Mamdani-backed leftist challengers score major wins in New York primaries

Zohran Mamdani's three endorsed candidates all won New York City congressional primaries, including two challengers who ousted sitting Democrats. Mamdani backed Brad Lander in the 10th District, Claire Valdez in the 7th and Darializa Avila Chevalier in the 13th, and he joined Bernie Sanders at a June 18 rally at Kings Theatre in Brooklyn to push the slate.

Avila Chevalier, a 32-year-old organizer and democratic socialist, narrowly defeated five-term Rep. Adriano Espaillat in New York's 13th Congressional District. Lander, the former city comptroller, unseated two-term Rep. Dan Goldman in the 10th District. Valdez defeated Antonio Reynoso in the 7th District to succeed retiring Rep. Nydia Velázquez.

Gov. Kathy Hochul backed Goldman and Espaillat, Attorney General Letitia James backed Reynoso, and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries worked to defend incumbents while also trying to help Democrats win back the House. Espaillat said, “One endorsement does not make a race. Voters do.”

At the Brooklyn rally, Mamdani told supporters, “The Democratic Party must change,” and said Democrats had spent too much time managing decline instead of delivering material change for working people. Grace Mausser, co-chair of NYC-DSA, said the victories showed democratic socialists were building a winning coalition around issues including ending war, abolishing ICE, taxing the rich and universal healthcare.

By 6 p.m. on primary day, 420,000 New Yorkers had cast ballots in person or through early voting, not counting mail ballots. That was far below the 831,000 who had voted by the same point in the 2025 mayoral primary. The 13th District race had been rated Solidly Democratic before the primary.