Three progressive candidates who believe Israel has committed genocide in Gaza won Democratic primaries in New York on Tuesday, ousting two incumbents and replacing a retiring congresswoman. The victories have sent shockwaves through the Democratic establishment, highlighting how internal divisions over Israel are shaping races ahead of the November midterm elections.
Primary Results and Key Winners
Brad Lander, the New York City comptroller, defeated incumbent Representative Dan Goldman by more than 30 percentage points. Lander said in his victory speech that he intends to be “one of the Jewish members of Congress most willing to stand up for Palestinian human rights” and urged the party to “admit that Joe Biden’s hug-Bibi strategy was a catastrophic failure,” adding, “I believe it made us complicit in genocide.”
In another upset, doctoral student Darializa Avila Chevalier narrowly beat five-term Congressman Adriano Espaillat, chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, after criticizing him for accepting money from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (Aipac). Claire Valdez, a state assembly member, won the primary in the district of retiring Congresswoman Nydia Velázquez, defeating Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso by convincing voters she was more opposed to Israel.
Impact on Democratic Party
Usamah Andrabi, a spokesman for Justice Democrats, said the victories are “a testament to just how much our movement has progressed against lobbies like Aipac, who have tried to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to keep us in a position where we spend hundreds of billions of dollars of our taxpayer money to fund a genocide.”
More than 75,000 people have been killed in Gaza since October 2023, after Hamas militants killed some 1,200 and took 250 hostage in an attack on Israel. The question of whether to call Israel’s actions a genocide—a determination reached by human rights groups and a United Nations commission—has become a litmus test for the left.
Reactions and Future Implications
Manny Fidel, a 34-year-old writer in Brooklyn, said he supported Lander because of his stance on Israel and Palestine, calling it “the big issue of this race” and “the huge moral issue of our time.”
Corbin Trent, a former aide to Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, compared the Gaza conflict to the 2003 Iraq invasion, saying it has woken up voters to the costs of US foreign policy. “Our foreign policy, generally speaking, has been something that when people are confronted with the cost of that in lives abroad, and lives here, and in money, they reject it,” he said.
Former Democratic National Committee Chair Jaime Harrison wrote on social media after Avila Chevalier’s win: “I say this with no ill will or animosity: if you hate the Democratic party, then please don’t run for our nomination.”
Tom Malinowski, a former congressman who lost his return bid to a progressive, criticized the endorsements of Avila Chevalier by Zohran Mamdani and Senator Bernie Sanders, warning they risked creating “the mirror image of Maga.” He added, “When your followers treat Israel as the world’s only human rights violator and Aipac as the only evil dark money group, that should be a red flag.”
All three winners are expected to win in November in their heavily Democratic districts. Congressional Republicans seized on the results, with former President Donald Trump saying, “The Democratic party is in big trouble. This is not stopping with New York.”
The trend may continue in Colorado, where 15-term Representative Diana DeGette faces a challenge from democratic socialist Melat Kiros, who has criticized her for being too supportive of Israel. In Michigan, the issue looms in the Senate race to replace retiring Senator Gary Peters, with Aipac backing Representative Haley Stevens while opponents have accused Israel of genocide.
Bill Galston, a former domestic policy adviser to President Bill Clinton, predicted the issue will be central in the 2028 presidential election. “Every candidate for the presidency now on the Democratic side will be required to declare himself or herself on the matter of the United States’ stance towards Israel,” he said. “The question was largely evaded in 2024. That strategy is no longer possible.”
