It was a stunning rebuke to the Democratic establishment ahead of the midterm elections, which could set up Mamdani as a kingmaker in the 2028 primaries, though he is constitutionally ineligible to run for president himself.Former city comptroller Brad Lander handily defeated incumbent Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY) in a race that was called by the Associated Press less than 10 minutes after the polls closed. The Mamdani-backed Lander won by nearly 32 points, making Goldman the fifth sitting House member to lose renomination this year.
Left-wing community organizer Darializa Avila Chevalier, 32, upset Congressional Hispanic Caucus Chairman Adriano Espaillat (D-NY). That race was closer, but the Democratic establishment spent heavily to keep the 71-year-old incumbent in his House seat.Mamdani ally Claire Valdez beat Brooklyn borough president Antonio Reynoso by an eye-popping 20-point margin to win the Democratic nomination for an open House seat in New York’s Seventh Congressional District. Rep. Nydia Velázquez (D-NY) is retiring.Only in the race to replace retiring Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY) did hardcore progressives fail to notch a significant win. Mamdani stayed neutral in that primary, won by Micah Lasher as John F. Kennedy’s grandson, Jack Schlossberg, ran a distant third, and Never Trumper George Conway was set to finish fifth.It’s part of a broader trend in which socialist Democrats, many of them backed by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), have won primaries across the country. “Progressives are on the march,” Sanders declared on June 3. Days later, Graham Platner added to this win total by defeating incumbent Gov. Janet Mills (D-ME), who had fallen so far behind in the polls that she suspended her campaign, with more than 70% of the vote to secure the nomination to challenge Sen. Susan Collins (D-ME).Socialist Janeese Lewis George won the Democratic nomination for mayor of Washington, D.C. the previous week. Mamdani, however, may be Sanders’s most important protege. After defeating former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo in both the Democratic primary and the general election last year to become mayor of the nation’s largest city, the 34-year-old socialist went further than allies like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY in challenging incumbents and entrenched Democrats. (Ocasio-Cortez was herself first elected to Congress in 2018 after beating a 10-term incumbent who was a member of the House Democratic leadership team.)Avila Chevalier had to delete social media posts saying “F*** Kamala Harris,” in which she sharply criticized the former vice president and 2024 Democratic presidential nominee. She was similarly forceful when describing the top Hispanic Democrat she challenged in the primary.“Where is our congressman when ICE is kidnapping his constituents? Why should we let Adriano Espaillat vote to spend billions on bombs overseas when we’re struggling to afford rent and groceries right here in New York City?” she said in her campaign launch video. Mamdani vowed she would be “on the front lines” in demonstrating Democrats “have to be fighting for a vision that reckons with the fact that working people were not left behind just four years ago or 16 years ago. They were left behind a long time before that.”In addition to socialism, the Mamdani Democrats who won on Tuesday were big bashers of Israel and AIPAC, the organization that has spent liberally over the years to promote pro-Israel candidates in both parties. This was perhaps the biggest factor in Goldman’s landslide defeat.Mamdani’s primary romp also raises questions about how long the two New Yorkers at the helm of the national Democratic Party, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), will retain their leadership positions.Ocasio-Cortez could challenge Schumer in a Democratic primary if she does not opt to run for president in 2028. She will turn 37 in October.The wins by progressives and socialists in Democratic primaries reflect an anti-establishment mood inside the party that has been compared to the Tea Party within the GOP more than a decade ago.‘THERE’S A TIME LIMIT’ FOR DEMOCRATIC SOCIALISM: TIANA LOWE DOESCHERSome of those Tea Party candidates cost Republicans winnable Senate races. But in the initial Tea Party wave election of 2010, Republicans gained 63 House seats. Mamdani and Sanders are hoping to make similar pickups in November. Many of their endorsed candidates are running in deep-blue areas where the primary is tantamount to the general election.Democrats are seeking to capitalize on dissatisfaction with President Donald Trump in this year’s midterm elections.
