A multiracial coalition of young, college-educated voters helped a group of democratic socialist candidates sweep House primaries in New York this week, giving the insurgent wing of the Democratic Party new clout and cementing its hold over the city’s politics.
The Democratic Socialists of America, which powered the rise of Mayor Zohran Mamdani (D), has found its strongest support among Whiter, highly educated neighborhoods that are being rapidly gentrified amid an influx of new arrivals.
Those areas remain the backbone of the DSA’s growing political movement, and their racial and economic makeup is a source of tension on the left. But Tuesday’s Democratic primary wins by two Mamdani-backed DSA members, Darializa Avila Chevalier and Claire Valdez, would not have been possible without significant support from Black and Latino voters who favored them over establishment candidates.
That ability to broaden their base has given democratic socialists and their allies hope that they can win outside the largely coastal enclaves where they have found success, including in mayoral races in Washington and Los Angeles, where a DSA-backed candidate has advanced to a runoff against the incumbent.
“These things grow exponentially,” said DSA co-chair Megan Romer. “There’s a lot of possibility with that much more reach.”
Yet upcoming congressional primaries in Denver, Detroit and South Florida, where insurgent DSA hopefuls are also challenging longtime House Democrats, will test the group’s power in places where it has less of a track record of success, a different demographic mix, and no Mamdani equivalent to boost the candidates.
New York is home to about 1 in 7 DSA members nationwide, whose year-round community organizing has translated into political muscle.
They are now second to none locally in fielding coordinated slates of candidates, mobilizing hundreds of canvassers and turning out voters, said Evan Roth Smith, a Democratic political strategist in New York who is not affiliated with the group.
“There’s a future where perhaps they do build out their capacity [in other cities and states] and run more aggressively all over the country‚” he said. “As in fashion, what starts in New York ends up on the rack everywhere else.”
But he cautioned that New York is so distinct from the rest of the country that its results might not translate nationally.
Tuesday’s precinct breakdowns suggested that Avila Chevalier, a PhD student and community organizer, and Valdez, a State Assembly member, were able to extend their support beyond the Whiter, wealthier voters who have made up DSA’s base.
Both are Latina union organizers who moved to New York as young adults, and both ran against much older politicians who represented the old guard of Black and Latino Democratic politics.
In congressional districts facing gentrification and displacement of working-class residents, they performed best with voters in younger and more educated precincts, according to a Washington Post analysis.
But they took different paths to victory. Avila Chevalier won a majority of the vote in both predominantly White and Black precincts, including much of Harlem, a historic center of African American life.
Her opponent, Rep. Adriano Espaillat (D), a fellow Dominican American and chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, won Hispanic-plurality precincts by four percentage points. (Espaillat won his seat a decade ago by defeating a longtime Black leader with deep roots in Harlem.)
Across town, Valdez had her best showing in predominantly Hispanic precincts, winning them by more than 30 percentage points, and also won by more than 10 points in mostly White areas. Her opponent, Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso, who was endorsed by the district’s outgoing congresswoman, won Black-plurality precincts outright by a double-digit margin.
A third Mamdani-backed candidate, former city comptroller Brad Lander, won across nearly all demographic groups in his bid to oust Rep. Dan Goldman (D). Lander was not formally endorsed by the DSA but received support from many of its members.
A video of mostly White Valdez supporters at her election night watch party booing video footage of House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-New York) — and then chanting, “You’re next!” — drew complaints from some longtime Black political leaders, who said it highlighted how DSA views their communities. Jeffries would likely become the first Black House speaker in history if Democrats win the majority this fall.
Jaime Harrison, a former Democratic National Committee chair, warned against trying to undermine the party’s leadership in similar ways.
“If we are going to be the alternative [to Republicans], we have to be strong, we can’t be fighting a two-front war, one against the Republicans and the other friendly fire in the back,” he said.
Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-New York) and Rashida Tlaib (D-Michigan) are the only DSA members in Congress. But they will almost certainly be joined by Avila Chevalier, Valdez and Chris Rabb, the nominee for an open U.S. House seat in Philadelphia. All three come from overwhelmingly Democratic districts that are likely to elevate them in November.
More elections in the coming primaries and general-election battles could further expand the group’s ranks on Capitol Hill, though the group may have an uphill battle to climb.
DSA’s national arm has endorsed Melat Kiros, a 29-year-old lawyer challenging Rep. Diana DeGette in Colorado, who has been in office as long as Kiros has been alive. The group’s Detroit chapter is organizing behind Donavan McKinney, who is challenging Rep. Shri Thanedar.
Rep. Pete Aguilar (D-California), the third-highest-ranking Democrat in Congress, said he doubted that the New York results would translate elsewhere.
“This represents a shift of what the voters in a couple of these districts around the country view, but we understand that much of that is based on their frustration and anxiety,” he said. “Voters are going to take it out in different ways.”
Yet Oliver Larkin, a DSA-backed candidate for Congress in South Florida, said Mamdani’s rise in particular — coupled with frustration with the Democratic establishment — creates an opening.
He is challenging Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D) in a newly drawn, slightly Republican-leaning district.
“Democrats in particular are so tired of losing that when they see these enormous wins and this enthusiasm and the young people driving the victories, there’s much more receptiveness,” Larkin said.
Polling has found that Americans are increasingly open to candidates who identify as democratic socialists, and Larkin said that the group’s focus — on organizing year-round, including at nontraditional events — explains voters’ appetite.
His local DSA chapter, for instance, holds abortion clinic defenses, “know your rights” trainings for immigrant small businesses, and gender-affirming clothing swaps — activities that are chosen by the chapter’s members.
“That directly informs our politics, which is predicated to responding to the needs of working people,” said Larkin, a former Bernie Sanders presidential campaign organizer, “rather than responding to what is focus-grouped or churned out by a think tank.”
Anna Liss-Roy contributed to this report.
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