Last night, every candidate endorsed by Zohran Mamdani won in the New York City area primaries. This includes:
Brad Lander walloped incumbent Dan Goldman in NY-10. Jeffries had backed Goldman.
Darializa Chevalier beat incumbent Adriano Espailliat in NY-13, a five-term Congressman backed by Jeffries.
Claire Valdez won the open-seat primary for NY-7. Nydia Velazquez is retiring from that seat.
In addition to the Mamdani-endorsed candidates, George Conway lost badly in the NY-12 primary to replace retiring Jerry Nadler, as did Jack Schlossberg, who ran on being Kennedy-adjacent. Micah Lasher won that one.
All of Mamdani’s state race picks won, too. So, a pretty impressive showing by progressives in those races. I think every incumbent facing a decent challenger in Democratic primaries should be more than a little afraid, including Diana DeGette in CO-1.
Governor Kathy Hochul, someone I’d like to see primaried, didn’t have a serious challenger, in part because she read the moment correctly and started opposing Trump, strongly. She also has worked with Mamdani on some popular initiatives for New York City.
I view these races as a long-time-coming correction. There’s absolutely no reason that heavily Democratic New York Congressional districts should be represented by centrists. Mamdani is going to get a lot of well-deserved credit for his endorsements, but, really, AOC should get some, too. Part of politics is being able to imagine something better, and she was the embodiment of something much better than what preceded her.
Also, I can’t say I’m sad to see Hakeem Jeffries’ candidates losing.
Overall, a good night for the future of the Democratic Party.
