New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani‘s audacious bid to upend the city’s political establishment paid off handsomely in Tuesday night’s state primary election, when two of the progressive insurgents that he anointed beat Democratic congressional incumbents and a third won an open House seat.
It proved Mandani’s own victory last year “was not the end of a political movement,” Gotham’s new kingmaker declared at his victory party in Brooklyn late Tuesday. “It was the beginning.”
Two of the winning candidates, activist Darializa Avila Chevalier and state Assembly member Claire Valdez, were formally endorsed by the Democratic Socialists of America. The third, Brad Lander, also received significant support from the movement that helped fuel Mamdani’s rise.
All three of the districts won by Mamdani-backed candidates are virtually guaranteed to be in the Democratic column come November. The one that Valdez won, which includes gentrifying Brooklyn and Queens, tilts so far to the left that it is known as the “Commie Corridor.”
These victories showed how competing forces are pressing on Democrats as they seek a path back to power. As was the case with a frustrated GOP rank-and-file who turned to Donald Trump in 2016, many of their voters are rejecting an establishment they believe has failed to fight the other side and deliver on issues they care most about. But the far-left candidates who are gaining ground and visibility could undermine their efforts to win in the more centrist areas where the 2026 election will be decided.
Already, Republicans are reveling in the New York results. “You could call it the Bolshevik Revolution of 2026, but the Mamdani takeover of the Democrat Party is official now,” House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-Louisiana) said.
Yet to be determined, however, is how far Tuesday’s shockwaves will extend beyond the Hudson River. Should Democrats regain a narrow majority in the House, as is widely expected, the growing number of far-left members could create headaches for their leaders, not unlike the internal tensions that have made governing there so difficult for the Republicans.
Looking further, the after-effects could reshape the presidential race two years from now, when voters will again choose how much of a fighter or a healer they want. In a statement to The Washington Post, Mamdani said “a Democratic Party that can win in 2028 and beyond” was one of the explicit goals of his decision to aggressively back his own slate of candidates, despite the fact that it alienated many of the Democratic power brokers with which he had previously been allied.
But what happened in deep-blue New York City is not necessarily an electoral bellwether nationally. The road to a 2026 Democratic victory lies not in liberal enclaves but in battlegrounds across the map. Of the 71 House districts that have been deemed competitive by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, two-thirds were won by Trump in the 2024 presidential election.
“Democratic primaries in a handful of the most progressive districts in the country do not define Democrats in Congress, or Democrats across the country,” said former New York congressman Steve Israel, who previously ran the Democrats’ campaign effort. “I’m more interested in what’s going on in Brooklyn, Iowa, [which is in] a state that is going to be competitive.”
A more telling indicator of the strength of the progressive movement outside of traditional liberal strongholds may come in August in Michigan, where Trump has won twice and where a Democratic primary battle is underway for an open U.S. Senate seat.
The left, including Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont), has put its weight behind former Detroit health official Abdul El-Sayed, who leads in many polls against two opponents, Rep. Haley Stevens and state Sen. Mallory McMorrow.
El-Sayed has called Israel’s actions in Gaza a “genocide,” supports a government-funded health care system known as Medicare-for-All, and favors abolishing the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency. Should he win the nomination to fill a seat that Democrats currently hold in the Senate, there is no small amount of fear within the party that he could sink their already narrow prospects for regaining control of the chamber.
Matt Bennett, a leader of the centrist organization Third Way, recalled that in past cycles, Republicans weaponized activist slogans such as “defund the police” and “abolish ICE” against Democratic candidates in swing districts who did not share those views. He noted that Chevalier, who defeated Congressional Hispanic Caucus Chairman Adriano Espaillat in Tuesday’s New York primary, has in the past embraced more extreme positions, including abolishing the police, borders and prisons.
“This is like super-crazy land we are in now,” Bennett said, making it imperative that more moderate Democrats clearly distance themselves from some of what their party’s candidates have espoused.
At the same time, Israel added, Democrats must also respond to the forces that have made so many voters, especially young people, reject the establishment. He argued that their concerns are less divisive than the ideological battle suggests. They are looking for a chance to become homeowners, for less expensive necessities that include child care and health care, and for more economic security, he said.
“We need to develop economic policies that resonate with a younger generation that believes the American dream has been stolen away from them,” he said. “They believe that the system is rigged — and it is.”
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