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Zohran Mamdani just became a congressional kingmaker

The NYC mayor endorsed three congressional candidates against the Democratic establishment. They all won.

Zohran Mamdani just took his first steps toward remaking the national Democratic Party.

The New York City mayor took on his state’s Democratic establishment in three key congressional primaries Tuesday — and in all three, he prevailed.

Brad Lander, the former city comptroller who made an alliance with Mamdani when they were both running for mayor, took down two-term Rep. Dan Goldman in a landslide victory.

Claire Valdez, a Democratic Socialists of America member serving her first term in the state assembly, won an open House seat primary against the party leaders’ favored choice, Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso.

Most shocking of all was the victory of Darializa Avila Chevalier, a DSA member who argues that deportation is wrong and supports prison abolition, over a five-term member of Congress, Rep. Adriano Espaillat. If she now wins the general election, as expected, she’d likely be the furthest left member of Congress.

Mamdani had featured all three of the victorious candidates in his eye-catching “basketball ad,” aired during the New York Knicks championship playoff run — naming all three as part of his “team.” The results were a testament to his political strength and sway in the city — and showed again that the DSA can now take on and defeat the city’s traditional Democratic machines.

The results were also a dramatic demonstration of a new reality in Democratic primaries:........

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