York, across the nation, and around the world. He has the experience to build coalitions across ideological and partisan lines. But he will never compromise his values or the values of the New Yorkers who elect him. This is what Brad Lander offers New Yorkers, and this is why they should nominate him for Congress.