New York Mayor Mamdani sends message to Democratic establishment

Highlights

• Mamdani-backed Darializa Avila Chevalier is challenging a veteran in New York's 13th District
• Experts fear big democratic socialist wins in NY could deliver the wrong message to the Democratic Party nationally
• Steve Israel says moderate stances resonate more in competitive districts outside Democratic strongholds

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani scored three major primary wins in his attempt to remake the Democratic Party into a democratic socialist force on Tuesday.

Mamdani-endorsed former city comptroller Brad Lander defeated two-term representative Dan Goldman, while assembly member Claire Valdez beat Brooklyn borough president Antonio Reynoso for an open congressional seat and activist Darializa Avila Chevalier narrowly defeated five-term representative Adriano Espaillat, chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.

Taken together, those constitute big wins for the 34-year-old mayor, who shocked the political world with his 2025 election and is now consolidating his political power. The results in New York come on the heels of democratic socialist mayoral candidates winning the primary in Washington, DC, and making the runoff in Los Angeles.

Mamdani's efforts to expand the democratic socialist base in the US follow a decade-long effort that was spurred on by Senator Bernie Sanders' surprisingly popular 2016 presidential campaign and his efforts to nurture a new generation of democratic socialist leaders.

But some analysts and former officials say it is also in response to progressive Democratic voters' anger at President Donald Trump's agenda and governing style, and at the Biden administration's backing of Israel's war in Gaza following a Hamas-led attack. Israel's response resulted in more than 73,000 Palestinian deaths.

"Energy on the far right ignites energy on the far left. Politics is reactive," said Steve Israel, a former US House member from New York who late in his congressional career ran an operation to elect more Democrats.

Democratic party tensions run high

For months after Mamdani won his 2025 primary election, House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries was dogged by reporters asking whether he would endorse his fellow New Yorker. Jeffries did so, but kept everyone guessing until just 11 days before the general election.

Meanwhile, Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer of New York remained silent on Mamdani throughout the campaign.

The rub is that Jeffries is positioned to ascend to US House speaker and thus second in line for the presidency if Democrats win November's midterm elections.

The path to victory does not run through blue, solidly Democratic congressional districts. Instead, it's the purple swing districts where Democrats need to beat Republicans.

Nonetheless, the defeat of five-term Democratic representative Adriano Espaillat by Mamdani-backed democratic socialist Darializa Avila Chevalier carries national implications that could complicate Jeffries' task.

"If a DSA member could knock off the chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, that could matter," said Matt Bennett, co-founder of Third Way, a centrist Democratic consultancy.

Even more relevant could be stances Avila Chevalier has touted in past social media postings, such as calling for abolishing police and border controls and raising questions about Israel's right to exist.

"This is precisely the kind of person that they (Republicans) love to use to weaponise against other Democrats running for office in competitive races," Bennett said.

Former representative Israel agreed and said in an interview: "I do worry that the strength of democratic socialists in places like New York and California will be misread as the centre of gravity for Democrats across the country this November or in the 2028 presidential election."

Avila Chevalier has since deleted her social media posts and apologised for some of the language she used.

But in an interview with a consortium of editors last week, Avila Chevalier said: "I think that we just should not have a system that allows (migrant) deportation to happen at all," saying it "is rooted in deeply racist ideology."

In response to her views, Espaillat said Avila Chevalier "can't just sweep things under the rug."

"Darializa has taken very extreme positions as reflected in her comments on social media not too long ago," he said in a 16 June posting on X. "She is unfit for office and voters are smart enough to see that."

Democratic socialists against Democrats

Alex Jacquez, a progressive strategist who was a senior adviser to Sanders' 2020 presidential campaign, said in an interview that focus groups and opinion polls deliver the message that Democratic voters' level of dissatisfaction with their leaders runs deep.

"That is really where you are seeing the fault lines. Are you willing to take on the wealthy and take on corporations and take on the status quo to deliver results, or are you not," he said of the populist message democratic socialists are trying to win on this autumn and through the 2028 elections and beyond.

Meanwhile, outside deep-blue districts of New York, California and other Democratic strongholds, the party is running women with strong military backgrounds in places like Florida and Colorado.

"Most of the competitive districts for Democrats are red and pink districts that you can only win as a Democrat in, where more moderate stances resonate in races against incumbent Republicans," Israel said.

A presidential election is not won in blue states, he added. "It's won in seven moderate battleground states."