Zohran Mamdani-Backed Candidates Unseat Incumbents in New York Democratic Primaries

On Tuesday night, three New York Democratic congressional primaries backed by Mayor Zohran Mamdani upended incumbents, with former City Comptroller Brad Lander defeating Rep. Dan Goldman in New York’s 10th Congressional District and Darializa Avila Chevalier defeating Rep. Adriano Espaillat in the 13th District.

“In the United States, the war in Iran and the return of antisemitism are reshaping the influence of pro-Israel lobbies”

Le Figaro

Preliminary results cited by The Forward showed Lander with about 66% of the vote to Goldman’s 34%, while Avila Chevalier won with 49.4% to Espaillat’s 46%, and both were described as virtually assured of winning the general election in November.

Le Figaro

The Washington Times framed the night as a shift in the Democratic Party’s posture on Israel, saying Lander’s campaign centered on Goldman’s acceptance of American Israel Public Affairs Committee donations and Goldman’s refusal to label the conflict a genocide.

In the 7th Congressional District, state Assemblywoman Claire Valdez defeated Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso and City Councilwoman Julie Won to become the Democratic nominee in a seat vacated by retiring Rep. Nydia Velázquez, as the same Washington Times account tied the sweep to Mamdani-aligned candidates’ Israel politics.

The Forward added that all three candidates said they would support cutting off U.S. military aid to Israel, including for the Iron Dome defense system, while Reuters-style vote counts were echoed by the Washington Times as Avila Chevalier led 49.4% to 45.9% with more than 86% of the expected vote in.

After the primaries, The Jerusalem Post described the results as a coming-out for the party’s leftmost flank and a “wake-up call for Jews in the city and beyond,” as it said the future for the party’s relationship with Israel has “never seemed more in question.”

The Jerusalem Post quoted Halie Soifer, CEO of the Jewish Democratic Council of America, saying, “Last night’s primaries indicate that DSA, Mamdani-backed candidates can win in different areas of New York City,” while also adding she “don’t think that those same candidates could win anywhere else.”

Le HuffPost

In the Washington Times account, Goldman acknowledged after his concession that the Israel-Palestinian conflict played an “outsized role” in his race, and he accused Lander of deploying “dangerous antisemitic tropes” to win.

The Washington Times also reported Lander’s victory speech included a call for Democrats to reckon with internal divisions, with Lander saying, “Our party needs to admit that Joe Biden’s ’hug Bibi’ strategy was a catastrophic mistake,” as he referenced alignment with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Beyond New York, the Washington Times said the results leave Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries navigating an increasingly fractured caucus, and it quoted Democratic strategist Basil Smikle warning of “a generational reckoning within the party.”

“On Tuesday night, all three of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s endorsed candidates prevailed in the state’s Democratic primary”

Mondoweiss

The Forward reported that all three Mamdani-backed candidates said they will support cutting off U.S. military aid to Israel, including for the Iron Dome defense system, and it described the national attention on Democratic voters who want the U.S. to distance itself from Israel.

In a separate controversy described by samanews.ps, American outlets covered a Democratic National Committee report on the 2024 election loss that Intercept said omitted any reference to Gaza, Israel, Palestine, American Arabs, or Muslims, even though the issue had been contentious during Vice President Kamala Harris’s campaign against Donald Trump.

samanews.ps quoted David Hogue, former deputy chair of the Democratic National Committee, saying the absence of Gaza from the report “aroused confusion and anger” inside the party and that he told the report’s author the party needs to acknowledge the role Gaza played in the loss of young voters.

The same samanews.ps account said Democratic National Committee chair Ken Martin issued a statement saying he published the report as he received it in full, while Abdul Sayed argued that ignoring the issue means the party is still not prepared to face the consequences of its mistakes and learn from them.