Mamdani pushes Democrats to the left, one primary at a time

Zohran Mamdani set out to push the Democratic Party in his own direction — younger, further left, more ambitious and less deferential to its established leaders. On Tuesday, New York City’s voters told him to keep going.

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In his biggest political risk since winning office last year, the pathbreaking millennial mayor backed a pair of challengers seeking to unseat Democratic incumbents in Congress while breaking with local leaders over a third, open seat.

The results signaled that Mamdani’s sway over the city’s more liberal electorate extends even when he isn’t on the ballot.

The mayor himself had raised the stakes, casting the primaries as a choice about the direction of a Democratic Party locked out of power in Washington and eager to retake Congress this fall and the White House in 2028. 

Mamdani backed Brad Lander and Darializa Avila Chevalier, each challenging a sitting member of Congress, and Claire Valdez, who was running for an open seat. Valdez and Chevalier, like Mamdani, were supported by the New York City chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America. 

In backing Lander and Chevalier, Mamdani put himself at odds with House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, a Brooklyn native who aims to become the next speaker of the House. Jeffries stood by the incumbents Lander and Chevalier were challenging — Reps. Dan Goldman and Congressional Hispanic Caucus Chair Adriano Espaillat, respectively — as a congressional leader almost always does. 

Mamdani’s support for Valdez caused a different intraparty friction: Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso, one of Valdez’s rivals, had been endorsed by the district’s retiring incumbent, Rep. Nydia M. Velázquez. 

All three of Mamdani’s candidates were projected by The Associated Press to have won on Tuesday night, all but assuring they will become members of Congress after November’s general election in their heavily Democratic districts.

“We need to have a Democratic Party where working people can look at it and they can see themselves. And in Darializa, in Claire, in Brad, what we see are candidates who understand that it’s not just enough to fight back against the cruelty of the federal government’s positions and its policies,” Mamdani told reporters on Tuesday morning. “We also have to have a vision that goes beyond 2028 and that looks at the struggles of working people and says ‘I don’t just see you; here’s my answer for how to actually make your life easier.’”

In reliably blue New York City, none of these seats will be the mathematical reason for whether Democrats succeed or fail in flipping the House back from Republican control this fall. But districts like these — comfortably liberal and building blocks of the party’s coalition — carry great significance on how Democrats may govern if and when they win back power in Washington. And in the nation’s largest city, the message these primary victories send may resonate well beyond it. 

On Capitol Hill Tuesday before polls closed, Jeffries said he did not believe he and Mamdani — in endorsing different candidates— were on “opposite pages,” later adding that the two have “agreed to strongly disagree, and we put it into the hands of the people of New York to decide what’s the best path forward.”

Pressed on whether Mamdani was making a mistake in pushing the caucus to the left, Jeffries countered that “there are 215 members of the House Democratic caucus. A handful of primaries that go in one direction or the other in a given state or two aren’t going to reshape who we are as House Democrats.”

Democrats have arrived at this moment, however, in part because of what the Trump era has done to the party: There’s a clear sense on the left that establishment Democrats haven’t done enough — that they have not fought as intensely or run as forcefully as they should have — during such a consequential and chaotic time for the country. 

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That opened a window for Mamdani and his allies to channel the political revolution rooted in Bernie Sanders-style progressivism into something that could continue to pull Democrats into a far different direction than the cautious center they have maintained as a safe harbor for decades. 

“I like the girl, I voted for her,” Carlos Marte, a New York voter, said about Chevalier. “She’s young, she’s smart, she will learn on the job. And I think Adriano has had his time to serve; it’s time to move on and I think he sold out the United States — at least in my view. I’m probably wrong, but that’s my view of it.” 

Mamdani’s embrace of a youthful movement for change also came with clear risks. That was especially true in the case of Chevalier, whose social media history — which ranges from the obtuse to the outright offensive — became a fixture in the campaign. 

What remains to be seen is how publically vocal Mamdani will be after the election about pushing an agenda and pressing the lawmakers he helped send to Washington. He will have to decide how to wield his influence and help his allies in the harder work of governing in a divided capital versus prevailing in a deep-blue primary election.  

Along the way, voters making choices in the Espaillat race were divided by different senses of what the incumbent has accomplished versus what someone new could do. 

“Espaillat has done a lot for this community. He has been around, and he knows what people need in the community and beyond,” said Elaine Fields, a 60-year-old voter. 

Still, the results and tone and what it all took to get to primary day threatened to divide Democrats in ways that could linger. In an interview with MS NOW earlier Tuesday, Espaillat, who had held his seat for five terms, responded bluntly to the mayor’s rhetoric. 

“I am the working class,” he said. “I don’t know if the mayor is, but I am.”

Kevin Frey, Peggy Helman, Will McDuffie and Alex Trowbridge contributed reporting. 

Hunter Woodall

Hunter Woodall covers politics for MS NOW. He’s reported on politics and presidential campaigns for The Associated Press and CBS News and reported on Congress for The Minnesota Star Tribune.

Shawna Thomas

Shawna Thomas is the political director for MS NOW. In her free time she likes to sing karaoke.