There is simply no reason for the corporate Democratic establishment to be doing the right-wing’s work for them.
Miles Mogulescu
Jul 01, 2026
President Donald Trump used red-scare rhetoric to denounce the progressive winners in New York’s Democratic primary last week as “godless communists.” Rather than explaining that the progressives are not communists in the vein of the Soviet Union or communist China but social democrats in the vein of Scandinavia, a group of so-called “moderate” Democratic politicians piled on to Trump’s red-baiting.
Two days after the primaries, this group of 15 corporate Democrats (let’s just call them what they are) attacked the winning Democrats in an open letter drafted by Democratic Rep. Tom Suozzi of New York proclaiming, “we are capitalist, not socialist.” In an interview with the New York Times, Suozzi added “that message from Tuesday is not the message that I embrace.”
It’s one thing for corporate Democrats and progressive Democrats to debate policy differences between them during primaries. But once Democratic voters have chosen their primary winners, it’s destructive to continue to attack the winners as some kind of semi-commies. The right-wing will do plenty of that. If they want to win a majority, Democrats shouldn’t be piling on. (I would add that after the primaries and before the general election, progressives shouldn’t be ideologically attacking moderate Democratic nominees as corporate dupes, either.)
It’s ignorant and deceptive for moderate Democrats to declare they are “capitalist.” What do they mean by “capitalist” anyway? The US, like every developed democracy, is a mix of capitalist and socialist. Are the “moderates” opposed to such “socialist” policies as Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, SNAP, free public education, anti-trust enforcement, and environmental regulation? If they are, they should say so. If they’re not, they should stop declaring themselves as “capitalists” and denouncing “socialism.”
Indeed, the Bernie Sanders-styled “democratic socialists” are not really socialists at all. They do not call for government ownership of the means of production. They are, as they largely identify, social democrats in the vein of Scandinavian countries and Democratic hero Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
In a recent email to his supporters, Sanders wrote: “Today, we have unprecedented income and wealth inequality with the rich getting much richer while working families struggle to survive. We have a corrupt campaign finance system which allows billionaires to buy elections and undermine our democracy. Our health care system is broken and wildly expensive. We have a major housing crisis with 800,000 homeless and millions of families spending half their incomes or more on housing. People are deeply worried about the impact that AI and robotics will have on their lives.”
What part of this message do “moderates” like Suozzi think Democrats should not “embrace”? Are they opposed to Medicare for All, higher taxes on billionaires, strong anti-trust enforcement, and tough environmental regulations? If they oppose such progressive policies, then should have the courage to say so and propose what they consider to be more “capitalist” policies. It they can’t do that, then they should stop their red-baiting rhetoric which only helps MAGA.
Brad Lander, a self-described democratic socialist who beat self-described “moderate” Dan Goldman in the New York primary and will almost certainly be going to Congress, said that he hoped Democrats would “spend more time building a unified Democratic message” than on “factional infighting.” Lander made clear that voters “want to see people who fight harder for working families. And that should unify the Democratic Party.”
“That’s not progressives versus moderates,” added Lander. “That’s fighters versus folders.”
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Miles Mogulescu
Miles Mogulescu is an entertainment attorney/business affairs executive, producer, political activist and writer.
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When Trump Sounds the Alarm Against Mamdani’s “communists” and Their Electoral Triumphs!
“Communism is the greatest threat to our country since its founding 250 years ago”! Undoubtedly, this thunderous statement by U.S. President Donald Trump, issued in writing on June 26, is intended to sound the alarm and rally behind him all the conservatives, reactionaries, and anti-communists in the United States ahead of the midterm elections this coming November. Nevertheless, with this statement, Trump is, for once, spot on. And this is much to the embarrassment of the liberal—or even “moderate” left-wing—media around the world, which persist in labeling Mamdani a… “Democrat” and pretend not to understand whom or what the U.S. president is referring to when they claim he is talking about the leaders of the… Democratic Party!
And yet, Trump is not only referring specifically to Zohran Mamdani and his fellow Democratic Socialists of America (DSA)—who just made a huge splash in last week’s Democratic Party primaries—but he is also fiercely attacking the Democratic Party leadership with these words because they are not fighting back and are letting “the communists do whatever they want”: “ In many ways, they’re allowing them to go their own way. They’re afraid they will lose their Election, they’re afraid of conflict. They’re not smart enough or tough enough to fight this plague. If they fought them the way they fight Republicans, or me, they’d be victorious, but they don’t have the courage to do so. ”. And to leave no room for doubt, Trump describes his assertions as “a statement on the recent election of communists in our country”, while clarifying that these newly elected officials ”are not social democrats. These are hardcore, godless communists“. Moreover, according to accounts from Republican senators who met with Trump in the wake of the Democratic Socialists’ electoral successes, he “at times let his emotions get the better of him, explaining in essence that communism was gaining the upper hand”…(1)
That said, it must be acknowledged that Trump is largely correct in dramatizing the situation. On the one hand, victories by DSA activists in the Democratic Party primaries are now becoming the norm, with or even without the overt support of Mamdani—whom the American media currently describe as a “kingmaker”—while there are already DSA mayors in New York, Seattle, soon in Washington, D.C., and in a few months likely in Los Angeles. On the other hand, the Democratic Party leadership is terribly unpopular, demoralized, completely discredited among its base, lacking in ideas, without a platform, without figures capable of rivaling Mamdani, Bernie Sanders, or Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and above all, devoid of any will to stand up to Trump. The result is that little-known or virtually unknown young women, as well as young men from the DSA, have recently managed to defeat—and often even crush—incumbent representatives and senators who are part of the Democratic establishment, supported and financed by the wealthy and other billionaires, and above all by AIPAC, the Israeli lobby that until recently was all-powerful.
