Mamdani's Surge: What This NYC Political Upset Means for Washington

The Zo-mentum is real.

Socialist Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s far-left slate of Big Apple congressional hopefuls prevailed in Tuesday’s Democratic primary — with firebrand Darializa Avila Chevalier projected to pull off an AOC-style upset.

Former city Comptroller Brad Lander and state Assemblywoman Claire Valdez were quickly projected by the Associated Press and NY1 to win over their establishment Democrat opponents.

Avila Chevalier held a razor-thin 49.3% to 46% lead over Rep. Adriano Espaillat with 86% of votes counted late Tuesday, leading the five-term incumbent to concede.

The projected win by Avila Chevalier and the congressional race victories — coupled with a likely clean sweep of Democratic Socialists of America candidates in state races — signaled Mamdani could expand his socialist wave beyond New York City, to Washington, DC.

“This is a moment when voters have the opportunity to vote in who would be a partner in fulfilling the affordability agenda,” Mamdani said earlier Tuesday as he stumped for Lander.

The win by Avila Chevalier over Espaillat in New York’s 13th House District echoed the stunning 2018 victory by her fellow DSA diehard Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez over Democratic fixture Joe Crowley.

Mamdani endorsed Avila Chevalier, Lander and Valdez with the explicit promise that the lefty candidates would advance his “affordability agenda” in DC.

Just two members of Congress — Ocasio-Cortez and Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Michigan) — are DSA members. The primary victories by Avila Chevalier and Valdez, in the Seventh House District, put two more closer to Congress — a fact not lost on supporters.

“DSA! DSA!” chants erupted at Valdez’s victory party in East Williamsburg.

The candidates hold a slew of far-left views that were once fringe within the Democratic Party.

Valdez and Avila Chevalier both campaigned on their staunch opposition to Israel — labeling the Jewish state’s actions in Gaza a genocide — and on pushing their pro-Palestinian values. Like Mamdani, the pair called for a full divestment of Israel and cutting off of any sales of US arms to its ally in the Middle East.

Valdez also echoed the Mamdani admin’s radical housing platform, pushing for the seizure of property from bad landlords.

All three also want to abolish ICE and Avila Chevalier, a community organizer and doctoral candidate, has even said she doesn’t believe foreign criminals should be deported.

Lander, for his part, isn’t a DSA member but scored Mamdani’s backing by hitching his political wagon to the socialist after their chummy contest in last year’s mayoral primary.

Over a decades-long career in New York City politics, the former city comptroller and Brooklyn councilman established himself as an outspoken progressive advocate.

He became even more vocally leftist after embracing Mamdani, telling CNN as the race for the 10th House District was called in his favor that the US needs to “reset” its relationship with Israel.

“We shouldn’t be taking corporate PAC money from Wall Street and crypto and AI and AIPAC,” he said.

“We’ve got to fight harder for working families and have people see us fighting for them, and we have to reset the U.S. relationship with Israel.”

Lander has been critical of the Jewish state, and the issue became central as he challenged incumbent two-term Rep. Dan Goldman to rep Lower Manhattan and western Brooklyn.

While the trio of endorsements and victories drew cheers from Mamdani’s DSA pals, he ruffled feathers among establishment Dems and even his allies in the progressive Working Families Party.

Mamdani’s endorsement of Valdez, a one-term Queens state Assemblywoman, managed to tick off the retiring Rep. Nydia Velázquez.

Velázquez had backed Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso to succeed her in the district covering parts of Brooklyn and Queens.

Reynoso, a progressive, himself had backed Mamdani’s mayoral run. But he wasn’t part of the DSA, like Mamdani.

But Avila Chevalier proved a particularly problematic choice, in part because Mamdani endorsed her over Espaillat in the district representing Upper Manhattan and the northwest Bronx.

Beyond bucking Espaillat, Mamdani also fueled fears he was elevating a dangerous radical after Avila Chevalier’s long trail of past inflammatory social media posts — including lashing out at Joe Biden, calling the US “a f—ing disgrace” and contending that Israel doesn’t exist — came to light.

Avila Chevalier apologized for the posts, contending Espaillat and critics were “re-litigating” her years-old political positions that she moved past. But she also pointedly bristled at having to explain the posts, such as when she stormed off a radio show Tuesday when confronted over them.

The controversies ultimately didn’t scuttle her bid. As her tight lead held, Espaillat acknowledged defeat.

“Tonight wasn’t our night,” he said.

The sweep came despite voter turnout being substantially lower than last year.

Approximately 367,000 people voted in primaries via early voting, mail-in ballots or earlier on Tuesday, as of 3 p.m. on Tuesday.

That’s just a little over 10% of the 3.5 million registered Democrats in the city.

By comparison, more than 1 million Democrats voted in the ranked-choice Democratic primary for mayor last year, with Mamdani besting Cuomo with 573,169 votes to 443,299 votes, or about a 30% turnout.

— Additional reporting by Haley Brown, Hannah Fierick and Kevin Sheehan