The Machine Breaks Down in New York

[Celerity]

DSA’s and Mayor Mamdani’s candidates rocked establishment incumbents backed by unions and political bigwigs. In most cases it wasn’t even close.

https://prospect.org/2026/06/24/new-york-mamdani-dsa-brad-lander-claire-valdez-darializa-avila-chevalier/


Claire Valdez, Brad Lander, Zohran Mamdani, and Darializa Avila Chevalier. Credit: Anthony Behar/Sipa USA via AP Images; Nikada/iStock. Photo illustration by Lauren Pfeil.

Progressivism threw a wrench in New York’s machine politics Tuesday night, as a trio of leftist congressional candidates beat establishment and corporate-backed foes who came with far more money. Former NYC Comptroller Brad Lander’s race in the Tenth Congressional District was the first of the group called shortly after polls closed. He took the vote with nearly 66 percent of the vote against incumbent Dan Sachs Goldman, the Levi Strauss heir who poured millions of his own money into keeping his job. This race had become an afterthought for weeks, with Goldman fated to lose after prevailing over a split left wing in 2024.

In District Seven, New York Assemblymember Claire Valdez, a former UAW organizer, beat Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso with 56.1 percent of the vote. Reynoso had been longtime Rep. Nydia Velázquez’s choice to succeed her after she did not seek reelection this year, and he had backing from the state Working Families Party, a progressive force in New York. And in the 13th Congressional District, " target="_blank">Darializa Avila Chevalier beat Adriano Espaillat with 49.4 percent of votes, the closest of the three races. Her campaign faced nearly $7 million in super PAC spending and ongoing racist smears from Espaillat, whose senior advisor said in Spanish language media that Chevalier wanted to replace Dominican New Yorkers with Muslims and Haitians.

“Today we make it clear that the politics of the past ends today,” Chevalier told supporters Monday night after her election was called, adding that she stood with Haitians, a rejection of the racism and bigotry she faced. Her win represented a new dawn for the district, she said, which covers the upper Manhattan neighborhoods of Harlem, Washington Heights, and Morningside Heights and parts of the West Bronx. It includes Columbia University, where Chevalier organized for Palestinian rights and helped lead the student encampment in 2023 and 2024, which Columbia’s administration violently crushed with help from the New York City Police Department. “No longer will uptown and the Bronx be neglected, forgotten, or overlooked. No longer will we accept the politics that throws scraps at us and acts as if we should be grateful for them,” she said. “No longer will we accept anything less than respect and a seat at the table that our labor built.”

Political analysts viewed the primary as a test of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s power. He endorsed the three candidates and called them his slate; a memorable campaign ad during the New York Knicks playoff showed the four on a basketball court. “This is the team,” Mamdani said. “This is our year.” But city organizations that rallied behind the candidates and sent hundreds of volunteers to knock doors, as they did for Mamdani’s campaign, said that while it fits in with old narratives to imagine Mamdani as a “kingmaker,” he did not decide the election alone. The local ground campaign was assisted by outside spending that kept the candidates competitive. That included Justice Democrats and American Priorities, the new PAC designed to counter AIPAC’s influence in Democratic primaries. American Priorities spent $2.1 million in the Valdez and Chevalier primaries.

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