Establishment Democrats Must Accept the Ascendant Left Base
Democratic Socialists of America candidates swept New York City, insurgent candidates are gaining steam across the U.S. and voters are rejecting long-held ideas about foreign policy and economics.
New York City Democratic Socialists of America (NYC-DSA) just had an even better primary season than the shockwave 2025 win of now-Mayor Zohran Mamdani. Out of a ten-candidate legislative slate including U.S. Congress, New York State Senate, and New York State Assembly, only a single candidate lost. Even that loss comes with an asterisk, as Mamdani opted not to endorse in the race to oust Assemblymember Jordan Wright in what everyone I’ve spoken to interprets as an attempt to ensure Manhattan Democratic Party Leader Keith Wright stayed out of the way in NYC-DSA’s successful bid to overthrow Rep. Adriano Espaillat.
The results were as follows:
Wins: 9
Claire Valdez, NY-7
Darializa Avila Chevalier, NY-13
Aber Kawas, SD-12
Samantha Kattan, AD-37
David Orkin, AD-38
Christian Celeste Tate, AD-54
Eon Huntley, AD-56
Illapa Sairitupac, AD-65
Diana Moreno, AD-36 (Note: This candidate also won the special election in February to replace Mamdani in the Assembly.)
Loss: 1
Conrad Blackburn, AD-70
Judging by the reaction of many Democrats starting the day after the election, voters of their own party have just turned the keys over to a roving band of vicious antisemites hellbent on destroying all that makes New York City great. If that’s the contempt these leaders are demonstrating in public, I can only imagine the discourse in private. The difference in rhetoric between the conservative end of establishment Democrats and the Editorial Board of the New York Post gets harder to identify by the day.
But an intractable problem remains for the Democratic establishment: its machines are dwindling in our city as NYC-DSA takes off like a rocket ship. Traditional Democrats would do well to notice the silver lining. For an ascendent movement looking to seize the apparatus of a party, NYC-DSA is downright friendly compared to the frothing-at-the-mouth MAGA overthrow of the GOP.
Incoming NYC-DSA candidates have often remained measured and collegial, expressing willingness to work on shared goals with their traditional Democratic colleagues and sending out a leading voice of their own organization to make that point. We might be witnessing the least hostile hostile-takeover of a party in the history of political parties.
But that isn’t going to last if dishonest accusations of extremism, antisemitism and other various slanders continue to fly from disgruntled Democrats, especially when a growing majority of such accusations are starting to look more like intentional misinformation designed to weaken political opponents than genuine ignorance.
The rhetoric around NY-13 winner Darializa Avila Chevalier is especially heated, with Pod Save America host Jon Favreau getting in on the accusations of antisemitism after she already faced a barrage of actual bigotry from Team Espaillat. The version of her that exists in the minds of her detractors and the one who exists in real life are almost irreconcilable. This is not to say Avila Chevalier has never made an impolitic remark, something she acknowledges, or deny that she is left-wing on foreign policy in a manner to which many Americans are unaccustomed. Most of us fail to realize the extent of the default-Right position of our foreign policy across party lines. But the caricature of Avila Chevalier that exists in the right-wing and establishment Democrat ecosphere is a combination of tropes that include more than a touch of obvious racism.
There was one alarming antisemite elected this year for a hyper-local volunteer party position. But she was not endorsed by NYC-DSA, despite a misleading headline, and faced universal condemnation from every NYC-DSA leader who was made aware and asked about it. Of course that’s the case, because the democratic socialist organization counts both young Jewish New Yorkers and antiracists of all backgrounds among its core active membership.
Our political reality is that anti-oligarchy politics and opposition to our government’s status quo position on Israel represent the mainstream. This is the supermajority position of our party’s voters across the country and increasingly represents the views of Americans at large.
Even for establishment figures who don’t like our electoral reality, there’s no strategic upside to feuding with a growing sect of leaders and electorally engaged young people who, right now, have their finger on the pulse of voters and demonstrate a willingness to collaborate. Voters aren’t going to reward establishment Democrats who dig in their heels and continue to try to paint entirely mainstream views among young people, not even just on the Left, as somehow extreme.
The best path forward for establishment Democrats, in New York and everywhere else, is the same as it is for all of us: beginning every new relationship from a place of good faith. Our party may be changing, but it doesn’t have to look like the chaos of Republicans.
We can do so much better than our failing status quo and, with growing pains, enter into a new era of successful anti-war and pro-worker Democratic politics. Providing the antidote to President Donald Trump and his party’s dark vision will require bold new voices, even those that challenge deeply held assumptions. The voters have made it crystal clear they’re hungry for change. All that remains is for an intransigent Democratic establishment to soften and begin to heed the will of its own voters.