New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s growing political machine passed its first major electoral test on Tuesday, as all three of his endorsed congressional candidates won closely watched Democratic primaries.
Former city comptroller Brad Lander defeated incumbent Representative Dan Goldman, while state assembly member and former union organiser Claire Valdez defeated Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso in the race to replace retiring Representative Nydia Velazquez.
In the night’s most dramatic upset, public defence investigator and first-time candidate Darializa Avila Chevalier defeated five-term Representative Adriano Espaillat, the chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.
The trio’s victories were quickly hailed by supporters as proof that Mamdani’s campaign was not a one-off, but the beginning of a broader shift in New York’s Democratic Party.
For Mamdani’s allies, the results represented a rebuke to a Democratic establishment that has often treated progressive voters as a constituency to be managed rather than a force to be heard.
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Mamdani had made an unusually direct intervention in the races, campaigning alongside the candidates and promoting what he called a shared “affordability agenda” focused on the high cost of living in New York City.
The endorsements also came with a message Mamdani has increasingly made central to his political identity: that New Yorkers cannot separate the pressure of everyday life from the country’s spending priorities abroad.
Palestine as political fault line
Israel’s genocide in Gaza was not the only issue in the primaries, but it was one of the clearest dividing lines.
Lander’s contest with Goldman was shaped in part by their sharply differing positions on Israel and Palestine. Lander, a Jewish progressive, has been an outspoken critic of Israel’s genocide on Gaza, while Goldman, who was endorsed by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (Aipac), has been a prominent supporter of Israel. The primary became one of the clearest tests of how far criticism of Israel could reshape Democratic politics in grassroots New York.
For many social media users, the fact that Mayor Mamdani’s victory party echoed with the chant “Free Palestine” was seminal.
Don’t underestimate the significance of a packed room full of supporters chanting “Free Palestine!” at a victory party for a candidate who won a major party congressional primary while calling for Palestinian liberation and calling Israel out for genocide and apartheid. https://t.co/ocdmHVMN91
— Prof Zenkus (@anthonyzenkus) June 24, 2026
Valdez and Avila Chevalier also entered the races with strong pro-Palestinian credentials, drawing support from activists who have spent more than two years mobilising against US backing for Israel’s war on Gaza.
Avila Chevalier had previously helped organise pro-Palestinian demonstrations at Columbia University, while her campaign brought together demands for universal healthcare, tenant protections, immigration justice and campaign-finance reform.
For many voters, Palestine became a test of whether Democratic candidates were prepared to challenge the party’s longstanding alignment with pro-Israel lobbying groups and Washington’s military relationship with Israel.
Palestine is not just a moral issue but it is increasingly a measuring stick for how out of touch with your voters you are. Hard to think of any issue, among any party, at any time in history, where there was a bigger gap between the party establishment and their voters.
That…
— Yousef Munayyer (@YousefMunayyer) June 24, 2026
The result was especially striking in the contest between Avila Chevalier and Espaillat, a powerful incumbent who had led the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.
Her victory over a five-term congressman was seized upon as evidence that incumbency, fundraising networks and establishment endorsements are no longer guaranteed protection in New York City’s Democratic primaries.
The congressional contests were not the only measure of the shift. In Queens, Palestinian-American democratic socialist Aber Kawas won the Democratic primary for a New York state senate seat, defeating assembly member Steven Raga.
Backed by Mamdani and the New York City chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America, Kawas ran on a platform that paired housing, healthcare and workers’ rights with calls to end what she described as New York’s support for Israel’s genocide in Gaza. Her win gave the night an additional symbolic weight: a Palestinian-American candidate who had made Gaza central to her politics had defeated an establishment-backed rival in one of the city’s most closely watched state legislative races.
Affordability politics meets an anti-Trump coalition
The sweep was also driven by a familiar New York anxiety: affrordability.
Mamdani’s rise has been tied to a simple political argument that resonates across boroughs: New Yorkers are being priced out of their homes, squeezed by rent, childcare and healthcare costs, and told to accept an economic system that increasingly serves landlords, corporations and the wealthy.
That argument was woven into all three campaigns.
The candidates presented themselves as part of a new generation of Democrats who see housing, healthcare and labour rights not as secondary policy concerns, but as the core of an anti-establishment politics.
— hasanabi (@hasanthehun) June 24, 2026
Their victories came as President Donald Trump’s administration has intensified fears among many Democratic voters over immigration enforcement, attacks on public services and the expansion of executive power.
Reuters reported that the victories reflected long-building progressive frustration with Trump’s policies, as well as anger over the previous Democratic administration’s support for Israel’s war on Gaza. Reuters described the races as a test of whether Mamdani could use his political capital to remake the Democratic Party in a more Democratic-socialist image.
Instead, they argue that Democrats need candidates prepared to confront Trumpism with a more ambitious agenda – one that addresses both the material pressures people face and the anger many feel over US policy on Gaza.
Celebration online, panic among party critics
Online reaction was swift and polarised.
Progressive activists, Palestinian rights organisers and Democratic Socialists of America members celebrated the results as a breakthrough for a movement that has spent years building local power through tenant organising, mutual-aid networks and anti-war activism.
Some described the victories as New York’s answer to the 2018 upset that sent Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to Congress.
Others pointed to the defeats of Goldman and Espaillat as evidence that the city’s Democratic establishment is increasingly vulnerable to candidates willing to combine affordability politics with open criticism of Israel and US foreign policy.
The Democratic Tea Party is here. Tonight is shaping up to be one of the more consequential nights in recent Democratic politics, with Mamdani- and DSA-endorsed candidates reforming the party.
— Zachary Donnini (@ZacharyDonnini) June 24, 2026
The wider primary results also reinforced the growing clout of the city’s Democratic socialist movement. New York Magazine reported that seven of eight candidates backed by the New York City chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America won their legislative contests.
But the wins also triggered alarm among centrist Democrats and conservative commentators, who argued that the party risks becoming too closely identified with Democratic socialism and unapologetic criticism of Israel.
Trump was among those seeking to frame the outcomes as evidence that Democrats are moving away from the political centre, while party leaders have privately worried that the progressive left’s rise could complicate Democratic campaigns in more conservative and closely divided districts. Those tensions have increasingly placed Mamdani on a collision course with establishment figures, including House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries, who backed Goldman.
The debate is likely to intensify ahead of November’s midterms, particularly as Democrats try to balance energising progressive voters with competing in swing districts.
Still, in New York City, the immediate meaning of Tuesday’s results was hard to miss.
Mamdani’s coalition has shown it can win not only a mayoral race, but also congressional primaries against entrenched Democrats and establishment-backed candidates.
For a party struggling to answer the anger over affordability, Trump and Gaza, the message from New York was unmistakable: the insurgent left is no longer relegated to the margins.
