• New Yorkers voted Tuesday in a slate of Democratic primaries poised to test the strength of the party’s left flank and shape control of the U.S. House of Representatives, with several self-identified democratic socialists backed by Mayor Zohran Mamdani challenging centrist incumbents.
  • Former New York City comptroller Brad Lander, backed by Mamdani, holds a lead in a late-May survey over Rep. Dan Goldman in the 10th congressional district, which covers lower Manhattan and part of Brooklyn.
  • Public defense investigator Darializa Avila Chevalier, a democratic socialist, is challenging five-term Rep. Adriano Espaillat, chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, arguing the 71-year-old is out of touch with young and working-class residents.
  • In the 7th district, democratic socialist Claire Valdez, also backed by Mamdani, faces Brooklyn borough president Antonio Reynoso for the open seat vacated by Rep. Nydia Velázquez after 17 terms.
  • The 12th district primary — the state’s wealthiest seat — features 33-year-old Jack Schloss-ster, the grandson of John F. Kennedy whose meme-heavy campaign has reportedly fallen behind, as well as AI investor-backed super PACs opposing state Rep. Alex Bores.

New Yorkers voted Tuesday in a cluster of Democratic primaries expected to reveal the strength of the party’s left flank and shape the battle for control of the U.S. House in November, as Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s endorsed candidates challenge establishment incumbents in safely Democratic districts.

Voters also cast ballots in congressional primaries in Maryland and Utah, while South Carolina held runoff elections for candidates who did not receive a majority of the vote earlier this month, according to reports.

But the New York contests — unfolding in a state expected to play a decisive role in the congressional majority — have drawn national attention as Democrats weigh competing visions for their party’s future under President Donald Trump, according to The Guardian. Republicans hold a narrow 217-212 House majority, with five seats vacant and one held by an independent.

Two Mamdani-endorsed candidates — former New York City comptroller Brad Lander and public defense investigator Darializa Avila Chevalier — are running to unseat Democratic incumbents in the city’s safely Democratic districts, part of a wave of ideological and generational challenges against sitting members. “People often ask me what I think of the state of the Democratic party. This slate here today is our answer,” Mamdani said at a rally with the candidates and Sen. Bernie Sanders on Thursday. “The Democratic party must change.”

Lander, who ran for New York City mayor last year and entered a cross-endorsement with Mamdani under the city’s ranked-choice voting system, holds a lead in a late-May survey over Rep. Dan Goldman in the city’s 10th congressional district, which includes lower Manhattan and a large chunk of Brooklyn, according to The Guardian. Goldman has countered with support from House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries.

Avila Chevalier, a 32-year-old democratic socialist, is challenging Rep. Adriano Espaillat, a five-term Democrat and chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, arguing the 71-year-old is out of touch with the district’s young and working-class residents. Espaillat points to his experience and advocacy on behalf of immigrants and civil rights, according to the report.

Democratic socialist Claire Valdez, also backed by Mamdani, is running for the open seat in New York’s 7th district — covering parts of Brooklyn and Queens — which Rep. Nydia Velázquez is vacating after 17 terms in Congress, the report states. Valdez faces Brooklyn borough president Antonio Reynoso, who has won the endorsement of Jeffries and Velázquez.

Questions surrounding candidates’ stances on Israel and the war in Gaza have featured prominently in several primaries, according to the report. Lander and Valdez have both condemned Israel’s war on Gaza as genocide, as has a U.N. independent international commission of inquiry, while Goldman and Espaillat have faced attacks over their ties to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a pro-Israel lobby.

In the 12th district — New York’s wealthiest seat and one safely Democratic — voters could deliver a verdict on the limits of the Kennedy family influence, according to the report. Jack Schloss-ter, the 33-year-old grandson of John F. Kennedy, has run a meme-heavy campaign that appears to have fallen behind, while AI investors have poured money into super PACs opposing state Rep. Alex Bores, furious over state legislation he proposed to regulate the industry. The primary also features George Conway, the Republican-turned-Trump critic who has out-raised the field.

Elsewhere, Democrats hope a favorable political environment will help them flip New York’s 17th district north of the city, held by two-term Republican Rep. Mike Lawler, who is viewed as one of the GOP’s most vulnerable incumbents. Former White House counter-terrorism official and Army combat veteran Cait Conley and local legislator Beth Davidson are among five Democrats vying to unseat Lawler.