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\n New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani speaks during a primary-night watch party for NYC Congressional candidate Claire Valdez at 99 Scott Studio in the East Williamsburg neighbourhood of the Brooklyn borough in New York City.
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Michael M Santiago\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani scored three major primary wins.Mamdani is trying to expand the democratic socialist base in the US.The Democrats are running women with strong military backgrounds in places like Florida and Colorado.<\/p>\n
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani scored three major primary wins in his attempt to remake the Democratic Party into a democratic socialist force on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
Mamdani-endorsed former city Comptroller Brad Lander defeated two-term Representative Dan Goldman, while Assemblymember Claire Valdez beat Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso for an open congressional seat and \u200cactivist Darializa Avila Chevalier narrowly defeated five-term Representative Adriano Espaillat, chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.<\/p>\n
Taken together, those constitute big wins for the 34-year-old mayor, who shocked the political world with his 2025 election and is now consolidating his political power. <\/p>\n
The results in New York come on the heels of democratic socialist mayoral candidates winning the primary in Washington, DC, and making the runoff in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n
Mamdani\u2019s efforts to expand the democratic socialist base in the US follow a decade-long effort that was spurred on by Senator Bernie Sanders\u2019 surprisingly popular 2016 presidential campaign and his efforts to nurture a new generation of democratic socialist leaders.<\/p>\n
READ | Trump to meet \u2018communist\u2019 New York mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani at White House<\/a><\/p>\n But some analysts and former officials say it is also in response to progressive Democratic voters\u2019 anger at US President Donald Trump\u2019s agenda and governing style, and at the Biden administration\u2019s backing of Israel\u2019s war \u2060in Gaza following a Hamas-led attack.<\/p>\n Congressional candidate Claire Valdez won her race against Brooklyn borough President Antonio Reynoso in the 7th District to succeed retiring Representative Nydia Velazquez (D-NY).<\/p>\n Michael M Santiago\/Getty Images<\/p>\n Israel\u2019s response resulted in more than 73 000 Palestinian deaths.<\/p>\n \u201cEnergy on the far right ignites energy on the far left. Politics is reactive,\u201d said Steve Israel, a former US House member from New York who, late in his congressional career, ran an operation to elect more Democrats.<\/p>\n For months after Mamdani won his 2025 primary election, House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries was dogged by reporters asking whether he would endorse his fellow New Yorker. <\/p>\n Jeffries did so, but kept everyone guessing until just 11 days before the general election.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer of New York remained silent on Mamdani throughout the campaign.<\/p>\n Brad Lander, former New York City comptroller and US Democratic House candidate for New York, is seen during a primary election night watch party in New York, US.<\/p>\n Adam Gray\/Bloomberg via Getty Images<\/p>\n The rub is that Jeffries is positioned to ascend to US House speaker and thus second in line for the presidency if Democrats win November\u2019s midterm elections.<\/p>\n The path to victory does not run through \u201cblue\u201d, solidly Democratic congressional districts. <\/p>\n Instead, it\u2019s the \u201cpurple\u201d swing districts where Democrats need to beat Republicans.<\/p>\n Nonetheless, the defeat of five-term Democratic Representative Adriano Espaillat by Mamdani-backed democratic socialist Darializa Avila Chevalier carries national implications that could complicate Jeffries\u2019 task.<\/p>\n \u201cIf a DSA member could knock off the chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, that could matter,\u201d said Matt Bennett, co-founder of Third Way, a centrist Democratic consultancy.<\/p>\n Even more relevant could be stances Avila Chevalier has \u200ctouted in past \u2060social media postings, such as calling for abolishing police and border controls and raising questions about Israel\u2019s right to exist.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is precisely the kind of person that they (Republicans) love to use to weaponise against other Democrats\u201d running for office in competitive races, Bennett said.<\/p>\n Representative Dan Goldman, a Democrat from New York, arrives to speak during a primary election night watch party in New York, US.<\/p>\n Michael Nagle\/Bloomberg via Getty Images<\/p>\n Former Representative Israel agreed and said in an interview: \u201cI do worry that the strength of democratic socialists in places like New York and California will be misread as the centre of gravity for Democrats across the country\u201d this November or in the 2028 presidential election.<\/p>\n Avila Chevalier has since deleted her social media posts and apologised for some of the language she used.<\/p>\n But in an interview with a consortium of editors last week, Avila Chevalier said: \u201cI think that we \u2060just should not have a system that allows (migrant) deportation to happen at all,\u201d saying it \u201cis rooted in deeply racist ideology\u201d.<\/p>\n In response to her views, Espaillat said Avila Chevalier \u201ccan\u2019t just sweep things under the rug\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cDarializa has taken very extreme positions as reflected in her comments on social media not too long ago,\u201d he said in a 16 June posting on X. <\/p>\n \u201cShe is unfit for office and voters are smart enough to see that.\u201d<\/p>\n NEWS: In a stunning upset, Mamdani-backed Darializa Avila Chevalier will defeat five-term incumbent Adriano Espaillat in the NY-13 congressional primary.<\/p>\n With victories by Brad Lander, Claire Valdez, and now Avila Chevalier, Zohran Mamdani went 3-for-3 with his endorsements in\u2026 pic.twitter.com\/17jGdWTrQw<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 MeidasTouch (@MeidasTouch) June 24, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n Alex Jacquez, a progressive strategist who was \u2060a senior adviser to Sanders\u2019 2020 presidential campaign, said in an interview that focus groups and opinion polls deliver the message that Democratic voters\u2019 level of dissatisfaction with their leaders runs deep.<\/p>\n \u201cThat is really where you are seeing the fault lines. Are you willing to take on the wealthy and take on corporations and take on the status quo to deliver results? Or are you not,\u201d he said of the populist message democratic \u2060socialists are trying to win on this fall and through the 2028 elections and beyond.<\/p>\n Meantime, outside of deep-blue districts of New York, California and other Democratic strongholds, the party is running women with strong military backgrounds in places like Florida and Colorado, for example.<\/p>\n \u201cMost of the competitive districts for Democrats are red and pink districts that you can only win as a Democrat in … where more moderate stances resonate in races against incumbent Republicans,\u201d Israel said.<\/p>\n Backed by Bernie Sanders and Zohran Mamdani, Brad Lander just pulled off a major Democratic primary upset.<\/p>\n The Former New York City Comptroller defeated Rep. Dan Goldman, the former federal prosecutor who served as lead counsel during the first impeachment inquiry into President\u2026 pic.twitter.com\/5KBb83G277<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Fox News (@FoxNews) June 24, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n A presidential election is not won in blue states, he added. <\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s won in seven moderate battleground states.\u201d<\/p>\n ![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/claire_valdez.jpeg\"\/)
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