Mamdani-backed Claire Valdez faces backlash over past ‘abolish PreCheck,’ airline nationalization calls

New York state Assemblywoman Claire Valdez, the Democratic nominee for New York's 7th Congressional District, faced online backlash Wednesday after a podcast clip from May resurfaced following her primary victory in which the democratic socialist called for abolishing TSA PreCheck and nationalizing the airline industry.

"My hot take is we need to abolish PreCheck. I’ve got, like, a million beefs with the airline industry and the process of having to fly. We need to, like, nationalize the airline industry, but let’s start by abolishing PreCheck," Valdez said, in an interview with podcaster Francesca Fiorentini.

Valdez made the remarks during a May 1 appearance on "Candidate Corner," a segment of "The Bitchuation Room" podcast. The clip spread online after she won Tuesday's Democratic primary to succeed retiring Rep. Nydia Velazquez, defeating Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso and two other candidates.

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Former Rep. Marc Molinaro, R-N.Y., accused Valdez of proposing policies that would make air travel more difficult.

"We’ve reached the point where NY socialist Democrats think making airport security worse & lines longer somehow makes America better," Molinaro said on X.

Tré Easton, a former staffer for Sen. John Fetterman, also mocked Valdez’s call to eliminate the expedited airport screening program.

"You can take my TSA pre-check from my cold, dead, security theater loving hands," Easton said.

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David J. Bier, director of immigration studies at the Cato Institute, argued Valdez’s proposal would put the industry under the administration in power.

"If we nationalize industries, it means putting Donald Trump in charge of those industries. All the flights would be used for deportation, and they wouldn’t fly to Democrats’ states," Bier said on X.

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Travel writer Gary Leff argued that PreCheck allows the Transportation Security Administration to focus limited screening resources on passengers who have not undergone advance vetting.

"She doesn’t want to abolish TSA, she just wants to abolish PreCheck. But TSA PreCheck means using scarce resources to focus on actual threats," Leff said.

Valdez framed her proposals as a response to airline profits, passenger fees and what she described as weak consumer protections.

"The airline industry is making a lot of money and constantly undermining consumer rights, nickel-and-diming us in every single facet of having to fly someplace," Valdez said.

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The Queens assemblywoman also argued that the lack of a robust national rail network leaves travelers with few realistic alternatives for cross-country trips.

"And in a country where there’s no robust national rail system, it’s planes or nothing if we want to get from one side of the country to the other," Valdez said. "And so we’re forced into these super uncomfortable seats. We have very few rights."

TSA describes PreCheck as an expedited screening program that uses risk assessments before passengers arrive at an airport. The U.S. airline industry has operated under a largely deregulated framework since the Airline Deregulation Act of 1978 removed federal control over fares, routes and market entry.

Fox News Digital reached out to U.S. Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy's office for comment, but did not immediately hear back.

Valdez’s published campaign transportation platform calls for shifting federal funding from roads toward public transit, walking and biking. It does not list abolishing PreCheck or nationalizing airlines.

Fox News Digital has reached out to Assemblywoman Valdez for comment, but did not immediately hear back.