Brad Lander, the former New York City comptroller who self-identifies as a Zionist but who has accused Israel of “genocide,” beat Rep. Dan Goldman (D-N.Y.) by a wide margin in the Democratic primary for New York’s 10th Congressional District on Tuesday night.
The Associated Press called the race early, and at press time, Lander was ahead by more than 32 percentage points.
Lander had 53,537 votes (66%) to Goldman’s 27,417 (33.8%) with 89% of votes counted.
Zohran Mamdani, New York City mayor, backed Lander. The mayor issued a tepid comment after the owner of a coffee shop returned Goldman’s money and said that he wouldn’t accept the congressman’s business, because he has supported the Jewish state.
Sam Markstein, national political director at the Republican Jewish Coalition, told JNS that “there is only one party where supporting Israel doesn’t get you run out of office, or the coffee shop.”
“Dan Goldman is no friend of ours and yet he is being run out of his own party over support for the Jewish state,” Markstein said. “That tells you everything about where the Democrat’s party base is.”
Earlier in the day, Politico reported that “Lander struggled today to defend Mamdani’s claim that AIPAC, the country’s main pro-Israel lobby, is made up of ‘monsters’ who use ‘dark money’ to ‘preserve their power.’”
“Speaking to Playbook outside a Brooklyn polling site, Lander, who’s Jewish and considers himself a liberal Zionist, said he agrees with Mamdani that ‘a lot of negative forces are at play’ when it comes to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee pumping millions of dollars into influencing races across the U.S.,” per Politico. “But Lander would not offer a direct defense of Mamdani’s phrasing—which Jewish leaders have said evokes antisemitic tropes—despite being repeatedly pressed.”
“I can only be responsible for the words I use,” Lander told Politico. “I’m going to keep trying to simultaneously be critical when I think it’s necessary, but also build in a spirit of unity and humanity.”
