{"id":280619,"date":"2026-06-28T19:49:22","date_gmt":"2026-06-28T19:49:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/280619\/"},"modified":"2026-06-28T19:49:22","modified_gmt":"2026-06-28T19:49:22","slug":"democratic-party-faces-growing-rift-as-socialists-gain-ground-nationwide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/280619\/","title":{"rendered":"Democratic Party faces growing rift as Socialists gain ground nationwide"},"content":{"rendered":"

Moderate Democrats are growing more and more alarmed after the centrists in the party lost to more leftist candidates who won several primaries in New York City<\/a> last week, leading some analysts and party members to brace for an internal civil war.<\/p>\n

Three leftist candidates, Darializa Avila Chevalier, state Rep. Claire Valdez, and former NYC comptroller Brad Lander, won seats in the city\u2019s 13th, 10th, and 7th districts, respectively. All three were endorsed by NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani<\/a>, and two of the three support anti-Israel measures.<\/p>\n

All three candidates are projected to win their races in November.<\/p>\n

According to an Axios report from Sunday, their victories come after another six leftists won seats in primaries across the country. Another six are in active races trying to unseat moderate democratic candidates.<\/p>\n

If they all won their races, Congress could have the largest leftist bloc in the 21st century.<\/p>\n

\"USUS Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) speaks during a news conference ahead of voting on the Senate immigration funding bill on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, US., May 21, 2026. (credit: REUTERS\/Eric Lee)<\/p>\n

“I think a democratic socialist can get elected anywhere across this country for any position,” Mamdani told ABC News on\u00a0 Sunday.<\/p>\n

“I think we are seeing a hunger that is not just felt by New Yorkers, but frankly by Americans from coast to coast, for a new kind of politics, one that puts working people at the heart of it.<\/p>\n

“I’m so excited that these incredible soon-to-be congress members will be helping to lead the fight across the country on making sure that working people are right there where they should be, which is the heart of the conversation.”<\/p>\n

Democratic Party at odds with influx of new Democratic Socialist candidates\u00a0<\/p>\n

Some races in battleground states like Michigan will be a test of whether leftist candidates are the future of the party.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s happening in New York, it\u2019s happening in Michigan. I think we\u2019re seeing it happen across the country now, that folks are sick and tired of being sick and tired,\u201d Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed told Politico. \u201cSo, certainly we\u2019re going to harness that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Progressive Rep. Delia Ramirez (Illinois) told Axios that the increasing number of progressives shows Democratic voters\u2019 true feelings.<\/p>\n

“What you’re seeing in these elections across the country is voters who are saying, ‘I am sick and tired of your loyalty to the establishment,'” she said.<\/p>\n

She added that the Congressional Progressive Caucus has a \u201cresponsibility … to be the strongest voter bloc to take a stand, not for the establishment, but for working people who send us to fight like hell for them.”<\/p>\n

The Democratic establishment is concerned that races in key states like Michigan will affect the party\u2019s chances at beating out Republicans this fall.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese races might have some impact on 2026 if Republicans weaponize the craziest ideas of these candidates against mainstream Democrats running in blue districts,\u201d \u00a0Matt Bennett, a co-founder of the think tank Third Way, told Politico.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is vital that Democrats do not mistake the radicalism of a very small electorate in very blue places with the desire of the larger Democratic Party to move sharply to the left,\u201d Bennett added. \u201cThose things are not the same, and Democrats running for president must resist the urge to believe what they see on social media and the siren song of the DSA and the activist left.\u201d<\/p>\n

‘There’s going to be a war’: Moderate Congressional Democrats say new liberals will cause issues in votes<\/p>\n

Now, moderate Democrats<\/a> are reportedly warning that they are prepared for a civil war within the party to try and maintain an even front.<\/p>\n

“Clearly there has to be organization,” one centrist House Democrat told Axios on Sunday. \u201cYou can’t just wring your hands on this stuff.”<\/p>\n

A second moderate lawmaker told Axios that \u201cthere’s going to be a war,” and went so far as to call the rising number of leftist party members “bomb-throwers, not problem solvers.<\/p>\n

“If we have a tight enough majority, you’re going to see a group of moderates do exactly the same thing: ‘We won’t vote for X unless we get Y,\u2019\u201d the second moderate lawmaker added.<\/p>\n

A third moderate democrat said that the potential margins might \u201cforce bipartisanship\u201d to sign more discharge petitions.<\/p>\n

“Negotiating with these guys [on the left] never works out well because they’ll never be satisfied,\u201d the anonymous third lawmaker said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the end of the day, [House Minority Leader Jeffries] Hakeem’s got to realize what his real base is,” the person added. “The people who are going to be with him, not the people who are going to go after him.”<\/p>\n

House Leader Jeffries<\/a> congratulated the three NYC leftist candidates in a post on X\/Twitter on Saturday.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom public servants to union organizers to community activists, the path is different, but the work is the same,\u201d Jeffries wrote.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe must decisively address the affordability crisis and crush far-right extremism.\u201d<\/p>\n

Notably, Avila Chevalier and Valdez both refused to endorse Jeffries in his re-election campaign and as a potential House majority leader. Jeffries, in turn, had endorsed Chevalier and Lander\u2019s opposition in the primaries.<\/p>\n

However, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer appeared to downplay this on Wednesday in comments to the press.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re seeing centrist energy in Virginia, Iowa, and New Jersey, progressive energy in New York City,\u201d Schumer said. \u201cWe\u2019re going to harness it all to win in November. Because all Democrats are united in the mission of taking back the Senate and defeating Trump.\u201d<\/p>\n

Notably, Republican legislators wasted no time in mocking the Democrats for the rise of the new socialist candidates.<\/p>\n

“The Marxists have nominated some of the most radical candidates to ever run for office, and they’re running for Congress,” House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) said at a press conference at the GOP party headquarters.<\/p>\n

“The insurgent left is on the rise. This is not your father’s Democrat Party.\u201d<\/p>\n

US President Donald Trump wasted no time in calling the three NYC candidates, two of whom identify as democratic socialists, \u201c3 solid Communists<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAmerica the Beautiful will NEVER be a Communist Country!!!\u201d he added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Moderate Democrats are growing more and more alarmed after the centrists in the party lost to more leftist…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":280620,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[2132,107662,12622,9,24,55,54,56,2134,4510,82],"class_list":["post-280619","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-democrats","tag-left-wing","tag-liberal","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-city-headlines","tag-new-york-city-news","tag-ny","tag-republicans","tag-us-politics","tag-zohran-mamdani"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280619","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=280619"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280619\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/280620"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=280619"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=280619"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=280619"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}