In New York, Mamdani’s left-wing faction sweeps the board in the Democratic primaries
Candidates backed by the Muslim and socialist mayor have won key congressional seats
The mayor of New York Zohran Mamdani and his allies have secured a clear victory in the city’s Democratic primaries for Congress, putting forward candidates from the ‘insurgent’ left and the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) against candidates backed by the party establishment, the major trade unions and the Democratic leader in the House of Representatives.
The Islamist left is gaining ground
The result, which came on Tuesday, represents a show of strength for the political movement built around Mamdani and has sent shockwaves through the Democratic Party, which is already embroiled in an internal debate over its identity and the direction it should take.
For months, Mamdani has directly invested his political capital in three high-profile congressional contests, turning them into a referendum on the party line. All the candidates backed by the mayor share his progressive economic platform and have run campaigns heavily focused on ending US support for Israel, a sign of the shift in public opinion on this issue in New York too.
Israeli candidates defeated
In Brooklyn, the former comptroller Brad Lander, a close ally of Mamdani, defeated the MP Daniel Goldman – heir to the Levi Strauss family – by a margin of around 30 points, who is close to the pro-Israeli AIPAC and opposed the mayor in last year’s elections.
