Mamdani and NYC-DSA Shatter New York’s Democratic Machines
Mayor Zohran Mamdani's picks swept the night as his NYC-DSA coalition outplayed the establishment up and down the ballot.
A reeling Democratic establishment watched as the results rolled in on Tuesday night. One of New York’s strongest machines had collapsed in a seeming instant, bested by the rising power of the New York City Democratic Socialists of America (NYC-DSA) and popular New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani.
In echoes of the improbable rise of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who was visibly shocked upon learning she had defeated Rep. Joe Crowley, the election was called for Mamdani-endorsed activist Darializa Avila Chevalier on the night of the election. She even has a three-letter acronym: DAC. Rep. Adriano Espaillat, pro-Israel chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, was defeated.
The Squadriano, City & State editor-in-chief Jeff Coltin’s viral moniker for the allies and machine of soon-to-be former Rep. Adriano Espaillat, couldn’t save him from Avila Chevalier, who has never previously held elected office and faced sustained criticism from opponents for her activism against Israel, including the day after the October 7th attack by Hamas, along with her opposition to former Vice President Kamala Harris. A prominent anti-Avila Chevalier mailer even had her infamous “Fuck Kamala Harris” quote plastered in giant letters. Voters were unmoved. Or perhaps they were moved, just not in the intended direction.
While Avila Chevalier’s was the night’s most notable win, NYC-DSA also picked up NY-7 with the expected success of Assemblymember Claire Valdez against Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso. The organization could credibly count the defeat of Rep. Dan Goldman as a success even if it didn’t officially endorse former New York City Comptroller Brad Lander as Mamdani did. (NYC-DSA managed to have its cake and eat it too by not ideologically compromising to endorse Lander while many of its members worked tirelessly to take out the pro-Israel Goldman.)
This wasn’t a successful night for traditional progressives and unions, but specifically NYC-DSA and the pro-Palestine Left.
Assemblymember Alex Bores ran a progressive-except-Palestine campaign backed by a litany of unions and progressive organizations. He was defeated by Assemblymember Micah Lasher, who used a traditional establishment model to succeed. Where did the votes go that Bores needed to prevail? Some of the votes were available to his left, including among voters drawn to Nina Schwalbe, the only candidate to explicitly acknowledge Israel’s genocide, and Jack Schlossberg, who positioned himself to the left of both Bores and Lasher on Israel.
What about a situation where NYC-DSA is pitted against the traditional progressive machine in a race where the candidates run on nearly identical platforms? Reynoso proved to be such a test case: NYC-DSA’s Valdez handily bested Reynoso’s Working Families Party coalition.
Results followed the same pattern at the state level, where NYC-DSA candidates won race after race. The only conceded loss came against an incumbent in a race where Mamdani stayed out, presumably for complicated political reasons that would’ve impacted Avila Chevalier.
Tonight’s results may shock an establishment accustomed to permanent rule, but they aren’t a surprise to those who have watched the trend lines among voters over the past few cycles, both in New York City and around the nation. The Democratic Party is deep in the throes of a Tea Party overthrow I identified last year.
Traditional partisan trust among both parties’ own voters has collapsed into a populist revolt, supercharged by massive wealth disparity and revulsion about both major parties’ support for Israel as it engages in an internationally recognized campaign of genocide.
Both Mamdani and NYC-DSA’s winning candidates used commitment to opposing genocide and fighting oligarchy as electoral motivators. If a single story is to be written about the results in New York City, it should be about the collapse of the pro-Israel consensus and establishment Democratic politics.
As goes New York, so goes the nation?