Supreme Court ruling clears Goldman–Lander showdown for NYC congressional seat

Collage photo — Brad Lander (L) and Rep. Dan Goldman (R). Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images and Dan Goldman for Congress

By Jacob Kornbluh March 3, 2026

A months-long redistricting battle that had cast a long period of uncertainty over one of New York’s most closely watched Democratic primaries ended Monday, clearing the way for a high-stakes clash between two prominent Jewish candidates in a district that voted heavily for Mayor Zohran Mamdani, a democratic socialist and strident critic of Israel.

The U.S. Supreme Court halted a lower-court order that would have forced New York to break up a Republican-held district in New York City, setting up a primary showdown between Rep. Dan Goldman, a two-term incumbent, and former City Comptroller Brad Lander in the safely Democratic 10th Congressional District, which includes Borough Park and Park Slope in Brooklyn as well as parts of lower Manhattan.

Lander, who is backed by Mamdani and is popular among the district’s progressive electorate, had held back from sharp attacks on Goldman while Democrats awaited a ruling on whether the neighboring 11th District — which includes parts of Brooklyn and Staten Island — would be redrawn after a state judge found the 2022 map unconstitutional. Had that order been upheld, Goldman, backed by House Democratic leadership, was expected to run against Republican Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, with an electorate that leans more to the right than the one he now represents.

“I am holds barred against him,” Lander told City & State last month with the case still pending, explaining that he did not want to weaken Goldman with primary attacks that Republicans could later weaponize if Goldman ended up facing Malliotakis in a general election.

That strategic truce by Lander could now be over. Lander has already made Goldman’s support from the militantly pro-Israel campaign finance group AIPAC central to his campaign. J Street, a pro-Israel, pro-peace advocacy group, endorsed Goldman for reelection as incumbent, but also “approved” Lander as a congressional candidate to allow donors to contribute to his campaign through the J Street PAC portal.

Jewish voters are estimated to comprise more than 20% of the June 23 primary electorate

A proxy fight over Israel and Iran

The primary’s outcome could have implications beyond New York’s 10th District. It will test whether a candidate who  shares the mainstream position of Democratic leadership on Israel can fend off a challenge from the progressive wing at a time when views on Israel are becoming a defining issue within the Democratic Party.

Recent polls showed the wider tensions within the Democratic Party, which loomed large in the 2024 presidential election in the wake of the Gaza war, are likely to shape the midterm elections. Palestinian rights — and now opposition to the war in Iran — have increasingly become a litmus test for progressive candidates seeking to define themselves against establishment Democrats.

Goldman, an heir to the Levi Strauss fortune who was elected in a competitive primary in 2022,  is aligned with the mainstream positions of national Democrats on Israel: supportive of Israel’s security while finding a pathway for a two-state solution, sharply critical of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing government, and opposed to settlement expansion and settler violence. Goldman diverged from some of his colleagues on key Israel-related bills, including his opposition to measures to block or condition U.S. arms transfers to Israel, and he refused to sign onto a letter opposing President Donald Trump’s initial vision of the U.S. taking control of Gaza and turning it into the “Riviera of the Middle East.”

On Saturday, as the joint U.S.-Israel military campaign against Iran unfolded, Goldman criticized Trump’s embrace of regime change, calling the U.S. action a declaration of war without required congressional authorization. He said he would vote for a bipartisan measure to limit the president’s war powers before the U.S. expands the conflict with Tehran. Still, Goldman did not rule out military action against Iran’s regime if it were backed by a credible plan with congressional and international support.

Lander describes himself as a liberal Zionist but has also allied himself with the progressive wing of the Democratic Party, cross-endorsing Mamdani when both ran for mayor and working closely with progressive Jewish organizations such as Jews for Racial and Economic Justice and New Jewish Agenda.

In 2021, he supported Ben & Jerry’s decision to end sales in the occupied West Bank. Since the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks on Israel, Lander regularly attended a weekly rally against the Israeli government’s handling of the war in Gaza and backed early calls for a permanent ceasefire. Last September, he expressed regret for not doing enough “to speak out against Israel’s war crimes, against ethnic cleansing, against forced starvation of Palestinians.”

More recently, Lander described the war as “genocide,” citing the writings of Raphael Lemkin, who coined the term, and said he’d support a progressive-led bill to prohibit the sale or transfer of offensive weapons to Israel. As comptroller, Lander ended New York City’s half-century practice of investing millions in Israeli government debt securities.

On Iran, Lander said he was a “firm no” on an endless unilateral war and also criticized the absence of clear congressional authorization.