Mayor Zohran Mamdani may be the new kingmaker of New York City politics. In a sweeping affirmation of his affordability-focused agenda, all three congressional candidates endorsed by Mamdani in a set of contested Democratic primary elections declared victory Tuesday night. Manhattan and the Bronx’s Darializa Avila Chevalier and Brooklyn’s Claire Valdez and Brad Lander were all joined on the campaign trail by the progressive NYC mayor in the weeks leading up to election night. Like Mamdani, Avila Chevalier and Valdez are members of the NYC chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America, which backed their campaigns.
We speak to John Tarleton, editor-in-chief of the New York City local independent newspaper The Indypendent, about the insurgent left of the Democratic Party and the potential national ramifications of the Zohran-DSA machine.
Two of the races also functioned as a referendum on the growing split in the Democratic Party over Israel/Palestine. While the pro-Israel lobbying group AIPAC funneled an estimated $50 million into their staunchly pro-Israel opponents’ campaigns, Avila Chevalier and Lander refused to take any funding from pro-Israel groups and consistently emphasized their support of efforts to restrict U.S. military aid for Israel. “If you ignore the cause of Palestinian liberation, you do so at your own peril,” says Tarleton.