NEW YORK — Progressive Rep-elect Claire Valdez, D-New York, Thursday said she hasn’t decided whether to support Rep. Hakeem Jeffries for speaker of the House but projected optimism that Democrats will be unified behind an agenda of economic populism after their sweeping midterms landslide.

Valdez, a Democratic Socialists of America member and close ally of Mayor Zohran Mamdani, said she hasn’t spoken to Jeffries since the election but hopes to soon discuss how resurgent Democrats can push an ambitious platform focusing on affordability and lowering the cost of living.

“We need to fight back to take control of our economy and our country,” Valdez told the Daily News. “It shows there is a real mandate from the American people.”

Valdez, a youthful first-term state assemblywoman, said she believes there will be substantial unity across the Democratic coalition for action to improve healthcare, lower costs for working-class people and rein in President Donald Trump’s unpopular crackdown on undocumented immigrants.

“We need to present a united voice and fight for real change,” she added.

Valdez won her deep-blue NY-07 district spanning parts of Queens and Brooklyn by an overwhelming 85%-to-13% margin over a little-known Republican opponent.

Jeffries is expected to be elected the first Black Speaker of the House with plenty of votes to spare after House Democrats won a sweeping landslide of at least 250 House seats in the midterms.

At the post-election SOMOS conference in Puerto Rico, outgoing Rep. Nydia Velázquez, whose chosen successor was defeated by Valdez, and Rep. Adriano Espaillat, who lost his re-election bid to Avila Chevalier, both warned it would be a mistake not to support Jeffries’ history-making bid.

“They should know what it means,” Velázquez said. “You know, how they’re going to go back and talk to their Black constituents, who might feel proud of the fact that for the first time in the history of our nation, you’re going to have an African-American speaker of the House.”

Espaillat said not backing Jeffries would be a “fatal mistake.”

“Harlem will be overjoyed to see its first Black speaker,” he said.

Micah Lasher, newly elected to represent the Upper East and Upper West Sides, called Jeffries’ potential speakship “enormously exciting.”

Valdez cheered the magnitude of the Democratic victory, even though some analysts predict it could potentially reduce the leverage incoming progressives might have had in a more narrowly divided House.

“It gives us the power to be a real opposition party,” she said. “The stakes have always been really high. But it’s crystal clear now that the American people want us to be their voice. They’re not going to be settling for anything less.”

Valdez was one of a slate of three NYC progressives who won Democratic primaries after Mamdani endorsed them over more establishment-oriented picks.

Rep-elect Brad Lander has said he will support Jeffries’ bid for speaker. Rep-elect Darializa Avila Chevalier has taken a similar non-committal stance as Valdez. Several other progressive Democrats also won nationally, potentially bulking up their power in the next Congress.

Valdez said leftist candidates from coast to coast deserve the lion’s share of credit for the landslide because they ran on messages of economic populism

“These victories are credit to progressives and democratic socialists who are fighting for affordability and to make sure voters know Democrats are the party of the working class,” she said.

She added that progressives weren’t afraid to push a stance of “moral clarity on Israel’s genocide in Gaza,” a position and framing that many moderate Democrats like Jeffries might strongly dispute.

But Valdez suggested such schisms within the party would likely take a backseat to unity on domestic concerns like economic issues and immigration.

“The only problem is if the leadership doesn’t listen to the mandate that was delivered by the people,” she said.

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