{"id":277446,"date":"2026-06-25T03:16:23","date_gmt":"2026-06-25T03:16:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/277446\/"},"modified":"2026-06-25T03:16:23","modified_gmt":"2026-06-25T03:16:23","slug":"youre-next-the-black-and-latino-new-yorkers-feeling-burned-by-mamdanis-primary-sweep","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/277446\/","title":{"rendered":"‘You’re next’: The Black and Latino New Yorkers feeling burned by Mamdani’s primary sweep"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tuesday\u2019s democratic socialist victories led by Mayor Zohran Mamdani further energized a movement of young Democrats hungry for change. But they also unnerved some Black and Latino New Yorkers who say gentrification threatens to leave them politically and literally homeless.<\/p>\n

A viral video of a crowd erupting into boos and chants of \u201cYou\u2019re next\u201d when House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries’ face flashed on a television screen at a watch party in Brooklyn for Claire Valdez struck some as particularly offensive. Jeffries is the first Black person to lead a party in either chamber of Congress, and could become the next speaker of the House.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo be shouting \u2018you\u2019re next\u2019 \u2014 a majority white audience to a Black man \u2014 just harkens back to some dark times in history,\u201d said Queens Borough President Donovan Richards, who endorsed Valdez\u2019s opponent Antonio Reynoso. <\/p>\n

Shabazz Stuart, a Brooklyn resident who also supported Reynoso, the Brooklyn borough president, said he heard the chant of \u201cyou\u2019re next\u201d as not targeted only at Jeffries but as a way of putting the establishment \u201con notice.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt can come across as \u2018we’re all next, right?\u2019\u201d he said. \u201cAnd it can come across as we’re losing the city that we grew up in, and that’s what people fear.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt feels existential,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Asked by a Capitol Hill reporter on Wednesday whether he was worried about a primary challenge in 2028, Jeffries responded, \u201cWhen you ask me a serious question, I\u2019ll give you a serious answer.\u201d<\/p>\n

In interviews with the New York Times and CNN, New York Attorney General Letitia James spoke about \u201churt feelings\u201d in communities of color. She said she was disappointed by Mamdani\u2019s lack of understanding about race and class issues in the city.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome 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,\u201d James told CNN<\/a>.<\/p>\n

James could not be reached for comment.<\/p>\n

But the divisions on the left are not black and white. Mamdani\u2019s election last year was fueled by widespread support from New Yorkers, including many in immigrant communities outside gentrifying neighborhoods.<\/p>\n

Darializa Avila Chevalier, Mamdani\u2019s ally who defeated Rep. Adriano Espaillat, is Black and Dominican. She will likely join three other members of the Democratic Socialists of America in next year\u2019s Congress: Claire Valdez and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who are Latina, and Rashida Tlaib, a Palestinian American.<\/p>\n

Earlier this year, many in the DSA supported the campaign by City Councilmember Chi Oss\u00e9, who is Black, to primary Jeffries. But Mamdani urged the DSA not to back Oss\u00e9, effectively ending his bid.<\/p>\n

The demographics of the two wings of the Democratic Party were on full display Tuesday night. Espaillat\u2019s party inside La Casa Del Mofongo in Washington Heights was made up of older Latinos. Avila Chevalier\u2019s event featured a younger, diverse crowd of supporters gathered at the Puerto Rican restaurant Sofrito in Hamilton Heights, a gentrified enclave in Harlem.<\/p>\n

Christina Greer, a political science professor at Fordham University, said it\u2019s unfair to assume that Avila Chevalier won\u2019t represent the interest of Black residents.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe didn’t need Black Democrats necessarily, but that doesn’t mean that she won’t acknowledge and support policies that would disproportionately affect and assist Black voters,\u201d she said. \u201cI just think that there’s an initial anxiety of \u2018someone is in office who we did not help get there, and we know very little about.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Mamdani has often argued that his affordability agenda resonates broadly and pointed to the 1 million votes he earned in last year\u2019s election.<\/p>\n

Asked on Wednesday why Avila Chevalier narrowly lost majority Black and Latino neighborhoods that were lower-income, the mayor said he hadn\u2019t yet \u201cdug into the granular details\u201d of the election. He insisted that she and the other candidates he endorsed won with \u201cenough voters to create a mandate.\u201d<\/p>\n

But many questioned why the mayor endorsed two relative newcomers, Avila Chevalier and Valdez, who had limited records in communities of color.<\/p>\n

“When I look around, the partner that has always been there is the congressman,” Councilmember Carmen de la Rosa said at Espaillat\u2019s watch party. “No offense to Darializa, but I have never seen her in any of those fights.”<\/p>\n

De la Rosa warned that the mayor\u2019s endorsements in congressional races that have pitted him against key allies could come back to haunt him.<\/p>\n

“When you come to communities like ours to plead our case, you’ll have to explain, right?”<\/p>\n

Henry Garrido, the head of DC37, the city’s largest municipal union, said the mayor\u2019s decision to endorse Avila Chevalier had been especially \u201cglaring\u201d because Espaillat was a five-term incumbent.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis unfortunate fight has become more about ideology rather than about affordability,\u201d Garrido said.<\/p>\n

CORRECTION: This story has been corrected to note the Queens borough president endorsed Reynoso. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tuesday\u2019s democratic socialist victories led by Mayor Zohran Mamdani further energized a movement of young Democrats hungry for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":277447,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[98,100,99,9,24,63],"class_list":["post-277446","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn-headlines","tag-brooklyn-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277446","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=277446"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277446\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/277447"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=277446"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=277446"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=277446"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}