Brooklyn Borough President (BP) Antonio Reynoso is marching on the campaign trail in this year’s crucial congressional primaries, but in a new direction. He’s running for New York 7th congressional district since Rep. Nydia Velázquez is not seeking re-election.
Reynoso, 45, a Brooklyn native, is the son of Dominican immigrants, and the first Dominican to be elected as a borough president in the city. In his current role, he is primarily responsible for land use, budget recommendations, and community board appointments. But he has also worked to make his office more active when it comes to issues like Black maternal health and immigration services over his years. Before being elected BP in 2021, he spent eight years as a councilmember and co-founded the New Kings Democrats.
The 7th Congressional District includes parts of Brooklyn and Queens, which was redistricted in 2022 to group largely Black and Brown communities with white, wealthier neighborhoods. This includes Long Island City, Astoria, Sunnyside, Maspeth, Ridgewood, and Woodhaven as well as Bushwick, Clinton Hill, Downtown Brooklyn, East New York, East Williamsburg, Fort Greene, Greenpoint, and Williamsburg. Reynoso was the first to announce his bid for Velázquez’s seat back in 2025, and he’s raised about $630,067 in total contributions, according to Federal Election Commission (FEC) latest filings.
The Amsterdam News caught up with Reynoso over the phone. Here’s what he had to say about his campaign so far. Questions and answers have been shortened or edited for space and clarity.
AmNews: First question out the box, pretty obvious: Why run for Congress, especially in a year like this?
Reynoso: I was born and raised in the south side of Williamsburg on public assistance. So, you know, we were on welfare. We had food stamps. We had Section 8. And, I remember a time when the government used to work for people, and I’m deeply grateful for what the federal government did for me. I’ve been looking to pay it forward ever since. But right now, it seems like all of the headaches, all of the nonsense, and the hurt that people are feeling in this country are coming by way of the federal government. Whether that’s increasing gas prices, inflation going up, a war with Iran, cuts to SNAP and cuts to Medicare. There’s always something going on that is making our lives more difficult, not easier from the federal government. So I want to be able to go to Washington. Not only to be an activist, but also to get things done.
AmNews: Because of that political landscape you just described, how are you gonna push back against those conservative policies?
Reynoso: I’ve been able to show in my time in the City Council, for example, that even as a freshman member that I’m very effective. I know how to build coalitions. I know how to get controversial bills passed. I got the NYPD Right to Know Act (RTKA) passed. I got Commercial Waste Zones passed. I got outdoor dining passed. These are all pieces of legislation that were very controversial. And I was able to speak to a ton of people with different points of view to get it done. So the skills that I was able to grow into and attain as a councilmember, I think are skills that can be used to finally get some stuff moving in Congress. I feel like I’m uniquely qualified to push the agenda of the working class people of America.
AmNews: New York’s 7th Congressional District, right? Very diverse. I know you’re already super familiar with Williamsburg in Brooklyn. So how about the Queens part? How are you getting to know the other half of the district?
Reynoso: I represented Ridgewood, not only as a staff member with City Councilmember Diana Reyna, but then when I became a councilmember, Ridgewood was a part of my district. I already knew Ridgewood, Maspeth, Glendale, all of Community Board 5 in Queens. Parts of this district that I’m very familiar with so it’s not completely foreign to me. Since the campaign started, I have been in Long Island City. I’ve been in Sunnyside. I went to Queensbridge houses and Woodside. I’ve been moving around the district and it’s been amazing. It’s been a great experience in this campaign to get to know the neighborhoods, their character, their people, their small businesses. It’s been quite the experience.
What I’ve come to note is that we’re all struggling with the same thing. Affordability is giving us a hard time. It doesn’t look like this federal government is working for the working class people.
AmNews: I noticed you’ve been endorsed by the Queens Democrats, New Kings Democrats, naturally, and the Brooklyn Young Dems, but not the Brooklyn Democratic Party. What’s up with that?
Reynoso: So my history, I was a founder of New Kings Democrats, and was one of the first activists working against the county party in its corrupt ways of the past. And I grew up as a reformer in politics. So I’ve been fighting against the Brooklyn County Party for a long time. I think we need more transparency, more reform.
