Zohran Mamdani scored a hat trick Tuesday when all three of the democratic socialist mayor’s protégés in New York beat “normie” Democrats in their House primaries. In two cases, respected incumbents – including the chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus – went down.
Cue the freakout by some establishment Democrats, who worry the party is being co-opted by a mirror-image, far-left version of the old tea party movement on the right, which then morphed into MAGA.
“I say this with no ill will or animosity: if you hate the Democratic Party, then please don’t run for our nomination,” Jaime Harrison, former chair of the Democratic National Committee, wrote Tuesday night on X. “Focus on building the party you actually support.”
Why We Wrote This
Far-left wins in congressional primaries followed mayoral victories in major U.S. cities. Mainstream Democrats, struggling with voter dissatisfaction, are unhappy about the rising leftism.
The problem with Mr. Harrison’s plea is that that’s not how politics works – especially in a country that’s effectively locked in a two-party system. The way aspiring changemakers gain power in the United States isn’t by starting a new party; it’s by transforming an existing party from within.
And that’s exactly what self-professed democratic socialists have been doing to the Democratic Party – whether they’re card-carrying members of the Democratic Socialists of America or not. Community organizer Darializa Avila Chevalier, who defeated five-term Rep. Adriano Espaillat – the Hispanic caucus chair – is a DSA member. So, too, is New York state assembly member Claire Valdez, who won Tuesday’s primary for the seat of retiring Rep. Nydia Velázquez.
Former New York City Comptroller Brad Lander, who beat two-term Rep. Dan Goldman on Tuesday, had quit the pro-Palestinian DSA right after Hamas’s attack on Israel in October 2023. Still, he positioned himself to Congressman Goldman’s left, and Mr. Goldman’s harder-line support for Israel helped cost him the primary.
Mayor Mamdani himself, with his Obama-esque charisma, is the poster child of rising leftism in America, at least in its big, blue cities. But he wasn’t the lone far-left victor last November. Seattle also elected a democratic socialist mayor, and Washington, D.C., is poised to do the same this November.
Los Angeles, too, could elect a card-carrying DSA member as its next mayor, after City Councilmember Nithya Raman surged into second place behind incumbent Mayor Karen Bass in the June 8 primary. Mayor Bass’s weak showing, with just 34% of the vote to Ms. Raman’s 29%, suggests an upset could be coming. A drive for generational change could also be a factor, as it has been in many of these races. Ms. Raman is in her mid-40s, Ms. Bass in her early 70s.
A bigger test for the progressive left will come in Michigan’s race for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Democratic Sen. Gary Peters. In the Aug. 4 Democratic primary, Abdul El-Sayed, a former public health official and prominent liberal, leads in polls. He has been endorsed by the two most famous democratic socialists in Congress: Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York.
“If Abdul El-Sayed wins primary & general in a state Trump carried twice, the progressive left can make the claim that they can win not only in deep blue areas, but in swing states as well,” Amy Walter of the Cook Political Report wrote Wednesday on X.
But that’s a big “if” – in particular, the part about winning statewide. And if winning a swing state in the midterm elections is a test of viability for the 2028 presidential race, then Michigan looms even larger.
The Donald Trump factor in the rise of the far left can’t be dismissed. For many young Americans, struggling with the high cost of living, the Democratic establishment has failed to fight Trumpism effectively, and thus they have sought out alternatives. Polls show that the appeal of socialism has risen dramatically among Democrats in recent years. In a Gallup poll last September, only 42% of Democrats had a favorable view of capitalism, while 66% viewed socialism positively.
Among very liberal Democrats, 61% view the DSA favorably while only 42% say they approve of how congressional Democrats are handling their job, according to a May poll by Marquette University Law School.
“This is only a subgroup of all Democrats, but in a place like New York and with a primary electorate that leans left, you can see the problem for incumbent Democrats in very Democratic districts,” says the poll’s director, Charles Franklin.
A typical democratic socialist’s agenda might look like Mr. Mamdani’s successful pitch to voters last November, including universal childcare, fare-free city buses, and city-owned grocery stores aimed at lowering consumer prices. So far, he has secured a funding commitment from New York’s Democratic governor for free childcare for 2-year-olds, and is working on setting up five city-run grocery stores, one in each borough. Free public transit is also a work in progress.
To help pay for his initiatives, Mr. Mamdani has instituted a “pied-à-terre tax,” which targets nonprimary homes. But his calls to impose additional taxes on wealthy individuals and corporations have not gained traction in Albany.
Professor Franklin agrees that rising leftism is a response to the rise of Mr. Trump and MAGA.
“We can say that for every action there’s an equal and opposite reaction,” he says. “That applies to politics as well as physics.”
For Democratic leaders in Congress, already struggling amid intense partisan polarization, the challenge only deepens. On Tuesday night, when House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries’ image appeared briefly on a TV screen at an election night party for Ms. Valdez in New York, the crowd booed and began chanting, “You’re next, you’re next!”