{"id":277195,"date":"2026-06-24T22:15:49","date_gmt":"2026-06-24T22:15:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/277195\/"},"modified":"2026-06-24T22:15:49","modified_gmt":"2026-06-24T22:15:49","slug":"wins-by-mamdani-backed-candidates-deal-blow-to-pro-israel-camp-in-us-us-midterm-elections-2026-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/277195\/","title":{"rendered":"Wins by Mamdani-backed candidates deal blow to pro-Israel camp in US | US Midterm Elections 2026 News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Over the past two years, pro-Palestine protesters at Columbia University have faced a security crackdown, academic sanctions, attacks by politicians from both major parties and a deportation campaign<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Now, large parts of the school\u2019s New York City campus will likely be represented in the United States Congress by an activist who helped organise the protests against Israel\u2019s genocidal war on Gaza.<\/p>\n

Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of list<\/p>\n

When Darializa Avila Chevalier, draped in a keffiyeh, first announced her candidacy in November of last year, few outside her immediate circle knew her name.<\/p>\n

But her message was clear: she presented herself as an organiser working to unite families torn apart by the immigration system and against \u201cwhat we all know is a genocide in Palestine\u201d.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, Avila Chevalier \u2013 who was backed by New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani<\/a> \u2013 won the race to unseat veteran Congressman Adriano Espaillat, securing the Democratic nomination in one of the biggest upsets of the election cycle.<\/p>\n

The victory of Avila Chevalier and other candidates<\/a> endorsed by the democratic socialist mayor shows the waning popularity of pro-Israel politics in Democratic circles, advocates say.<\/p>\n

\u201cLast night was a political earthquake in New York City, and the Democratic establishment has been put on notice,\u201d said Beth Miller, the political director at the advocacy group Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) Action.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we\u2019ve shown is that unapologetic support for Palestinian freedom is not just the moral position, it is the path to victory for progressive candidates.\u201d<\/p>\n

Three primary victories<\/p>\n

Two other Mamdani-backed candidates also prevailed in US congressional races on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Brad Lander, a former city comptroller who opposes military aid to Israel, defeated the staunchly pro-Israel incumbent, Dan Goldman. Claire Valdez, a democratic socialist state legislator, won the nomination for an open seat.<\/p>\n

Both winning nominees are running in safe Democratic seats and are expected to comfortably win in the general elections in November.<\/p>\n

On the local level, voters also elected several vocal critics of Israel, including Aber Kawas, who is well on her way to becoming New York\u2019s first Palestinian state senator.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we\u2019re seeing is a real transformation in what is acceptable and what is desirable in American politics,\u201d said Heba Gowayed, a sociology professor at the City University of New York (CUNY).<\/p>\n

Gowayed told Al Jazeera that Tuesday\u2019s results \u2013 especially Avila Chevalier\u2019s victory against a well-connected incumbent \u2013 represent a major defeat to the \u201ccynical establishment politics that perceives criticism of Israel as a nonstarter\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cAmericans have gone to the polls and said we don\u2019t want this s*** any more,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The professor emphasised that \u2013 similarly to Mamdani<\/a> \u2013 the progressive candidates who won in New York did so because of \u2013 not despite \u2013 their advocacy for Palestinian rights.<\/p>\n

Iman Abid, the political director of the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights Action (USCPR Action), also hailed the victory of Avila Chevalier and Valdez.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn New York tonight, the anti-Palestinian political establishment is breaking down before our eyes,\u201d Abid said in a statement. \u201cBold progressives who are fighting for justice \u2013 for workers\u2019 rights, affordable rent, immigrant rights, and a free Palestine \u2013 have won their primaries.\u201d<\/p>\n

Beyond New York<\/p>\n

Public opinion polls<\/a> suggest that support for Israel has been nosediving in the US, particularly among Democrats.<\/p>\n

So advocates are confident that the results in New York can translate into further victories for the Palestinian rights movement across the US.<\/p>\n

They point to the success of pro-Palestine candidates in this election cycle, including Chris Rabb<\/a> in Pennsylvania and Adam Hamawy<\/a> in New Jersey.<\/p>\n

Rabb paid tribute to the win of Avila Chevalier and Valdez on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cDarializa knows we need to invest in babies not bombs, immigrants over ICE & renters not real estate developers,\u201d he wrote on X.<\/p>\n

\u201cTogether in Congress, we\u2019re gonna take on the DC establishment & deliver for working families across the country!\u201d<\/p>\n

The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) and other pro-Israel groups have been spending tens of millions of dollars to defeat progressive candidates.<\/p>\n

But Miller, of JVP Action, said standing up to AIPAC, embracing calls for Palestinian freedom and calling for a \u201cfull end to US complicity and Israeli apartheid and genocide\u201d is proving to be a winning message in Democratic primaries.<\/p>\n

When the pro-Palestine winning candidates join the next Congress early in 2027, they will widen the emerging crack<\/a> in the bipartisan consensus over unconditional support for Israel on Capitol Hill.<\/p>\n

However, despite the election of Congress members critical of Israel and the shift in public opinion over the past decade, US policy has remained mostly aligned<\/a> with the Israeli government across Democratic and Republican administrations.<\/p>\n

Gowayed said it will take time to move policy, but she stressed that the elections in New York demonstrated that change is possible.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe reason why I feel so good is because we\u2019re really against a machinery that is entrenched, that is extremely well funded, and that is long-lasting,\u201d she told Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n

Miller echoed that assessment. She said the winning candidates this cycle not only increase the number of legislators who support Palestinian rights, but also send a message to other politicians that \u201cthis is a winning message\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, my hope is that in the next Congress we can move significantly closer to actually blocking bombs<\/a> and weapons to Israel,\u201d she said. \u201cWe should really raise the ceiling of what we believe is possible.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Over the past two years, pro-Palestine protesters at Columbia University have faced a security crackdown, academic sanctions, attacks…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":277196,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[153,9,11,10,12,87,901,2272,105560],"class_list":["post-277195","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-donald-trump","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-news","tag-politics","tag-united-states","tag-us-canada","tag-us-midterm-elections-2026"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277195","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=277195"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277195\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/277196"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=277195"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=277195"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=277195"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}