A Zohran Mamdani-backed congressional candidate’s resume is so light that her campaign is touting signing a pro-Mahmoud Khalil letter with 40 other people as one of her big “achievements.”
Democratic socialist Claire Valdez’s campaign is stretching her credentials as a Queens lawmaker in a single-page of talking points by listing the “accomplishment” of signing onto a letter that called for the release of Khalil, a Columbia University protester who the Trump administration sought to deport.
The other three big wins from her one year in office in the state Assemblywoman are that she rents an apartment, is a member of a union — and was an early backer of Mamdani when he ran for mayor in 2024, according to the document, which was obtained by The Post.
The overhyped bio was being given out to campaign volunteers to try to introduce the relatively unknown Democratic Socialists of America pick for the congressional seat. Valdez was elected to the Assembly’s 37th District in Queens in 2024.
Khalil, an anti-Israel activist and former Columbia grad student, was expected to be deported to Algeria last month after being picked up by ICE last year.
The letter-signing was listed under Valdez’s “key accomplishments in the NY Assembly,” along with how she “risked arrest” to protest ICE and introduced DOA bills in the Assembly.
Ironically, Valdez has a long history of shamelessly criticizing more moderate members of her own party for writing their own “strongly worded letters.”
“So, what Valdez is pretty much admitting is that she is just slightly more qualified than someone in a coma,” one Democratic operative quipped.
Hizzoner has burned a bit of his early-term political capital to back the inexperienced lawmaker to replace longtime US Rep. Nydia Velazquéz in New York’s 7th Congressional District. Mamdani’s endorsement ticked off the retiring representative, who has voiced her preference for Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso to be her successor.
Velazquéz, 72, went as far as to take a shot at the fresh-faced mayor in the New York Times, warning Mamdani to “pay attention to the work at hand” instead of putting his nose into a congressional primary.
The DSA candidate has repeatedly attacked lawmakers, including establishment Democratic foes Rep. Hakeem Jeffries and Sen. Chuck Schumer, for merely signing off on formal missives as a protest — and even includes the criticism on her campaign website.
“Don’t worry, our rights will be protected in more sternly worded letters from @RepJeffries & @SenSchumer,” she railed in a 2025 post online.
“No more strongly worded letters,” she quipped at Jeffries in another post that year.
The condemnation from the far left wing is common online — with DSA folks often railing against the establishment for penning formal correspondence to push back on the Trump administration.
“Don’t worry, our rights will be protected in more sternly worded letters from @RepJeffries & @SenSchumer,” rage one DSA-donor on X.
Calls to her campaign were not immediately returned.