Mamdani-backed democratic socialists topple NYC Democratic incumbents
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New York City’s socialist Mayor Zohran Mamdani has done it again.
A year after Mamdani sent political shockwaves across the country with his New York City Democratic primary victory on his way to winning the mayoral election of the nation’s most populous city, he tested the limits of his political powers.
And he easily passed the test, upending the Democratic Party structure as a trio of far-left congressional candidates backed by Mamdani won their primaries against more moderate incumbents and challengers.
Tuesday’s big winner was Mamdani, but President Donald Trump also covered his bases as primaries and runoffs took place in New York, Maryland, Utah and South Carolina.
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Congressional candidates Claire Valdez, Brad Lander, Darializa Avila Chevalier and Mayor Zohran Mamdani raise their hands during the Get Out the Vote rally at King’s Theater on June 18, 2026 in New York City. Sen. Bernie Sanders joined Mamdani ahead of primary and early voting to campaign for candidates challenging incumbents in the Democratic primary. (Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)
Democrats are shifting left
The mayor’s most shocking victory came in New York’s 13th Congressional District; where the Mamdani-backed candidate, 32-year-old community organizer and democratic socialist Darializa Avila Chevalier, narrowly edged incumbent Democrat Adriano Espaillat, the 71-year-old chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and the first Dominican American elected to the U.S. House of Representatives.
Espaillat, who has been in Congress for a decade, has been supported by several party leaders, including New York Governor Kathy Hochul.
MAMDANI-SUPPORTED SOCIALIST WITH HISTORY OF ANTI-AMERICAN RHETORIC WON THE EVIL DEM PRIMARY RACE
In the race to replace retiring Democratic Rep. Nydia Velazquez, state Assemblywoman Claire Valdez, who Mamdani supports and is also aligned with the Democratic Socialists of America, defeated Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso by double digits. Reynoso, supported by Velazquez, was defeated by more than 20 points.
In declaring his victory, Valdez said, “We didn’t just win an election tonight. We declared that this movement is here to stay, it is growing, and it will not stop as long as workers are not just asked to set the table, not offered a seat at the table, but to run the table.” he said.
And a third congressional candidate backed by Mamdani, progressive Brad Lander, crushed incumbent Democratic Rep. Dan Goldman. Lander, the former New York City comptroller, ran against Mamdani in last year’s crowded Democratic primary but became one of her biggest supporters in the general election.
Chevalier, Valdez and Lander pitched the mayor’s platform of focusing on affordability in a city with one of the nation’s highest costs of living. And all three were very critical of Israel.
MAMDANI STANDS BY THE SOCIALIST CANDIDATE DESPITE HIS RE-EMERGING VERY LEFT, ANTI-AMERICAN POSTS
Lander, who is Jewish, said in his victory speech, “You can criticize Israel, but you cannot be antisemitic. You can be anti-Zionist, but you cannot be antisemitic.”
Just six months into his term as mayor of New York, Mamdani’s takeover of the institution was a risky bet, but he emerges boldly from the primary as the party’s decision-maker.
Mamdani, who campaigned continuously for all three congressional candidates, emphasized that the Democratic Party “must change.”
And Tuesday night, at the Valdez primary celebration, the mayor said: “Let’s hear it for a politics that will never forget working people. For a politics that is ready to write a new chapter in the history of our party, and for a politics that recognizes the old politics that brought us to this crisis, this is not the politics that will get us out of this crisis.”
Progressive Rep. Ro Khanna of California, a potential 2028 Democratic presidential candidate, said the results in New York City “show we have a new party.”
But the results also give Republicans who have long described Mamdani as a radical more ammunition to use him as a cudgel as they try to maintain their House majority in this year’s midterm elections.
REPUBLICANS ARE USING MAMDANI AS A SOCIALIST STICK TO HIT FRAGILE DEMOCRATS
National Republican Congressional Committee spokesman Mike Marinella said in a statement: “Tonight wasn’t just a bad night for so-called ‘Leader’ Hakeem Jeffries. It was the night the Democratic establishment officially capitulated to Zohran Mamdani and the socialist wing of his party. Every House Democrat in both safe and competitive districts will now answer to the radicals calling the shots. And Americans should be horrified about where the Democratic Party is heading.” he said.
Trump won again
The strength of Trump support in the GOP primaries was tested once again, this time in New York.
And the president prevailed.
Trump’s first-ever endorsed candidate, businessman and former boxer Anthony Constantino, defeated Robert Smullen, a retired Marine Corps colonel and New York assemblyman who has the support of the state party, in the race to replace retiring GOP Rep. Elise Stefanik in upstate New York.
Meanwhile, Trump couldn’t lose in the Republican gubernatorial runoffs in South Carolina.
That’s because he supported both candidates in the race to replace term-limited GOP Gov. Henry McMaster.
State Attorney General Alan Wilson defeated Lt. Gov. Pamela Duygute by a landslide.
TRUMP CAN’T LOSE IN HIGH-PROFILE REPUBLICAN DIFFICULTY
Trump endorsedEvette late last month, a week and a half before the gubernatorial primary.
Yeste finished ahead of a large field of candidates in the primary, with Wilson finishing second. Also in the field were Representatives Nancy Mace and Ralph Norman and multimillionaire businessman Rom Reddy. Since no candidate received a majority of the votes, the top two finishers, Yeste and Wilson, advanced to Tuesday’s runoff election.
Mace and Norman endorsed Wilson after he failed to advance to the second round. And Wilson was also backed a week ago by Texas conservative firebrand Sen. Ted Cruz.
Trump, meanwhile, made an 11th-hour endorsement on Friday, backing Wilson alongside his previous support for vette; This appeared to be a move by the president to hedge his bets.
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As the votes continued to be counted, Wilson, who surpassed Vevette by a two-to-one margin, addressed the president in his victory speech.
“I believe he understands what we’re doing,” Wilson said of Trump. “I think he saw the fight in our campaign and the energy in our campaign. I think he loves the fight. I think that’s what won him over.”
