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Early voting has already begun in New York's 2026 primary elections, and the final ballots will be cast in a week. As congressional primaries around the country come down to the wire, a staggering amount of money is sluicing into the races in an attempt to bend the outcome. Much of it is coming in through super PACs, which means that, due to campaign finance reporting schedules, we won't know who's actually spending to influence these elections until they've already happened. The national trend is definitely manifesting in New York City's congressional races as well.
In NY-7, the "Commie Corridor" of Brooklyn and Queens, a newly formed super PAC named Real Fight NYC has spent a quarter of a million dollars to support Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso and go after one of his opponents, Claire Valdez. Valdez, in turn, is the beneficiary of some of a $2 million expenditure by American Priorities, a super PAC founded to counteract the pro-Israel influence of AIPAC.
In NY-13, encompassing Upper Manhattan and parts of the Bronx, the BOLD America political action committee, founded to support Hispanic candidates, has spent $2 million to support incumbent Adriano Espaillat, who is Dominican—and oppose his challenger, Darializa Avila Chevalier, who is also Dominican.
Further south, in NY-12's hotly contested race to replace retiring Congressman Jerry Nadler, Nuestro PAC, a committee organized to mobilize Latino voters, has spent nearly $2 million against Micah Lasher, one of the leading candidates in the race. Who funded that infusion? We won't know until after the election, but previous donors to Nuestro PAC include such salubrious custodians of American democracy as Sam Bankman-Fried.