New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s growing political machine passed its first major electoral test on Tuesday, as all three of his endorsed congressional candidates won closely watched Democratic primaries.
Former city comptroller Brad Lander defeated incumbent Representative Dan Goldman, while state assembly member and former union organiser Claire Valdez defeated Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso in the race to replace retiring Representative Nydia Velazquez.
In the night’s most dramatic upset, public defence investigator and first-time candidate Darializa Avila Chevalier defeated five-term Representative Adriano Espaillat, the chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.
The trio’s victories were quickly hailed by supporters as proof that Mamdani’s campaign was not a one-off, but the beginning of a broader shift in New York’s Democratic Party.
For Mamdani’s allies, the results represented a rebuke to a Democratic establishment that has often treated progressive voters as a constituency to be managed rather than a force to be heard.
