[6] In 2016, state Senator Adriano Espaillat ran for U.S. House of Representatives in the race to replace retiring long-serving Congressman Charlie Rangel of Harlem.
While Alcantara did not declare her candidacy until after Espaillat won his Congressional primary in June 2016, she entered the race to succeed him when it became clear no other notable Dominican candidate would emerge.
[7] Facing Bloomberg administration alumnus Micah Lasher and former New York City Council member Robert Jackson, Alcantara narrowly won the September 2016 Democratic primary with a plurality of 31% of the vote; the race was considered one of the elections to watch in the 2016 state primaries, and emerged as one of the closest that cycle.
[17][18] In the September 2018 Democratic primary election, Alcantara was challenged again by Jackson (who also won the backing of the Working Families Party) as well as by Thomas Leon and Tirso Santiago Pina.
As part of New York State's electoral fusion laws allowing candidates to run on multiple ballot lines in one election, Alcantara still appeared in the November 6, 2018, general election as the third-party Independence Party of New York candidate;[24][25][26] however, Alcantara conceded to Jackson and pledged to work with him.