For the First Time, We're Putting Congressional Candidates on the Record, Before Election Day

Here's who's showing up for our Candidate Roundtable Initiative starting next week.

Photo by Darren Halstead

Every two years, candidates for Congress come seeking our vote. They post pictures with flags, say the right things about VA benefits, and then the election happens, someone wins, and the military-connected community (one of the most organized, most service-driven constituencies in this city) is left wondering whether anyone in the race actually understood what they were asking for.

We decided to change that.

Starting next Monday, we’re launching our 2026 Candidate Roundtable Initiative, which will serve as the first time in New York City’s history that military-connected New Yorkers will directly vet congressional candidates before a single vote is cast.

Here’s how it works

Over the next two weeks, from May 4th through May 14th, we’re convening virtual roundtables across seven contested congressional primaries in New York City. Each session runs 30 minutes, where each candidate will sit down with six of our advocates, moderated by a member of our leadership team. During this time, the advocates will have the opportunity to ask the questions that matter most to both themselves and their constituents.

Four districts in our coverage area (NY-5, NY-8, NY-11, and NY-14) are uncontested heading into the general race and won’t hold roundtables this cycle. We’ll cover those in the fall. This current initiative is focused on where voters have a choice to make on June 23rd.

The Voter Guide and the Confidence Rating

After the roundtables are held, we will publish our findings in our Five Borough Veterans Voter Guide.

The centerpiece of that guide is the Confidence Rating, a number from 1 to 10 representing the average score our advocates assign based on one question: how confident are they that this candidate can represent the military-connected community in Congress?

This is not an endorsement. We’re not telling anyone how to vote. What we’re doing is giving each of you an honest, firsthand account from the advocates who participated, asked the important questions, and came away with a real impression.

Candidates who decline to participate will receive an automatic Confidence Rating of 0. We recognize your concerns with who showed up and who didn’t in our last Candidate Roundtable for the Mayor, Public Advocate and Comptroller races and are happy to instill this new tool to strengthen transparency and public accountability.

So Who’s Running For Office?

Here are our confirmed candidates by district heading into the roundtables:

Our partners in the press will be welcomed to attend these sessions virtually to report on these conversations as they see fit. Stay tuned later this week to learn who our advocates will be across the five boroughs.

A special thank you to the campaign staff of each candidate for making our community a priority in this initiative and thank you to our advocates for making the time to hold these important conversations.

In Service,

The Five Borough Veterans Team