NY primaries show anti-establishment anger as Mamdani’s picks win

NEW YORK CITY – Three candidates endorsed by Zohran Mamdani swept to victory in Democratic congressional primaries on June 23, a sign that the coalition which powered the New York City mayor to a surprising victory last year is gaining strength.

Some of the city’s most established political figures were toppled in races that highlighted divisions within the party over ideology, Israel and immigration.

Former New York City Comptroller Brad Lander defeated two-term Representative Dan Goldman in New York’s 10th Congressional district, while New York state lawmaker Claire Valdez won in the 7th district in Queens and Brooklyn. Darializa Avila Chevalier, a community organiser and graduate student, was projected to defeat incumbent Adriano Espaillat in the Democratic primary in New York’s 13th Congressional District, according to Decision Desk HQ.

The June 23 Congressional primaries were viewed as a test of the political strength of Mamdani, who has been in office less than a year but is already trying to reshape New York’s Democratic power structures. In stepping in to key races to back candidates who shared his views, he strained ties with other longstanding Democratic leaders.

The victories for Valdez and Avila Chevalier were the latest gains for the Democratic Socialists of America, who have drawn increasing political power from voter discontent about rising rents, costly childcare and stagnant wages. The DSA has two members in Congress – Queens Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and Michigan Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib – but is trying to expand its political power at the local and national level.

At a watch party hosted by Avila Chevalier, people were chanting “DSA” over and over as she inched ahead of Espaillat.

Mamdani also racked up wins in primaries in state legislative races, with five other candidates he had endorsed winning their respective campaigns on June 23, including Aber Kawas, Eli Northrup, Illapa Sairitupac, Samantha Kattan and Brian Romero. Seven of eight state legislative candidates endorsed by DSA were winning their races late on June 23.

New York state lawmaker Claire Valdez won in the 7th district in Queens and Brooklyn. PHOTO: RYAN MURPHY/NYTIMES

Valdez will be taking over a progressive district that had been helmed by Nydia Velazquez since 2013. Velazquez, who has represented parts of Brooklyn and Queens for decades and endorsed Borough President Antonio Reynoso over Valdez, said she thought it was “too soon” for Mamdani to break with the Democratic coalition that had helped propel him to power.

A former union organiser and first-term state assembly member, Valdez pledged to strengthen unions, pursue a federal jobs guarantee and advance a Green New Deal-style agenda. She has also emphasised immigrant rights and support for Palestinians.

Democratic division over Israel played a major role in the New York races. Valdez raised questions about whether a new super political action committee supporting Reynoso had ties to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. The American Federation of Teachers later said it backed the new super PAC and wouldn’t collaborate with AIPAC.

The race in the district where Lander prevailed, which includes the city’s financial centre and affluent neighbourhoods just across the East River, was an at-times bitter contest in the heart of Manhattan and brownstone Brooklyn that centred on the candidates’ attitudes toward Israel and their progressive bona fides.

“Democrats are painfully divided by our differences about the US relationship to Israel and Palestine, and we have to face up to it squarely,” Lander said during his victory speech. “Our party needs to admit that Joe Biden’s ‘hug Bibi’ strategy was a catastrophic mistake. I believe it made us complicit in genocide.”

Mamdani, who appeared at a victory celebration with Lander shortly after the race was called, had endorsed Lander early in the race.

Goldman, a former federal prosecutor and an heir to the Levi Strauss fortune, has held the seat since 2022, when he beat a large field in an open contest after the district’s boundaries were redrawn. Before running for Congress, Goldman helped lead the 2018 impeachment proceedings against President Donald Trump. He has one of the most liberal voting records in Congress.

Separately, in a race where Mamdani hadn’t made an endorsement, State Assembly member Micah Lasher was projected to win the Democratic primary for New York’s 12th Congressional District, defeating a crowded field to succeed retiring Representative Jerrold Nadler.

Lasher, 44, had won 39 per cent of the vote with more than 95 per cent of ballots counted late on June 23, according to Decision Desk HQ. A one-time aide to Michael Bloomberg who has been endorsed by the former mayor and owner of Bloomberg LP, Lasher’s competitors included Assemblymember Alex Bores, Kennedy family scion Jack Schlossberg, and attorney George Conway. BLOOMBERG