Mamdani's candidates sweep New York primaries
Young and until recently unknown profiles oust the establishment candidates of the Democratic Party and cause an upset in the formation
WashingtonNot one, not two, but three. The three allies of New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani, have swept the Democratic Party primaries held this Tuesday, which decided who will run in November to represent the citizens of New York in the Washington Capitol. Their victory has shaken the party establishment, which had supported other candidates and will now have to evaluate how to face the formidable growth of the Democratic Socialists (DSA).
With this show of strength from the left wing of the Democrats, two Democratic congressmen who did not expect to be ousted from their seats by young unknowns, and in their opinion, too radical to win, are out of the game. One is Latino Adriano Espillat, who has been a member of Congress for nine years representing parts of Manhattan and the Bronx, and who is also the influential president of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. Espillat was defeated by a doctoral student who ran in the primaries as a complete unknown, Darializa Avila Chevalier, whom he tried to discredit using old tweets.
Congressman Daniel Goldman, an heir to Levi Strauss, Jewish, with ties to the pro-Israel lobby, and who has held the seat since 2023, has also been defeated by one of Mamdani's allies. In this case, the victory went to Brad Lander, an urban planning specialist from Missouri, also raised in Judaism, who tried to run for New York mayor last year and who has positioned himself against the Israeli "genocide" in Gaza, in his own words, which has attracted a lot of attention.
All of Mamdani's candidates have focused a good part of their campaigns on the idea that the United States must stop supporting Israel, an issue that has been untouchable in all kinds of elections in the country until now. At these candidates' rallies, people have chanted "Free Palestine." In this regard, candidate Avila Chevalier has criticized Congressman Espillat for accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations from pro-Israeli lobbies. "Today we have made it clear. The policies of the past are over," she said at a rally. According to polls, Democratic support for Israel has plummeted since October 2023, when this latest phase of the war in Gaza began.
The third DSA candidate to win is Claire Valdez, a 36-year-old member of the state assembly, but also very unknown, who will run for Congress in a part of Brooklyn and Queens. She was competing for victory against the Brooklyn district leader, who had the support not only of a good part of the district's establishment and its unions, but also of the district's congresswoman, who is now retiring.
"A new episode" in the history of the Democratic Party
"A year ago this political movement did not end, Mamdani said during election night. "It was only the beginning". The mayor of New York has described what happened as the opening of "a new episode" in the history of the Democratic Party. The current Democratic leader of the House of Representatives, Hakeem Jeffries, did not support Mamdani last year when he ran in the primaries for mayor, and this time he has shown himself to be annoyed that the mayor supported a novice candidate and broke with the Latino congressman Espillat.
If the Democrats regain the House of Representatives in the November elections, Jeffries, currently best positioned to become "speaker" of the House and a supporter of Israel, could find himself in a complicated situation. Currently, the House is made up of 218 Republicans and 212 Democrats, and there are four vacancies. According to the latest polls, the Democrats have a certain advantage, but regaining the House or not will depend on the extent to which the efforts of one side and the other to redraw the electoral districts in their favor prosper.
All in all, the victory of Mamdani's allies has more political significance on an internal scale than a change in trend. His allies have won in districts in New York where he himself obtained very good results in last year's elections. Furthermore, only those who register as party members vote in the Democratic primaries. That is to say, these results should not be interpreted as a change in trend at a national or state level, but they do give an idea of how the left, at least in New York, is approaching positions like Mamdani's and moving away from other more centrist candidates.