The Powerbroker: Mamdani-endorsed Candidates Obliterate Old Guard Dems In Nyc

NEW YORK — After leading the charge against old-guard Democratic candidates in New York City’s primaries Tuesday, Mayor Zohran Mamdani has emerged as a City Hall powerbroker unlike any in recent memory — and elevated his national clout heading into high-stakes midterm elections.

Three congressional candidates backed by the mayor scored decisive victories against powerful opponents, including the chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and a leader of the first impeachment of President Donald Trump.

Mamdani also used his political muscle to grow the ranks of far-left allies in the state Legislature that will help the mayor push his affordability agenda, including hiking taxes on the wealthy. His slate of five candidates for state office handily vanquished established Democratic rivals, and is poised to help swell the number of democratic socialists in Albany from nine to as many as 16.

“This is an earthquake,” said Michael Lange, an election analyst, Mamdani supporter and former congressional staffer who had been dissecting the contours of the races and was taken aback at the breadth of Tuesday’s victories.

The victories once again showcased the left’s burgeoning political strength following Mamdani’s insurgent victory in last year’s mayoral campaign. This time around, the Democratic Socialists of America knocked on more than 700,000 doors in a demonstration of the progressive group's organizing prowess and appeal to ever more New Yorkers, suggesting a tectonic shift in the political landscape both in New York City and beyond.

“What you all have shown this evening, whether for state Senate, state Assembly or Congress, is that a year ago it was not the end of a political movement,” Mamdani told an ecstatic election night crowd, referring to his own election in 2025. “It was the beginning.”

Two congressional contests were the most watched races of the evening, each pitting young Latino candidates against their elders in what amounted to risky wagers for a new mayor.

In Brooklyn, state Assemblymember Claire Valdez, a fellow democratic socialist backed by Mamdani, routed Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso 56-36, according to preliminary results from the New York City Board of Elections. Reynoso was backed by retiring Rep. Nydia Velázquez, an early supporter of Mamdani who made no secret of her anger over the mayor’s opposition to her handpicked successor.

In upper Manhattan and the Bronx, Ph.D. candidate Darializa Avila Chevalier — another Mamdani pick — won 49-46 against Rep. Adriano Espaillat, the chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus who had built a small political empire after winning office in 2016.

In each case, the candidates followed a similar playbook to Mamdani’s 2025 primary victory, suggesting a durability to the mayor’s coalition that extends beyond his personal brand.

In the Bronx, Avila Chevalier — who was given little chance prior to Mamdani’s endorsements less than a month before the primary — activated neighborhoods of more affluent liberals while winning much of Harlem, still a seat of Black political power in New York City. That area had long been neglected by Espaillat, whose base was with older Dominican voters, according to Lange’s analysis of Tuesday’s returns.

In Brooklyn, the so-called “commie corridor” came out so decisively for Valdez — after early worries about low turnout — that she won upwards of 90 percent of the vote in several high-turnout swaths. The state lawmaker also won younger voters across racial and ethnic lines, overperforming expectations and remaining competitive even in areas of the district where Reynoso was thought to have an edge.

“It’s one thing to run a citywide race and beat Cuomo. It’s another thing to run down-ballot type races in a less attention-grabbing year and beat entrenched incumbents in their own neighborhoods when their entire apparatus is geared toward retaining power,” Lange said, referring to Mamdani’s primary victory over Andrew Cuomo. “This coalition is here to stay. And it’s actually quite durable.”

Mamdani also endorsed former city Comptroller Brad Lander, who unseated incumbent Rep. Dan Goldman with a campaign focused almost exclusively on the politics of U.S.-Israel relations. While the Mamdani-nod helped, Lander had also represented the area for more than 16 years in various capacities and would have been a formidable candidate even without the mayor’s blessing.

In the state Legislature, it was also a good night to be backed by Mamdani.

All four democratic socialist candidates won by massive margins. And a progressive candidate Mamdani endorsed on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, Eli Northrup, was far ahead of the competition.

The DSA also picked up wins in districts where Mamdani didn’t endorse, in some of its races flipping narrow losses from just two years ago into runaway victories. All told, the size of its caucus in Albany is poised to grow from nine to either 15 or 16 members next year depending on the outcome of a tight race in Syracuse. And progressive candidates picked up wins in places like Queens, Harlem and Buffalo, meaning the Legislature as a whole will likely take a step to the left in 2027.

Both houses of the state Legislature have spent years supporting Mamdani-friendly proposals like increased taxes on high earners. But they’ve rarely played all their cards to turn these policies into law in a state where the budget process has been dominated by governors less amenable to such ideas. The shift likely increases the odds legislators will aggressively push for those progressive policies in the future.

“We can expect to see a stronger force fighting for taxing the rich and to fund universal childcare programs,” state Sen. Julia Salazar said. “Adding to our ranks, certainly it does make our voice louder, but I think it adds momentum for the fights that we’ve already been waging.”

Grace Mausser, co-chair of the New York City DSA chapter, said the organization will be focusing on winning even more state races in 2028. And before that, it plans to use its increased strength to pressure Gov. Kathy Hochul on new taxes that were denied to Mamdani during this year’s budget cycle.

“Hochul was a real blocker in a lot of ways,” Mausser said. “Between having a bigger bloc in Albany and some very high-profile wins in Congress, I’m hoping she recalibrates.”

Even in victory, Mamdani did not come away completely unscathed.

After pledging his support to Espaillat, the mayor went back on his word and backed his challenger instead — a cardinal sin in politics that will likely haunt future dealings with officials outside his immediate circle. He has made an enemy out of the departing Velázquez, a 16-term powerbroker known as La Luchadora, though her ability to exact revenge after retiring will be limited.

And some of the candidates he has backed, namely Avila Chevalier and the Democratic nominee for a state Senate district in Queens, Aber Kawas, have a trail of far-left comments and social media posts about 9/11, Israel, immigration and interracial relationships that have already made them the ideal foils for Republicans looking to paint Democrats as too radical in the November midterms.

On the whole, however, the mayor’s political gamble has added additional heft to a political brand already on the upswing. Mamdani proved himself a kingmaker capable of transferring his popularity to other candidates fitting into his worldview, even in off-year election cycles that are typically more sleepy affairs. In the three congressional races Mamdani inserted himself into, the candidates differed little on policy — with the exception of Israel and the war in Gaza, which became an acrimonious wedge in almost every Democratic Congressional primary in the city.

There is no sign the coalition that vaulted Mamdani into office and solidified his heft Tuesday plans to stop. People in and around Mamdani’s circle are now eyeing a nominee for president in 2028 — Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s name is raised frequently — and a challenge to Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, who will be up for reelection in 2028.

Andrew Epstein, a Mamdani political adviser who worked on the mayor’s 2025 campaign and Valdez’s successful congressional run, thinks the mayor’s coalition will be a big part of that conversation.

“There are so many talented and experienced people who have sharpened their skills in a number of ways across these races over the past couple of years,” he said. “No one else is doing it like we are in New York City.”