NEW YORK — Like legions of young adults before her, Claire Valdez moved to New York in 2015 looking for a better life and a creative outlet for her budding career as a visual artist.

Valdez quickly realized she had to find an apartment, get a job and pay the rent (and hopefully change the world, too).

A decade later, the 36-year-old single cat-owner from Lubbock, Texas, is a sitting Democratic state assemblywoman and a frontrunner in a race for Congress.

“I don’t have a story that’s very different from so many other people who have come to New York,” Valdez told the Daily News. “I found really high rent and jobs with really bad pay and a real struggle to pay my bills.”

Even when she landed a decent administrative job at Columbia University, she had to take three subway lines (M to the B/D to the 1) just to get to work and got lucky by snagging an apartment she could afford without a roommate.

“The bare minimum seemed so out of touch. That’s an experience I bring with me to everything I do,” she said.

Valdez, who has Mexican and Native American heritage, credits her activism in a union of Columbia clerical workers and political involvement with the Democratic Socialists of America with giving her a sense of power and control over her own life.

In 2024, she won an open seat in the state assembly representing her Ridgewood, Queens, neighborhood, and was a very early supporter of Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s mayoral campaign.

Valdez pitches herself as fresh voice for hard-pressed workers and tenants in fast-changing NY-07, which is heavily Latino and one of the most progressive districts in the nation.

“I’m newer in the city,” she said, “but you don’t have to live here all your life to see the problems working people face.”

Many analysts say Valdez is a surprising frontrunner in the June 23 primary against Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso, even though Reynoso, 43, boasts a long record of progressive achievements and has lined up an impressive string of endorsements including incumbent Rep. Nydia Velazquez, who is retiring.

A recent independent poll showed a narrow edge for Valdez over Reynoso with Councilwoman Won far behind.

Whoever wins in the June 23 primary is virtually certain to replace Velazquez in Washington, D.C. representing one of the most heavily Democratic districts in the nation.

The elephant in the deep-blue district is Mamdani, who won about 80% of the district’s vote in his 2025 mayoral campaign. He’s endorsed Valdez, sparking a spat with Velazquez and Reynoso, who called Hizzoner “disloyal” for snubbing him.

Valdez is hoping to recreate the magic of Mamdani’s landslide in the district including neighborhoods like Williamsburg, Bushwick, Greenpoint and Ridgewood, where she says the cost of living unifies long-time residents with roots in Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic and newcomers from too many places to name.

“The mayor’s campaign really showed what a wonderful city we live in,” Valdez said. “It’s a beautiful and dynamic place but we need to unite and fight hard to make it better for all of us.”

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