In April, an upstate judge rejected the congressional and state Senate maps drawn by Albany Democrats as part of the 2022 redistricting process. The process was flawed, the judge ruled. The state’s highest court later agreed the districts were an unconstitutional gerrymander. Instead of holding primaries in June alongside their statewide and assembly colleagues, congressional and state senate candidates would compete in an Aug. 23 primary to give a court-appointed special master time to redraw the maps.

The result was a chaotic scramble as Democratic incumbents were redrawn into districts that pitted them against one another.

But in one district, New York’s 10th Congressional District, there was no incumbent at all.

A council member, two assembly members, a Hudson Valley representative, a nationally recognized prosecutor, a long-retired feminist pioneer, and a recently term-limited mayor all jumped into the race to represent one of the most progressive districts in the nation.

Quickly, former Mayor Bill de Blasio dropped out. But the race remained wide open with at least six candidates having a serious shot at winning the primary before cruising to a general election victory in the heavily Democratic district that spans Lower Manhattan and brownstone Brooklyn.

Those candidates included City Council Member Carlina Rivera, Assembly Member Yuh-Line Niou, former House Democratic impeachment counsel Dan Goldman, former New York City Comptroller Elizabeth Holtzman, Assembly Member Jo Anne Simon, and Rep. Mondaire Jones. Six other local advocates, political gadflies, and perennial candidates will join them on the ballot. 

The fight to break out of a very crowded field recently has led to greater animosity among some of the candidates, with attacks on each other’s progressive bonafides and fundraising hauls.

WATCH: The full NY1/WNYC 10th Congressional District debate

LISTEN: Off Topic/On Politics: Candidates for Congress take debate stage to make their case

LISTEN: You Decide: Brigid Bergin: Candidates for Congress spar in NY1 debate

With primary day on Aug. 23 and early voting beginning on Aug. 13, here’s what you need to know about each candidate’s background, endorsements, and fundraising.

 

Dan Goldman

  • Bio
    • Campaign website: https://www.dangoldmanforny.com/
    • Current position: Former House Democratic counsel for President Donald Trump’s first impeachment
    • Background: The former lead counsel for House Democrats and heir to the Levi Strauss denim fortune, Dan Goldman would be among the richest members of Congress if elected. In early August, he loaned $1 million to his campaign.

      Goldman — also a former assistant U.S. Attorney and counsel for the House Intelligence Committee — argues his experience running Trump’s first impeachment makes him the right man for the moment, as Republicans across the country push to change election laws in the wake of Trump’s efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

      And in a boon to his campaign in the politically-active district, Goldman scored an endorsement from the New York Times.

      Recent polling shows Goldman at the head of the race.

 

Elizabeth Holtzman

  • Bio
    • Campaign website: https://lizholtzman.com/home/
    • Current position: Retired former Congress member, former Brooklyn district attorney, and former New York City comptroller

    • Background: After 28 years away from political office, Elizabeth Holtzman, says she decided to run for Congress again because of a rise in violent crime across the five boroughs and to protect women’s rights.

      “It took me a long time to decide, but here’s the reason: We live in really dangerous times,” she told NY1 political anchor Bobby Cuza on “Inside City Hall” in June.

      Holtzman was the first woman to hold the office of City Council Comptroller from 1990 to 1993, the first woman to serve as a Brooklyn District Attorney from 1982 to 1989, and was the 16th Congressional District representative from 1973 to 1981. In 1973, she was among the first members of Congress to call for the impeachment of President Richard Nixon.

      Holtzman, who left Washington, D.C. in 1981, would return to Congress as an 81-year-old freshman member, if elected.

 

Mondaire Jones

  • Bio
    • Campaign website: https://mondaireforcongress.com/
    • Current position: Representative of a Hudson Valley congressional district
    • Background: Rep. Mondaire Jones currently represents New York’s 17th District in the Hudson Valley, but chose to run in the 10th Congressional District after Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney opted to run in the redrawn version of Jones’ current district, which included Maloney’s home. Jones moved from the Hudson Valley to live in the redrawn 10th District that lacked an incumbent.

    • In an interview with Errol Louis on “Inside City Hall” in July, Jones said that constituents in Lower Manhattan, Brooklyn, Rockland County and Westchester County alike all want “an economy that works for everybody.”

