Socialist candidates aligned with New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani defeated establishment-backed Democrats in Tuesday’s primaries, elevating a platform centered on abolishing ICE, opposing U.S. aid to Israel, Medicare for all and federal job guarantees.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom
A slate of Democratic socialist candidates backed by New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani scored major primary victories Tuesday, deepening the influence of the Democratic Socialists of America in the nation’s largest city and intensifying concern among establishment Democrats over the party’s direction.
The results marked a sharp defeat for traditional Democratic leaders, including House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, who supported incumbent and establishment-aligned candidates against challengers endorsed by Mamdani. The mayor’s endorsements had put him at odds with senior Democratic figures, but his preferred candidates prevailed in several key races.
According to Just the News, the victories have alarmed more moderate Democrats who see the Democratic Socialists of America gaining organizational strength inside the party.
The winning candidates campaigned on policies that include abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement, ending deportations, opposing the state of Israel, creating Medicare for all and establishing federal job guarantees. Their success showed the growing reach of a political movement modeled in part on Mamdani’s rise in New York City.
“People who do not support the DSA wring their hands at cocktail parties, while the DSA is organizing,” Rep. Tom Suozzi, D-N.Y., told Axios.
“It was a tough night,” Rep. Gregory Meeks, D-N.Y., told the outlet.
New York Attorney General Letitia James also criticized the strategy behind Mamdani’s endorsements, warning that the mayor’s approach could damage the party.
“Some of the candidates that he has supported are individuals who do not understand the politics of New York City, the cultural differences from district to district, who have not been part of the history and the struggle of some of these districts, and are relatively new to the body politic,” James told CNN.
“All of us are a little frustrated with the Democratic Party. But you don’t blow it up. That’s what MAGA has done,” she added.
Mamdani’s allies have described the primary push as part of a broader effort to reshape the Democratic Party around a more openly socialist agenda.
“He’s seeing that opportunity – that we can radically change the Democratic Party,” said Faiz Shakir, an adviser to Sen. Bernie Sanders and a friend of Mamdani’s. “Like Bernie, he’s not saying I’m doing this out of spite against you, dear leadership. He’s saying, I am supporting these candidates who have a better vision, and I am prepared to lose if it has to be the case.”
One of the most closely watched results came in New York’s 13th Congressional District, where DSA-endorsed Darializa Avila Chevalier defeated five-term Rep. Adriano Espaillat. Espaillat, who led the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, had represented the Upper Manhattan district for nearly a decade and was backed by Jeffries.
Chevalier, a Columbia University graduate and former community organizer, worked with Neighborhood Defender Services of Harlem before running for Congress. Her political outlook was shaped in part by an internship with Tomorrow’s Youth Organization, where she taught English to Palestinian children in Nablus in the West Bank. The 2014 Israel-Gaza war began shortly after she returned to the United States.
“That was a really formative period for me, because I was essentially living in the heart of the occupation and seeing the way that Palestinians had to navigate all these systems, the impact that it had on children as young as the ones that I was working with,” Avila Chevalier told City & State New York. “I came back, and I couldn’t unsee all those things. And I started seeing them in our own systems, right? Our systems of policing, of deportation, of the controlling of our movement.”
Chevalier’s pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel activism became central to her campaign. Before entering the race, she spent years organizing and joining protests against Israel’s war in Gaza against Hamas. That war began after Hamas, a Palestinian terrorist group that controlled the Gaza Strip, carried out its Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel.
The next day, Chevalier participated in a protest in New York organized by leftist groups. Rallygoers held signs reading “Resistance is Justified when People are Occupied,” drawing criticism from those who said the event appeared to support the attacks that killed more than 1,000 Israelis. Some organizers of the rally were later sued for allegedly acting as “collaborators and propagandists” for Hamas in the United States.
Chevalier defended her attendance during the campaign, saying she had long advocated for Palestinians.
“I can only say I have been advocating for the human rights of Palestinians for my adult life. And as someone who has seen a pattern, whenever anything happens on the ground (in Israel), there’s always a really outsized reaction that costs thousands of people their lives,” Avila Chevalier told City & State earlier this month.
Chevalier has said her activism and relationships with Muslim friends influenced her decision to convert to Islam, citing the “grace and love and passion” they had for “social justice” during remarks at a New York mosque.
Her platform also includes a hardline position on immigration enforcement. Chevalier has called for abolishing ICE and has said she opposes deportations.
“I still believe that all deportations are wrong,” Chevalier said in a Vox interview earlier this month. When asked whether that included people who entered the country illegally and later committed criminal offenses in the United States, she maintained the position.
Chevalier also faced scrutiny over deleted social media posts supporting the abolition of police, prisons and borders, along with the seizure of private property and nationalization of industries.
“A world without borders—just like a world without prisons or police—is possible, necessary, and the only moral way forward,” Chevalier posted on Twitter in September 2021.
That same month, she also wrote, “Yes, literally, abolish the border” and “all deportation is wrong.”
In another post, she wrote, “Seize the means of production.”
In a separate post about policing, she wrote, “No. It means ending policing full stop. Period. No more police at all ever.”
Chevalier later sought to distance herself from the posts.
“I have grown considerably in the years since these tweets, and I am focused on our community and our community’s future,” Chevalier told CNN when asked about them.
In New York’s 7th Congressional District, Mamdani endorsed Claire Valdez, a state Assembly member, union organizer and DSA member. Valdez’s platform closely tracked Mamdani’s priorities, including a “Housing for All” plan involving universal rent control and public funding for housing.
Valdez has also called for abolishing ICE, legalizing “millions of immigrant Americans,” Medicare for all, “Queer and Trans Liberation” and an end to all weapons sales and military aid to Israel, according to her campaign website.
She has been arrested multiple times during protests outside the offices of Sens. Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand and at federal immigration facilities. Those protests focused on the war in Gaza and President Trump’s immigration policies.
In her victory speech Tuesday, Valdez summarized her agenda.
“Solidarity forever, abolish ICE, free Palestine, organize your union, and join DSA!” Valdez said.
Mamdani also backed former New York City Comptroller Brad Lander against incumbent Democratic Rep. Dan Goldman. Lander previously ran against Mamdani for mayor but later endorsed him.
Lander, who is Jewish, has adopted much of the language of the pro-Palestinian movement, including describing Israel’s actions in Gaza as genocide and pledging to oppose further U.S. military aid while the Israeli-Palestinian conflict continues. He did not go as far as some other candidates on the issue.
Lander was once affiliated with the DSA but ended his membership after the group promoted the Oct. 8, 2023, pro-Palestinian rally attended by Chevalier. That did not prevent him from working with Chevalier during the election.
During the campaign, Lander criticized Goldman for accepting donations from AIPAC, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, and for voting for military aid packages to Israel during its wars.
“We can’t continue to be complicit in genocide,” Lander said while explaining his opposition to those aid packages.
Lander’s campaign website calls for abolishing ICE, expanding the Supreme Court, building more public housing and establishing Medicare for all.
The results showed that Mamdani’s coalition has become a major force in New York Democratic primaries, with socialist candidates defeating establishment-aligned figures and advancing a platform that party leaders and critics say could reshape Democratic politics well beyond New York City.
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