Three left-wing candidates won Democratic primaries in New York on Tuesday, escalating the party’s internal struggle over its direction, The Wall Street Journal reported June 27. The victories toppled two incumbent members of Congress, including the powerful chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, and were the latest in a string of progressive wins in recent weeks.
The candidates, all backed by New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, a Democratic socialist, ran on platforms calling for higher taxes on the wealthy, expanded government services, breaking with U.S. support for Israel, and abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement, according to the Journal. Two of the three were members of the Democratic Socialists of America. DSA-backed candidates also won primary races for the New York State Legislature.
Centrist Democrats reacted with alarm. “The left, the DSA, and the right, the MAGA movement, they’re both very well organized, and those of us that oppose those policies are talking to each other at cocktail parties and wringing our hands,” Rep. Tom Suozzi, a Long Island Democrat, told the Journal. “But we got to get organized.”
Ten House Democrats, including Suozzi, signed a “common sense” pledge committing to “fiscal discipline and capitalism over socialism,” the Journal reported. Rep. Josh Gottheimer of New Jersey, a signatory, said the left was “using Tea Party tactics and trying to divide up the country and pray to socialist ideals.”
Progressive activists countered that the establishment’s criticism has been ineffective. Rep. Ro Khanna of California, who is considering a 2028 presidential campaign, told the Journal the New York elections show “progressives really have the energy in the party.”
The New York results come after Democratic socialists won the mayor’s offices in New York City and Seattle last year and captured the Democratic mayoral primary in Washington, D.C., this month. In two recent House primaries in California and Maine, progressive candidates defeated centrists backed by the party’s main House campaign arm. In Maine, Graham Platner, a political newcomer backed by independent Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, won the Senate nomination.
Looking ahead, allies of longtime Rep. Diana DeGette in Colorado are pouring hundreds of thousands of dollars into ads to help her defeat Melat Kiros, a 29-year-old Democratic socialist, in next week’s primary, according to the Journal. In Los Angeles, Mayor Karen Bass reshuffled her campaign team this week in her re-election bid against Nithya Raman, a Democratic socialist city council member.
Michigan’s Senate primary could present the biggest test of progressive momentum, the Journal reported. Abdul El-Sayed, a Sanders-endorsed candidate running for Senate, has a lead in recent public polling over Rep. Haley Stevens, the preferred candidate of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. State Sen. Mallory McMorrow has been trailing in third place. Sen. Gary Peters, who is not seeking re-election, has told associates he believes the party needs to coalesce around one challenger to El-Sayed and has suggested McMorrow should consider dropping out, according to people familiar with the discussions.
The left’s victories present a challenge for a party still recovering from President Donald Trump’s 2024 victory, the Journal reported. Third Way, a centrist Democratic policy group, said the three districts won by left-wing candidates in New York are on average 36 points more Democratic than the country as a whole. By contrast, the Republican-held seats that Democrats need to flip to win a House majority are only about 8 points more Republican on average, meaning Democrats would need to win moderate and independent voters who are not plentiful in New York City.
Donald Trump posted on social media that “the Communists are finally making their move” and that “the game is on. Enjoy watching!”
Faiz Shakir, a senior adviser to Sanders, said the unifying element for populist-left candidates winning in recent years is that they are grassroots-funded and run on platforms addressing affordability, not just opposition to Trump.
Progressive strategists said the intraparty fight has been building since Sanders’s 2016 presidential run. “We are here, we have won elections fair and square, and there’s not much they can do about it,” Grace Mausser, co-chair of the DSA chapter in New York City, told the Journal.
The Democratic primary battles “are all proxy battles in a way for what happens in the 2028 primary,” said Liam Kerr, co-founder of WelcomePAC, a group that supports centrist Democrats.