Zohran Mamdani took a big risk by endorsing three candidates in New York's Congressional races, targeting two powerful incumbents to knock off, and going against House leadership and retiring Congressman Jerry Nadler with challenges from DSA-aligned loyalists.
Mamdani beat the establishment in all three races, with one massive victory against Dan Goldman, who positioned himself as Trump's nemesis in the House of Representatives; Adriano Espaillat, the Chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and a prominent member of the House Progressive Caucus; and Nadler's chosen successor, Antonio Reynoso.
It's impossible to overstate how significant Mamdani's victories over the establishment are. The two most important leaders of the Democratic Party in office are Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries, with Jeffries actually representing New York City, and Mamdani beat them soundly in head-to-head matchups.
All three candidates ran on an anti-Israel, pro-Socialism platform, and all relied very heavily on Mamdani's support to overcome the headwinds created by establishment opposition. Two of the candidates ran on explicitly anti-American themes as well as anti-Jewish, and the most radical, Darializa Avila Chevalier, has called for the violent overthrow of the American government as the founder of CUAD.

Darializa Avila Chevalier was running against the most secure incumbent in Espaillat. She is a Muslim convert and says that Palestine is the issue of her life.
The @NRCC is reacting to the socialist sweep in a statement to @FoxNews:
— Bill Melugin (@BillMelugin_) June 24, 2026
"Tonight wasn't just a bad night for so-called 'Leader' Hakeem Jeffries. It was the night the Democrat establishment officially surrendered to Zohran Mamdani and the socialist wing of their party. Every…
BREAKING: Rep. Espaillat concedes. Mamdani-backed socialists have officially gone 3/3 and won all of their respective Democratic primaries for U.S. House in New York tonight. Their positions are some of the most extreme & far left Dems have seen:
Darializa Avila Chevalier (NY-13): Abolish prisons, abolish ICE, abolish borders, defund the police, and “all deportations are wrong”, including for violent criminals. She has called the U.S. an “effing disgrace”, and said in a prior social media post “I forgot to get napkins so I just wiped my hand on the American flag behind me.”
Claire Valdez (NY-7): Grant citizenship and voting rights to illegal aliens, use taxpayer funds for all transgender treatments, & eliminate private health insurance.
Brad Lander (NY-10): Abolish ICE, forgive all student loans (almost $2 trillion worth), expand the Supreme Court.
Mamdani gets a clean sweep, a bad night for Hakeem Jeffries, and big questions for where the Democratic Party is heading.
"Tonight wasn't just a bad night for so-called 'Leader' Hakeem Jeffries. It was the night the Democrat establishment officially surrendered to Zohran Mamdani and the socialist wing of their party. Every House Democrat, in safe and competitive districts alike, will now answer to the radicals calling the shots. And Americans should be terrified by where the Democrat Party is headed." – NRCC Spokesman Mike Marinella
A candidate so radical running against an incumbent so entrenched in a district so close to Hakeem Jeffries' district is frankly amazing, and the race wasn't even that close. Her radicalism and open antisemitism—she attended a rally on October 8th celebrating Hamas' terror attack—were assets, not liabilities, in the race to take out an undeniably progressive candidate with POC credentials, Israel-skeptic but not antisemitic policies, and deep roots in the community.
I’m sure this will work out great. https://t.co/8vYzpsbRgL
— Bonchie (@bonchieredstate) June 24, 2026
It is impossible to overstate how crucial the Democratic establishment felt the primaries were. They were a direct test of the power of the radical left, DSA-aligned members of the party against the "Organized Crime" Democrats who have dominated for decades.
Their defeat was crushing.
