{"id":280775,"date":"2026-06-28T23:57:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-28T23:57:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/280775\/"},"modified":"2026-06-28T23:57:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-28T23:57:11","slug":"ex-ny-gov-warns-dems-could-face-extinction-if-they-cant-thwart-socialist-takeover","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/280775\/","title":{"rendered":"Ex-NY gov warns Dems could face extinction if they can’t thwart socialist takeover"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former Gov. David Paterson<\/a> warned New York Democrats could face extinction if they don\u2019t thwart a socialist takeover that\u2019s leaving moderates out to dry.<\/p>\n

The warning from Paterson, who also served as the state\u2019s party chairman, comes days after a slate backed by Mayor Zohran Mamdani and the Democratic Socialists of America swept key congressional Democratic primary contests and nearly all state legislative seats.<\/p>\n

Former NY Governor David Paterson issued a warning to Democrats. Matthew McDermott<\/p>\n

Members of the Democratic Socialists of America gather outside of a Trump owned building on May Day on May 01, 2019. Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s definitely a message to the Democratic Party. We\u2019d better get that message and turn it around before we become extinct,\u201d Paterson said Sunday <\/a>on 77 WABC radio\u2019s \u201cCats Roundtable\u201d program.<\/p>\n

He noted that 32,790 Democrats <\/a>voted to elect controversial socialist Darializa Avila Chevalier, who ousted five-term incumbent Rep. Adriano Espaillat in the 13th House District covering Harlem, Washington Heights\/Inwood and parts of the Bronx.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s a sliver of the voting population in the district.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are 700,000 people who live in that district, which means that she got 5% of the people that live there to vote for her,\u201d Paterson said. \u201cI would suggest that within two years a real organized campaign gets put together and she can take her 5% and go back to wherever she was before she ran the first time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Paterson used<\/a> to represent Harlem as a state senator in a district that overlaps with the congressional district, before he became lieutenant governor and later governor.<\/p>\n

He served as chairman of the state Democratic Party in 2014-2015 under former Gov. Andrew Cuomo.<\/a><\/p>\n

Since becoming a radio analyst, Paterson has not been shy in criticizing his party\u2019s left-leaning policies.<\/p>\n

Mayor Zohran Mamdani is speaking during a press conference announcing a new Board of Directors for the Mayor\u2019s Fund to Advance New York City. Luiz C. Ribeiro for NY Post<\/p>\n

State Democratic Party chairman Jay Jacobs says critics are \u201coverreacting\u201d to the primary results. CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images<\/p>\n

He slammed Democrats in Albany for going too far when approving the controversial soft-on-crime cashless bail law <\/a>and ripped into former President Joe Biden for letting the migrant crisis spiral <\/a>out of control by failing to police the border.<\/p>\n

Current state Democratic Party chairman Jay Jacobs said Paterson and other critics are overreacting to last week\u2019s Democratic primary results.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody is overreacting,\u201d Jacobs said, who called Paterson \u201ca friend.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said the DSA won races in very progressive districts in New York City and \u201cthat doesn\u2019t speak for the entire Democratic Party.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jacobs noted that state Democratic Comptroller Tom DiNapoli easily won his Democratic primary against two progressive rivals by a 2-to-1 margin.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy do we ignore that?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n

He also noted Rep. Tom Suozzi staved off a primary challenge in New York\u2019s 3rd Congressional District, which includes part of Queens and Long Island. Suozzi has distanced himself from socialist policies and calls himself a moderate.<\/p>\n

\u201cCongressman Tom Suozzi hasn\u2019t suddenly become a socialist,\u201d Jacobs said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former Gov. David Paterson warned New York Democrats could face extinction if they don\u2019t thwart a socialist takeover…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":280776,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[875,13279,651,1091,57,9,24,55,54,56,87,1211,58,82],"class_list":["post-280775","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-adriano-espaillat","tag-david-paterson","tag-democratic-party","tag-democratic-socialists-of-america","tag-metro","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-city-headlines","tag-new-york-city-news","tag-ny","tag-politics","tag-socialism","tag-us-news","tag-zohran-mamdani"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280775","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=280775"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280775\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/280776"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=280775"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=280775"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=280775"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}