We are the largest county of Democrats in the country, and we should be a model for how the Democratic Party should be moving, and instead we’re not. We’re constantly caught up in corruption. We use bully tactics. We don’t increase participation. It’s more about amassing power versus helping Democrats win. And so I wanted to change that and I worked for more than a decade to make that happen. So, I have a relationship with Queens County, with New Kings Democrats, with Brooklyn Young Dems. Those are all organizations that continue to move progressively and have exhibited movement towards more transparency and inclusion. The Democratic Party of Brooklyn hasn’t necessarily moved in that way. So yeah, it’s no shock to me that I haven’t been endorsed by them.
AmNews: On to policy matters. What exactly would you change in terms of the federal immigration policies to better support immigrant communities and asylum seekers?
Reynoso: The first thing is an honest and true path to citizenship. I think the issue we have is that there’s no clear system by which we accomplish immigration reform, and we need to start working on that. There were opportunities for the last couple of decades to get something done, and we haven’t been able to accomplish it. So the first thing I want to do is see if we can build comprehensive immigration reform. And abolishing ICE is deeply important in work that needs to get done. It’s a militaristic force that is terrorizing our communities, terrorizing immigrants that have contributed greatly to this country, especially in cities like New York. So as a son of immigrants, and someone that understands the value of immigrants, I’m going to make sure that I fight for every single one of them.
AmNews: How would you advocate for environmental initiatives and affordable housing at the congressional level? Even with the cuts being made.
Reynoso: Ever since the Faircloth Amendment was enacted in the late 1990s, we haven’t built affordable housing or contributed greatly to the construction of new housing in this country. And I think it’s hurt us. During crisis moments of the past, presidents and mayors have come together to build a ton of housing during emergency and crisis cases. I believe we’re in a housing crisis right now, and the federal government plays almost no role in supporting the American people. I want to repeal the Faircloth Amendment, to allow for the federal government to partner in the construction and development of new housing, like NYCHA or what people call social housing. Then we need to have a conversation about reestablishing the American dream and assisting with middle class home ownership.
And then environmental justice. We’ve fought here in north Brooklyn against ExxonMobil and Newtown Creek around truck traffic. What we see is a president that is willing to undo decades of environmental, sustainability work over how he woke up that day. We need to build securities in the contracts that are signed by the federal government for issues like environmental justice. When the president wakes up and thinks that wind farms are not something he wants to do, even though we had a contract and millions of dollars have been spent. He shouldn’t have the authority to unilaterally push it back, cost us millions, delay the project, and cost people jobs. So I want to ensure that once contracts are signed, that if a president has an objection, he has to go through proper protocols and channels, to be able to object to it. Freeze the money and then have a court make a decision on whether it can stay frozen or whether the company can keep it. The burden of proof that the program isn’t working, should fall on the president’s office or the president to make a determination, and thereafter if it’s found that it’s not something that should proceed, then we could pull money. But for us to just pull money through executive order, it speaks to partisan politics and political decisions based on emotions versus data and fact.
AmNews: Adjacent to the environmental issue is the rising cost of energy and the war in Iran. What do you think?
Reynoso: Two things. It is absolutely ridiculous that we’re at war, a war that we don’t need to be in and a war where no imminent threat actually existed. I think that we’ve made a big mistake entering there. But then the repercussions of that are that energy prices are through the roof. We’ll pay more for gas in a time when people have less disposable income than ever. I just think it’s irresponsible for the president to have gone to war and put the American people through this extended crisis.
And the other thing is, we wouldn’t be so reliant on oil if we just put forth a lot of the environmental and sustainability practices that we’ve been committing to. I just think that we need to get there and double down on the building of renewable energy infrastructure so we could wean away from the need for natural gas and petroleum. That hasn’t been the case. We’ve been slow playing our transition and what you see today with the prices of gas and how people are burdened with that is a reflection of our inability to act at the state and city level.
AmNews: So, on the off chance that you don’t win your congressional run, would you consider running against Mayor Mamdani for what would be his second term in four years?
Reynoso: I’m focused on running this race. This race is the one that I think is most important right now. I think the American people need a fighter in Congress, and that’s where I want to be to fight for them. Anything related to my future is something that I’ve not thought about. I’m focused on this race and this race only. I haven’t thought past June 23rd.
The New York State primary will takes place June 23, 2026. The general election follows on November 3, 2026.