"This is a battle between the establishment and this insurgency. And the roof is collapsing on the Democratic party establishment tonight," @VanJones68 says. pic.twitter.com/YJxeI36ul3
— Kaitlan Collins (@kaitlancollins) June 24, 2026
Van Jones' analysis that the contests were not local, but representative of an insurgency that is winning across the nation, is absolutely correct. Socialists, often communists, won in important races across the nation and at all levels of office. Hasan Piker is over the moon, and he should be. If Zohran Mamdani is the new head of the movement—AOC is riding the wave and helped him get elected, but he is clearly the symbolic leader of this movement now—Hasan Piker is one of the key outside spokesmen.
Hasan Piker has endorsed Melat Kiros, CO-01 candidate, and Oliver Larkin, FL-25 candidate
— Popstonox (@Popstonox) June 24, 2026
Both are challenging incumbent Democrats, like Darializa Avila Chevalier who won the NY-13 primary tonight to defeat Adriano Espaillat pic.twitter.com/r5YAtYpinx
Radical Muslims are riding the wave of support for "Palestine" and communism. Mamdani, who talked openly of "seizing the means of production" and who has been very open about his plan to use rent control, massive fines, and tenant activism to drive landlords out of business so the city can take their properties, is ushering in communists and Islamist candidates around the country.
If you told New Yorkers back in 2001 that twenty five years later, they'd be choosing Muslims who thought that they deserved 9/11 to lead them, they'd have figured Al-Qaeda won. Maybe Al-Qaeda did win in the Democratic Party.
— John Hawkins (@johnhawkinsrwn) June 24, 2026
Chuck Schumer is a dead man walking. He will be primaried and taken out in the next election, and you can count on a Senator AOC, unless she somehow becomes the Democratic candidate for president in 2028, as it seems many of the Obama folks are grooming her to do.
Aber Kawas won her seat in the New York State Senate race after Zohran endorsed her.
— Drew Pavlou 🇦🇺🇺🇸🇺🇦🇹🇼 (@DrewPavlou) June 24, 2026
She previously wrote Tumblr posts praising a jihadist convicted of plotting to blow up a Manhattan synagogue.
Democratic Party is broken. https://t.co/CfEEHroitb pic.twitter.com/P9A0nFfynE
AOC is now the moderate faction of the DSA. She isn't even Muslim, which makes her something of an outlier among the rising communist faction of the Democrats. Mamdani is now directly quoting Koranic texts that refer to the colonization of non-Muslim lands, which of course was done through conquest. That is the ultimate goal, and obviously so.
Mamdani the Commie was bad enough, but now he is openly touting the expansionist nature of Islam.
— Jim Hanson (@JimHansonDC) June 24, 2026
"I consider my own faith Islam, a religion built on a narrative of migration."
Migration? How about bloody conquest. Islamic supremacism was spread by violence causing to the… pic.twitter.com/EgDVnf41o5
Mamdani the Commie was bad enough, but now he is openly touting the expansionist nature of Islam.
"I consider my own faith Islam, a religion built on a narrative of migration."
Migration? How about bloody conquest. Islamic supremacism was spread by violence causing to the deaths of tens of millions of people. Jihadist terror still kills many and the ongoing slaughter of Christians in Africa is a disgrace the world ignores.
That is just the violent side. There is also a civilizational jihad where Muslims move into new areas and when they have the numbers they take control. They are effectively using the freedoms of western countries against them. The UK is a perfect example where mass immigration with no assimilation has led areas that are countries unto themselves inside Britain.
The legal systems have been subjugated and the culture suppressed to where there are legitimately two-tiers of government.
Mamdani promises more of that here in the US.
He continues quoting the Koran
"Those who immigrated in the cause of Allah after being persecuted, we will surely bless them with a good home in this world."
That has been happening in places like Dearborn and Hamtrammck, Michigan and Paterson, New Jersey where the local population and governments are not just run by Muslims but increasingly run as Islamist enclaves. And even in Texas there are attempts to build Muslim cities to create a separate but supreme way of life.
This is what "decolonization" means: conquest. That's not hyperbole, although liberals will undoubtedly say it is because they have no idea who their "allies" are. Islam didn't spread by conversion, but by conquest, and what the left calls "migration" is, in fact, colonization. They don't intend to "decolonize" the West; they are engaged in a "Conquista."
