{"id":276876,"date":"2026-06-24T17:51:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-24T17:51:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/276876\/"},"modified":"2026-06-24T17:51:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-24T17:51:11","slug":"hakeem-jefferies-says-mamdani-has-work-to-do-to-make-up-with-congressional-dems-after-socialist-radicals-unseat-incumbents","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/276876\/","title":{"rendered":"Hakeem Jefferies says Mamdani has ‘work to do’ to make up with Congressional Dems after socialist radicals unseat incumbents"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON \u2014 House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) said Wednesday that New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani has \u201cgot work to do\u201d to mend bridges with congressional Democrats after two incumbents were swept out of office by Hizzoner\u2019s preferred candidates<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery race is going to be judged on its own merits, and I\u2019m sure that there\u2019ll be an assessment of what happened,\u201d Jeffries told The Post before thanking Reps. Adriano Espaillat (D-NY) and Dan Goldman (D-NY) for their years of service.<\/p>\n

Jeffries earlier told Punchbowl News that he and the\u00a0Democratic socialist\u00a0mayor had agreed to \u201cstrongly disagree\u201d over their\u00a0picks in the contested primaries<\/a>, which functioned as de facto\u00a0general\u00a0elections in the city\u2019s deep-blue\u00a0House\u00a0districts.<\/p>\n

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and NYC congressional candidate Claire Valdez embrace during a primary night watch party Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s got work to do in terms of the conversations that he\u2019s going to have with members of Congress moving forward,\u201d he told the outlet\u00a0of Mamdani.<\/p>\n

\u201cMayor Mamdani has\u00a0been off to\u00a0a great start as mayor.\u00a0We\u00a0have a great working relationship, and that will continue moving forward,\u201d he added.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Far-left former\u00a0Mamdani\u00a0organizer Darializa Avila Chevalier defeated the five-term incumbent Espaillat in the 13th District, based in Upper Manhattan and the Bronx; while ex-city Comptroller Brad Lander toppled\u00a0two-term\u00a0Goldman in the 10th District, covering Lower Manhattan and tony brownstone Brooklyn.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0mayor had backed Chevalier<\/a>\u00a0and Lander, while Jeffries had endorsed the incumbents Espaillat and Goldman.<\/p>\n

A Jeffries insider shrugged off the high-profile defeats, saying: \u201cThis isn\u2019t a case of Jeffries-backed candidates losing. Jeffries is loyal to his members. [Rep. Grace] Meng won, [Rep. Ritchie] Torres won, Goldman lost. Espaillat lost. Not great but not dramatic and will not change the outcome in November when Democrats take the House.\u201d<\/p>\n

State Assemblywoman Claire Valdez,\u00a0another\u00a0Mamdani\u00a0ally, won a primary<\/a>\u00a0to fill the vacancy left by retiring Brooklyn and Queens Democratic Rep. Nydia Vel\u00e1zquez, who had endorsed Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Jeffries opted not to endorse in the race for the open seat.<\/p>\n

Democratic congressional candidate Brad Lander (right) joined by New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani. AP Photo\/Ryan Murphy<\/p>\n

The minority leader himself only narrowly avoided a primary challenge from his left flank after\u00a0New York City Councilman Chi Osse failed to secure the backing of the Democratic Socialists of America following Mamdani\u2019s personal intervention.<\/p>\n

The mayor had argued at the time that attempting to unseat the most powerful House Democrat would represent a distraction from DSA\u2019s \u201caffordability agenda.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you ask me a serious question, I\u2019ll give you a serious answer,\u201d Jeffries bristled when asked if he was concerned about the prospect of meeting a similar fate to Espaillat and Goldman in 2028.<\/p>\n

One Democratic operative argued, however, that Jeffries, 55, is less vulnerable than 75-year-old Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) \u2014 also up for re-election in 2028 \u2014 for the simple reason that Jeffries is \u201cjust not as old.\u201d<\/p>\n

Democratic congressional candidate Darializa Avila Chevalier speaks to her supporters. AP Photo\/Seth Wenig<\/p>\n

Outside the Big Apple, more moderate Democrats won their primaries with relative ease. In the Hudson Valley\u2019s 17th District, for example, US Army combat veteran Cait Conley secured the right to take on incumbent GOP Rep. Mike Lawler.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe suburbs kept the party normal. The city did not,\u201d the operative told The Post. \u201cDSA is ascendant in hyper-blue cities. They\u2019ve yet to win a competitive election that\u00a0may\u00a0vote for a Republican.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another New York Democratic insider who has worked on several political campaigns warned: \u201cThe Democratic Party in New York is racing faster than ever\u00a0to\u00a0a red light as\u00a0their\u00a0candidates leap further and further away from what the general electorate wants and\u00a0needs.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAt that red light is an era that looks a lot like the\u00a0\u201990s \u2014\u00a0a Republican mayor in NYC and a Republican governor,\u201d this person added.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe that\u2019s exactly what we need to get our s\u2013t together?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON \u2014 House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) said Wednesday that New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani has…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":276877,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[1091,4008,9,24,55,54,56,87,58],"class_list":["post-276876","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-democratic-socialists-of-america","tag-hakeem-jeffries","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-city-headlines","tag-new-york-city-news","tag-ny","tag-politics","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276876","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=276876"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276876\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/276877"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=276876"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=276876"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=276876"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}