The president of the United States, Donald Trump, likes to boast of the almost omnipresent power he has among Republicans. It assures, although it is not always true, that it is enough for him to point out a candidate for him to prevail in the party for whatever position. Well, this Tuesday Trump had a competitor on the opposite ideological extreme: Zohran Mamdani. The mayor of New York has achieved a very important political success with the victory of the three candidates for the House of Representatives whom he had supported in the Democratic primaries this Tuesday.
The victory of Brad Lander, Claire Valdez and Darializa Avila Chevalier practically ensures that these three leftist politicians will travel to Washington to be elected members of the House of Representatives. Because although The real elections will be held on November 3, All three aspire to the seat in districts with a very large Democratic majority, where Republicans have nothing to do.
This confirms that the surprising victory last year in the largest city in the United States of a Muslim politician born in Uganda It was neither an isolated event nor an accident.. Mamdani is no longer just a person. It is a political movement. “This is not the end. It’s the beginning of something,” he said euphorically to his followers on Tuesday.
With this resounding victory, the sector of the Democratic Party that demands a much harsher attitude towards the Israeli Government. “We cannot continue paying for Netanyahu’s wars with our tax dollars. Democratic voters are saying this loud and clear,” Lander said Tuesday night. The generational change – the other two victorious candidates are under 40 years old – is also explained by the voices that demand more attention to issues such as the cost of living, a particularly serious problem in a city like New York.
These three new names on the map of national politics will swell the ranks of the most left-wing sector of the Democrats in Washington. It is a fraction very dissatisfied with work by fellow New Yorker Hakeem Jeffries, who aspires to become president of the House of Representatives if his party takes the majority from the Republicans on November 3.
The most important thing about this day is the message that Mamdani and his sponsored children send. The mayor himself verbalized it last Thursday. “The party of the past will not be the one that guides us towards the future. We need a Democratic Party with character,” he said while still wearing the Knicks jersey that he had put on over his eternal black suit to receive the NBA champion team, after giving an exciting speech, which has all the earmarks of being one of those that will be remembered years later.
Another sign of these primaries is the importance gained by the socialist movement, a word that until recently seemed banned in the United States. Both Valdez and Avila Chevalier belong, like Mamdani himself, to the Democratic Socialists of the United States. Lander, who is Jewish, was a member of this organization until he left it in 2023 following the Hamas attacks on Israel on October 7 of that year. “I will be one of the Jewish members of Congress most willing to defend the human rights of Palestinians. And I will strongly oppose intolerance directed against Jews. They are not two different issues, it is the same,” said Lander, who also acknowledged how divided they are in his party over US relations with Israel and Palestine, something he asked to “face head on.”
risky bet
Mamdani’s bet was really risky. Because he supported candidates in some cases considered newcomers to their districts. And that they were facing people with a great pedigree. Like that of Congressman Adriano Espaillat, the first Dominican to arrive at the Capitol and head of the Hispanic caucus. This has been the closest race, Avila Chevalier has defeated Espaillat by a handful of votes: 49% to 46%.
With your movement, Mamdani also angered the historic Nydia Velázquez, who left his seat in Congress after holding it for more than 30 years. Velázquez did not hide his discomfort that the mayor supported the candidate Claire Valdez against the man she had appointed. But now he will have to accept that the one in charge, at least in New York, is the mayor.
In addition to measuring Mamdani’s power, the attention of these primaries was on New York’s 12th district, which covers much of Manhattan. The historic Jerry Nadler, a congressman since 1992 and a heavyweight in the party, had retired there. In the race to replace him Jack Schlossberg, the only male grandson of the legendary murdered president Fohn Fitzgerald Kennedy, introduced himself. Despite the initial attention aroused by Kennedy’s emergence into politics, a family that feeds the myth of this country with a president, attorneys general (and also Donald Trump’s current Secretary of Health), the short history of Schlossberg’s campaign was soon seen. Finally, he came in a humiliating third place, with 11% of the votes.
Retaining the seat will be Micah Lasher, a member of the state Assembly backed by the outgoing congressman, who has narrowly overtaken the young Alex Bores, who had attracted much attention for his proposal to regulate artificial intelligence. In this district, one of the richest in the entire United States and with the highest percentage of Jews, the winds of change from Mamdani have not reached and a candidate from the establishment. But it is also true that here the leftist mayor had not supported anyone. Also in Manhattan, Mamdani’s magic remains intact.
