Three Democratic Socialist candidates backed by New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani won their congressional primaries Tuesday night, toppling two sitting Democratic incumbents and capturing an open seat in a rout that left the party's establishment reeling and handed Republicans a ready-made campaign issue for 2026 and beyond.
Brad Lander, a former city comptroller endorsed by Mamdani and Sen. Bernie Sanders, defeated two-term Rep. Dan Goldman in New York's 10th Congressional District. Darializa Avila Chevalier, a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, unseated Rep. Adriano Espaillat, a five-term incumbent and chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, in a race that AP News described as sending shockwaves through the Democratic Party. And state Assemblywoman Claire Valdez won the open 7th Congressional District seat despite outgoing Rep. Nydia Velázquez endorsing a different candidate.
All three ran on platforms that included abolishing ICE, labeling Israel's war in Gaza as "genocide," and taxing the rich. All three had Mamdani's endorsement. And all three won.
The scale of the defeats was not close. Newsmax reported that Lander crushed Goldman by a margin of 66.5% to 33.5%, a staggering reversal for an incumbent who won his 2024 primary by nearly 43 percentage points. Goldman had the backing of Gov. Kathy Hochul and House leadership. It did not matter.
Valdez took the open 7th District seat with 58.3% of the vote. Chevalier's upset of Espaillat was perhaps the most symbolically loaded result of the night: Espaillat was a close ally of House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, and Jeffries had actively rallied Black leaders and Democratic establishment figures behind Espaillat in an effort to hold the line against Mamdani's slate.
That line did not hold.
Goldman built his national profile as the lead counsel in the first Trump impeachment inquiry. He parlayed that into a congressional seat. But in a deeply blue New York City district, his anti-Trump credentials were not enough to survive a challenge from the left. Breitbart noted that President Trump celebrated Goldman's defeat on Truth Social, writing that "people didn't like him illegally targeting President TRUMP."
Lander, upon learning of his victory live on CNN, said he was "thrilled" and that he "did not expect to be on air when the race was called." He has pledged to push back against the Trump administration, a promise that, given his DSA alignment, will likely take forms well to the left of anything Goldman attempted.
The Washington Times reported that Lander was recently acquitted on charges related to a protest inside a building housing an immigration court, a detail that underscores the kind of activist energy now flowing into New York's congressional delegation.
If Lander's victory was a political earthquake, Chevalier's record may prove to be the aftershock that keeps rattling Democratic leadership. The Washington Free Beacon reported that Chevalier held extreme positions including support for abolishing schools, criticism of interracial relationships, and using the American flag as a wash rag.
At her Manhattan celebration, Chevalier declared: "Today we make it clear, the politics of the past ends today."
Mamdani himself, speaking at Valdez's celebration party, framed the results in sweeping ideological terms. "A year ago, it was not the end of a political movement," he said. "It was the beginning." At another point, the Free Beacon reported, Mamdani quoted a Marxist philosopher, saying, "Now is the time of monsters", a remark directed at AIPAC.
That Mamdani had previously endorsed a congressional candidate who claimed U.S. violence was worse than anything Hamas could do gives some indication of the ideological terrain his movement occupies.
Rep. Mike Lawler, a Republican representing New York, wasted no time framing the results as a consequence of Democratic leadership's own choices. Fox News reported that Lawler posted on X:
"Tonight's results in New York City prove one thing, @RepJeffries cut a deal with @ZohranKMamdani to save himself and threw everyone else under the bus."
Lawler alleged that Jeffries arranged for New York City Council member Chi Ossé, a potential primary challenger to Jeffries himself, to stand down, with Mamdani discouraging Ossé from running. In exchange, Lawler implied, Mamdani's slate was given a freer path to challenge other incumbents.
Neither Jeffries nor Mamdani responded to Lawler's allegation in the available reporting. Ossé did not publicly confirm or deny the claim.
Lawler also posted a broader verdict: "The Democrat party has officially become the party of Zohran, AOC, & Bernie."
Conservative commentators see the results as a political gift. Jeremy Carl, a senior fellow at the Claremont Institute, argued that the new members of Congress would create problems for Democratic leaders and opportunities for the GOP:
"The radicalism of these soon-to-be Congressmen is going to be a headache for Democrat leadership in the House and a gift to the GOP."
Carl went further, warning that the Democratic Party's trajectory was now unmistakable:
"The future of the Democrat party is radical and post-American in its orientation. Since all of these candidates are in the world's media capital, they are going to get tons of attention. That isn't going to play well for the Dems in 2026 and 2028."
Jason Rantz, appearing on CNN, made a similar point about national implications. "Republicans are very obviously going to take advantage of this, and it's going to hurt the Democrats nationwide," he said. "You could win in New York, you could win in Seattle, you can win in Portland, in Los Angeles. But that's where you're going to win."
Rantz added that the results would make it harder for Democrats to distance themselves from the socialist label. "If we're able to define the Democrats who have tried to run away from this label of being socialist, being open borders, being, you know, pro-crime or anti-Israel," he said, "you're not going to be able to do that anymore."
The primary results land at a moment when New York City is already grappling with the consequences of its political direction. Wall Street firms have begun relocating operations out of the city, and Mamdani's tenure as mayor has been marked by decisions that have alienated mainstream figures, including skipping the Israel Day Parade while former mayors, the governor, and thousands of New Yorkers marched on Fifth Avenue.
Now Mamdani has demonstrated that his political influence extends well beyond City Hall. On a single Tuesday night, he reshaped three congressional races, ended two incumbents' careers, and installed a slate of Democratic Socialists who will carry his agenda to Washington.
An Espaillat supporter at his election night party captured the mood among establishment Democrats in two words, as the Free Beacon reported: "I am crushed."
Several questions remain unanswered. Did Jeffries in fact broker any arrangement with Mamdani to protect his own seat? What, if anything, did Democratic leadership offer or concede to prevent an Ossé challenge? And how will Chevalier's incendiary record, from her views on schools to her treatment of the American flag, play once she moves from a Manhattan campaign stage to the floor of the U.S. House?
These are not abstract concerns. In solidly blue districts, winning the Democratic primary is tantamount to winning the general election. Barring extraordinary circumstances, Lander, Chevalier, and Valdez will be sworn into Congress. The Democratic caucus will have to decide what to do with them, and what to do about the mayor who put them there.
When a party's voters choose candidates who quote Marxist philosophers and pledge to abolish federal law enforcement, the party doesn't get to pretend it hasn't changed. The voters said what they meant. The question is whether the rest of the country is listening.