      “Everyone is concerned about inflation. Everyone is concerned about making sure that their local schools are high quality. Everyone is concerned about ending the epidemic of gun violence in America,” Jones said. “It’s why I’ve been so grateful to be in conversation with people in my neighborhood, in Carroll Gardens, and, of course, throughout the district talking about the work I’ve been doing that has been directly in service of the people of this district.”

 

Yuh-Line Niou

 

Carlina Rivera

 

Jo Anne Simon

  • Bio
    • Campaign website: https://joannesimonforcongress.com/
    • Current position: Assembly member for parts of DUMBO, Carroll Gardens, Cobble Hill, Gowanus, and Park Slope

    • Background: Jo Anne Simon told Errol Louis on “Inside City Hall” in July that she decided to run for the newly-drawn congressional seat because of her history as an activist and elected official in the neighborhoods in western Brooklyn included in the district, which also spans parts of Lower Manhattan.
      “It wasn’t my plan to run for Congress. But the reality is when you look at this district, it’s so many communities that I’ve already represented or that I worked in,” Simon said.

      “I could see how all of our issues were connected and I think that is a perspective that I will bring to Congress,” Simon added. “It is a perspective that I already delivered for my constituents for sure and the big issue that we’re talking about is gun violence, which I’ve been successful in passing major gun violence legislation in the state Assembly.”

      In office, she said she would also combat the overturning of Roe v. Wade and use legislation to address Supreme Court decisions to find ways “to continue to protect New Yorkers.”

      Simon has called on Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn, the Brooklyn Democratic leader, to step down alongside other reformers in the borough. The Assembly member said Hermelyn was uninterested in bringing new ideas and energy into the county party.

 

Quanda Francis

  • Bio
    • Campaign website: https://quandafrancis.com/
    • Current position: President of the consulting company Sykes Capital Management
    • Background: Quanda Francis is a tech consultant who briefly ran in the Democratic primary for state comptroller before dropping out. Francis also ran as a Democrat in the 2021 primary election for mayor before dropping out to run as an Independent. She received 0.34% of the vote in the general election.

 

Peter J. Gleason

  • Bio
    • Campaign website: N/A
    • Current position: N/A
    • Background: In 2017, Gleason ran for Manhattan district attorney as a write-in candidate and was endorsed by NYPD whistleblower Frank Serpico. He received a few hundred votes.
  • Fundraising 
    • Gleason has not submitted any campaign finance filings, according to the FEC. He is on the ballot according to the New York City Board of Elections. 

 

Jimmy Li

  • Bio
    • Campaign website: N/A
    • Current position: Activist
  • Fundraising 
    • Summary (as of Aug. 3)
      • Total contributions/receipts: $64,051.00
      • Spending/disbursements: $43,879.42
      • Cash on hand: $20,171.58

 

Maud Maron

  • Bio
    • Campaign website: https://maudmaron.com/
    • Current position: Attorney and education advocate
    • Background: A longtime public defender and education advocate, Maud Maron became a staunch opponent to pandemic-era regulations, including mask and vaccine mandates. In an interview with Errol Louis on “Inside City Hall” in July, Maron said one of her top issues if elected would be revisions to the Biden administration’s proposed Title IX updates and the exclusion of transgender people from women’s athletics and “single-sex spaces.”
  • Fundraising 
    • Summary (as of Aug. 3)
      • Total contributions/receipts: $101,965.50
      • Spending/disbursements: $79,542.70
      • Cash on hand: $22,422.80

 

Brian Robinson

  • Bio
    • Campaign website: https://www.votebriannyc.com/
    • Current position: Candidate, author, founder of a debt consolidation company
    • Background: Brian Robinson is running on a platform focused on New York City’s homelessness crisis and rising crime. In an interview with Errol Louis on “Inside City Hall” in March, he said he would seek audits of the “homeless industrial complex,” calling for the shelter system to have greater oversight and to mandate medical evaluations for homeless New Yorkers in contact with the criminal justice system.
    • Previous coverage:
  • Key endorsements
  • Fundraising 
    • Summary (as of Aug. 3)
      • Total contributions/receipts: $231,321.71
      • Spending/disbursements: $120,524.83
      • Cash on hand: $110,796.88

 

Yan Xiong

  • Fundraising 
    • Xiong has not submitted any campaign finance filings since announcing his candidacy, according to the FEC.