NY-10 Democratic primary: Interview with Dan Goldman

Dan Goldman never envisioned himself pursuing a career in politics. While he always had a keen interest in public service and social justice, he sought to make an impact through the courts as an attorney. That was until Donald Trump. 

“After I left the U.S. Attorney’s Office, where I worked for 10 years, I started paying a lot more attention to what was going on in our country because of Donald Trump,” Goldman told the Red Hook Star-Revue. “But it was really only when I saw the resurrection of Trump after January 6 that I started thinking more about getting into the arena.”

Goldman first emerged on the national stage after House Democrats selected him to lead the first impeachment investigation into Trump in 2019. Three years later, he emerged from a crowded and closely contested Democratic primary to become the first representative of New York’s newly drawn 10th Congressional District.

Now, with a June 23 primary approaching, Goldman faces one of the most significant tests of his young political career as he seeks reelection against former New York City Comptroller Brad Lander. Lander entered the race after fellow progressives Alexa Avilés and Yuh-Line Niou announced they would not be running against Goldman, clearing the way for Lander to take the progressive lane with the support of Mayor Zohran Mamdani. 

Taking on Trump
On the campaign trail, Goldman has frequently pointed to his role in investigating Trump and has argued that Democrats must be prepared to aggressively scrutinize the administration should they regain control of the House.

“I had to use some of the creative investigative techniques that I had developed as a prosecutor to get around the obstruction and to still prove the case, and we did prove the case,” Goldman said. “It’s going to require the same out-of-the-box and creative thinking to get around the inevitable obstruction that we are going to face. And that experience that I had with the impeachment—as well as 10 years as a prosecutor—is going to be essential to be able to expose the corruption, the lawlessness, and the abuses of power that we have witnessed on the surface for a year and a half.”

While Goldman’s profile has largely been defined by his work investigating Trump, he said criminal justice reform remains one of his longest-standing policy interests. During both his legal career and his time in Congress, Goldman has frequently advocated for reforms aimed at reducing recidivism and addressing the root causes of crime.

“This is a career-long passion and focus of mine and I’m very eager to get in the majority and be able to lead on this issue,” Goldman said.

Goldman told the Star-Revue that his approach to criminal justice reform would be three-pronged: expanding access to long-term treatment for mental health and substance abuse disorders, providing more resources for and placing greater emphasis on pretrial diversion programs, and overhauling reentry programs for formerly incarcerated individuals to reduce recidivism rates. 

The Brooklyn Marine Terminal redevelopment
In 2024, Goldman was selected by the New York City Economic Development Corporation to lead the Brooklyn Marine Terminal Task Force, which was charged with working alongside the community to develop a long-term vision for the 122-acre site located along the waterfront between piers seven and 11 in Brooklyn. In September of last year, a vision plan that called for modernizing the port, creating 6,000 new homes, establishing 28 acres of open space, and developing 275,000 square feet of industrial space was officially adopted by the 26-member task force in a 17-8 vote.

However, the project has not been without its critics, including Assemblymember Jo Anne Simon and Councilmember Alexa Avilés, both of whom voted against the vision plan, citing concerns about community engagement and the potential strain that new development could place on public infrastructure, particularly transportation.

“I certainly understand the concerns of some, but I think ultimately many of their concerns were incorporated into the plan,” Goldman said. “The task force leadership especially really advocated for the community’s concerns, and if you look at the initial proposal compared to what we ended with it’s dramatically different, and that’s because of our advocacy on behalf of the community.”

While Goldman acknowledged concerns about the potential impact of the development on the area’s transportation infrastructure, he argued that the project needed to move forward quickly in order to remain eligible for $164 million in federal grants and to address concerns about the long-term condition of the port. However, a memo sent by EDC President Andrew Kimball to the task force in January of 2025 shows that former Mayor Eric Adam’s administration was at least partially responsible for this deadline, as he threatened to remove matching funds for the project in the city budget if the plan wasn’t set by last April. 

“I for one absolutely agree that there has to be a really thorough, thoughtful, and achievable plan,” Goldman said. “But it didn’t have to be done before the task force moved on and we had other urgencies that needed to be addressed.”

Throughout the planning process Simon, Avilés, and other community members criticized Goldman for failing to incorporate feedback from both task force members and the local community while allowing Kimball and the EDC to hold an outsized voice in the proceedings.   

The Brooklyn Marine Terminal project has also become a point of contention in the Democratic primary. In recent weeks, Lander has joined critics in calling for the current plan to be paused and reassessed. His criticism comes despite reports that he privately encouraged task force members to support the vision plan during the approval process last year.

“I’m very surprised that my opponent has seemingly completely changed his view of the project quite clearly in an effort to get votes for this upcoming election,” Goldman said. “Last summer, I personally worked closely with Brad in trying to persuade some of the task force members to support the vision plan, and he made calls to a couple of them and was very supportive of it.”

The tiebreaker: foreign policy or local politics? 
A key dimension in this race between two progressives has been foreign policy, specifically with regards to Israel and Palestine. While Goldman has criticized the Netanyahu government and worked to establish stricter sanctions on select extremist Israeli settler groups in the West Bank, he has also opposed halting both offensive and defensive weapons transfers to Israel and has publicly refused to call Israel’s military campaign in Gaza a genocide. These positions have increasingly put Goldman on the opposite side of many Democratic voters, a growing majority of whom holding a negative view of the Israeli government, according to recent polls.   

“This issue, I think, has taken on an outsized importance in this race,” Goldman said. “Because what I hear from my neighbors and communities in the district about their concerns all flow from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, not 6000 miles away.” 

Throughout the interview, Goldman repeatedly returned to what he sees as the central question facing voters in the primary: who is best equipped to both confront the Trump administration and deliver tangible results for the district.

“This race is about is who is going to effectively hold Donald Trump accountable and who is going to be able to deliver for working families to unrig our system and give people comfort and security and ensure that they have all of life’s basic necessities, so that they can pursue and access the American dream,” Goldman said.