Rep. Tom Suozzi to @AndrewSolender: "People who do not support the DSA wring their hands at cocktail parties, while the DSA is organizing."https://t.co/9vYN2N6OAY
— Alex Thompson (@AlexThomp) June 24, 2026
The DSA has been executing a plan to conquer the Democratic Party for over a decade, and that plan is coming to fruition. Two decades ago they were fringe figures with no viable path to victory but for a few seats here and there; now they own the Democratic Party, and it's relatively few seats where they have no chance of victory.
WATCH: Sen. John Fetterman on the state of the Democrat Party in 2026 after Socialist victories in primaries tonight:
— Steve Guest (@SteveGuest) June 24, 2026
“I remain as really the last Democrat in the Senate that's proud to stand with Israel”
“Hating on Israel and essentially anti-Semitism has become like, you… pic.twitter.com/8jsYlx34cl
If you doubt that, realize how shocking it must be to Democrats that Graham Platner, a man with so much baggage, defeated a massively popular incumbent governor to become the standard-bearer in Maine for the highest federal office. Opposed by Schumer, challenged by a political powerhouse, he outraised her by so much that she had to suspend her campaign.
💥Stephen A. Smith on Zohran Mamdani🇺🇸
— Jason Cohen 🇺🇸 (@JasonJournoDC) June 24, 2026
"If the Democratic Party becomes HIM, you have no chance ... on a national basis in terms of the presidency, in Senate seats, seats in the House — you have NO chance."
"You might have a Democratic Socialist sprinkled here and there — but…
💥Stephen A. Smith on Zohran Mamdani🇺🇸
"If the Democratic Party becomes HIM, you have no chance ... on a national basis in terms of the presidency, in Senate seats, seats in the House — you have NO chance."
"You might have a Democratic Socialist sprinkled here and there — but that ain't what America is! America is about capitalism! America is about dollars and cents! America is about an economy, a flourishing economy!"
"And you know what it's not about!? Free stuff. Somebody gotta say it, so I'm gon' say it!"
https://x.com/JasonJournoDC/status/1939984931284713639/video/1
It's unclear, so far, whether any of these candidates can win general elections outside Deep Blue pockets. Obviously, Stephen A. Smith and establishment Democrats doubt it, and let's hope they are right.
But the DSA is undoubtedly winning in a hostile takeover of the Democratic Party. I wouldn't be surprised if Mamdani was recruiting a challenger to Hakeem Jeffries, if for no other reason than to keep him sweating and inclined to pull back from his opposition to the DSA.
Flashback to Hakeem Jeffries in November, directly asked if he sees Mamdani as the Democrats’ future:
— Bill Melugin (@BillMelugin_) June 24, 2026
“No, I think the future of the Democratic Party is going to fall, as far as we’re concerned, relative to the House Democratic Caucus and members who are doing great work all…
Flashback to Hakeem Jeffries in November, directly asked if he sees Mamdani as the Democrats’ future:
“No, I think the future of the Democratic Party is going to fall, as far as we’re concerned, relative to the House Democratic Caucus and members who are doing great work all across the country.”
Two of those incumbent Jeffries-backed House Democrats lost to Mamdani-backed socialists last night.
Jeffries is one of the biggest losers last night; the man who would be Speaker is looking over his shoulders, not only forced to defend the Democratic Party's grift against Trump's attempts to eliminate the massive fraud that funds his party, but now forced to defend his left flank against a successful communist insurgency.
Good luck with that. The DSA has a message for Jeffries:
The crowd at the Claire Valdez victory party chanted “you’re next” at Democrat Leader Hakeem Jeffries after all three Socialists won their Congressional races last night.
— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) June 24, 2026
He has lost control over the party.
This is Mamdani’s Communist party now. pic.twitter.com/7LGzLwWatT
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