Zohran Mamdani's growing influence over the Democratic party was on display in New York City on Tuesday as three congressional candidates endorsed by the democratic socialist mayor won closely watched primaries. Brad Lander, the former New York City comptroller who also ran for mayor last year before endorsing Mamdani, won his race comfortably, defeating Representative Dan Goldman. Another Mamdani ally, Claire Valdez, a state lawmaker and former union organizer, defeated Antonio Reynoso, the preferred successor of retiring Representative Nydia Velázquez in New York's seventh district, encompassing parts of Brooklyn and Queens. In a stunning upset, public defense investigator Darializa Avila Chevalier toppled Representative Adriano Espaillat, the powerful five-term incumbent who chairs the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, in the state's diverse 13th congressional district, covering Upper Manhattan and parts of the Bronx.
Mamdani's Clean Sweep
It was a clean sweep for Mamdani, who waded into the House primaries earlier this year, spending his political capital to boost three leftwing allies – a gamble that tested his popularity and influence. With his slate of candidates all but certain to be elected to Congress in November, Mamdani has left his stamp on the state's congressional delegation and expanded his ascendant progressive movement. “What a glorious time to be a New Yorker,” Lander declared at his election night party in Brooklyn, joined by the mayor. Mamdani then appeared at a watch party for Valdez, telling a jubilant crowd: “The old politics that got us into this crisis is not the politics that’s going to get us out of this crisis.”
Schlossberg Fails to Advance
Elsewhere in the city, Jack Schlossberg, the grandson of John F. Kennedy, was unsuccessful in his bid to revive the political legacy of the US's most vaunted political family. In a House race that attracted outsized national attention, Schlossberg, 33, hoped to parlay his huge social media presence and charisma into a congressional seat, but came up short in a crowded field of Democrats seeking to succeed the long-serving Representative Jerry Nadler. Micah Lasher, a longtime New York politician and self-described “nerd”, won the primary in New York's 12th district, a deep-blue district whose voters tend to identify as liberal rather than left-wing. The race also included prominent anti-Trump critic George Conway and state assembly member Alex Bores, whose candidacy became the focus of what observers described as an “AI civil war”. Lasher will be the heavy favorite to win the safely Democratic district in the November midterm election.
Trump Celebrates Defeats
Late on Tuesday night, Queens-born Donald Trump celebrated the defeat of both Goldman and Conway in a pair of social media posts. “Weak and pathetic Congressman Dan Goldman just lost, BIG! I guess people didn’t like him illegally targeting President TRUMP,” the president said of the congressman, who served as lead counsel to House Democrats during Trump's first impeachment. Of Conway, whose ex-wife was a top adviser to the president during his first term, Trump gleefully predicted that he would “end up at about 5% of the vote in a rather weak field of young and aggressive Communists.”
Moderate Democrats Prevail in Key Districts
Though the night highlighted the growing influence of the party's left flank, moderate Democrats prevailed in a handful of districts that will be consequential in November. On Long Island, Democratic freshmen Representatives Tom Suozzi and Laura Gillen easily fended off primary challenges as they prepare to defend their swing-district seats. In a battleground Hudson Valley district, Cait Conley, former White House counter-terrorism official and Army combat veteran, won a competitive Democratic primary to take on Republican Representative Mike Lawler. New York's 17th district is one of just three across the US that voted in 2024 for Kamala Harris for president but elected a Republican member of Congress, and Lawler is considered one of the most endangered House members in a year when Democrats hope voters will deliver a strong rebuke to Trump. “No one is coming to save us,” Conley said on Tuesday night. “We are the cavalry.”
Trump's Hold on GOP Remains
Still, there were signs Trump's stranglehold on the Republican party remained intact, as Anthony Constantino won the Republican primary in the upstate New York 21st congressional district. Constantino, endorsed by the president, faced Robert Smullen, a state assemblyman backed by local party officials. Constantino will be the favorite to win the November election in a heavily Republican seat vacated by MAGA enthusiast Elise Stefanik. Stefanik, whom the president nominated for UN ambassador before withdrawing that nomination, ended her subsequent campaign for New York governor last year.
Other Primary Results Across the US
In Maryland, Adrian Boafo won the extremely crowded primary race to succeed Steny Hoyer, the longest-serving House Democrat and a longtime member of leadership who is retiring at the end of his 23rd term. Boafo, a state delegate, defeated former US Capitol Police officer Harry Dunn, who defended the building on January 6, and businesswoman Quincy Bareebe. In one of the most expensive House primary races in US history, Democratic Representative April McClain Delaney fended off her predecessor, former Democratic Representative David Trone, who sought to reclaim his seat in Maryland's sixth district after an unsuccessful Senate bid two years ago. In Utah, former Congressman Ben McAdams, a political moderate, won the primary to compete in a newly drawn Democratic-friendly district in Salt Lake City. In South Carolina, state Attorney General Alan Wilson won the runoff for the Republican nomination for governor. Trump initially endorsed Lieutenant Governor Pamela Evette in the race, but at the last minute decided to endorse both candidates, saying voters “can’t go wrong”. In the state's first congressional district, Nancy Lacore, a three-star Navy rear admiral fired by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth last year, defeated US Coast Guard veteran Mac Deford in the runoff for the Democratic nomination.