At this point, it is worth digressing to highlight the decisive role of the “Mamdani phenomenon” in what amounts to the historic failure of Netanyahu and his Israel in the war in the Persian Gulf. By conquering New York, “the world’s largest Jewish city”—thanks in part to the active support of tens of thousands of young New York Jews, whom he himself had mobilized and organized—Mamdani accelerated and deepened what was already the “divorce” of American Jews from the Zionist state, as well as the historic shift in American public opinion in favor of the Palestinians. Given Israel’s extreme and long-standing dependence on financial, military, and diplomatic support from the United States—as well as from the Jewish community in that country— there is no doubt that the aforementioned events have greatly contributed to Israel’s weakening, to Trump and his administration distancing themselves from Israel, and ultimately to what has made the Jewish state, according to U.S. Vice President JD Vance, “the most hated in the world”. And all this at a time when Israel is facing its moment of truth and is plunged into a terminal crisis—a crisis from which there is likely no turning back!
But let’s return to Trump’s United States, which is also plunged into a historic crisis. Trump is right to be concerned and to sound the alarm, for he and his regime are in crisis, to the point of appearing almost incapable of standing up to Zohran Mamdani and his “communists.” For example, there is no Republican leader—Trump included—who can rival the leaders of the “communist” camp in popularity. In fact, all polls show Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Mamdani, and Bernie Sanders to be far more popular than any leaders of either the Democratic or Republican parties! As a result, a potential presidential run by Ocasio-Cortez in 2028 is gaining credibility and popular support…
All these events—which might have seemed impossible and pure political fiction just a few years ago—are now possible because they reflect the very real, unprecedented, and increasingly profound and rapid transformation that North American society has undergone over the past two tumultuous decades. As a result, the percentage of American citizens who believe it would be “a good thing” for their country to transition from capitalism to socialism now exceeds one-third (38%) of the population, up from just 18% in 2010. And in a very telling detail, it is now the vast majority of Democrats (72%) and Independents (60%) who believe that the capitalist system is not working well or is not working at all! (2)
In short, the recent avalanche of electoral successes by Democratic Socialist activists, the immense popularity of Zohran Mamdani, Ocasio-Cortez, and above all Bernie Sanders—or even the radical shift in public opinion in favor of the Palestinians and against Israel—did not come out of nowhere and are not fleeting products of some passing protest movement by American citizens. In reality, they are deeply rooted in the historic (multi)crisis facing the United States and its society, a crisis that has been greatly accelerated and deepened by the rise to power of that Nazified Caligula, Donald Trump. Not to mention, of course, the most popular American of all, that old independent senator Bernie Sanders, whose two presidential campaigns have radicalized and politicized an entire generation of young Americans—who now find themselves at the forefront of what Trump somewhat blithely calls the “communist threat” looming over the American superpower. And finally, we can be sure of only one thing: the course of events promises to be incredibly exciting…
Notes
1. See also our article: Towards the inevitable clash to the death between Trump and Mamdani!: https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/towards-the-inevitable-clash-to-the-death-between-trump-and-mamdani/
2. How open are Americans to socialism, after all?: https://edition.cnn.com/2026/06/25/politics/democratic-socialism-primary-elections
Tuesday 30 June 2026, by Dan La Botz
New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani, 34, a member of the Democratic Socialists of America who took office on January 1, 2026, has already advanced his agenda and become a political king-maker. Mamdani ran promising universal childcare, lowering rents, and making buses free. He hasn’t achieved all, but he is well on his way. At the same time, he was able to dominate the recent elections in New York City.
Mamdani succeeded in forming a partnership with New York Governor Kathy Hochul to provide $73 million for the childcare program for 2-year-olds. This will expand soon to $425 million to provide for 12,000 children and cover all eligible children within four years. He has also established an unprecedented rent freeze on New York City’s roughly 1 million rent-stabilized apartments. But Mamdani has been unable to get sufficient financial support from New York State to create the free public transportation system which is his goal.
The mayor has called for the abolition of the federal government’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and reinforced the city’s “sanctuary” policies by prohibiting city government agencies from cooperating with ICE.
Mamdani, who is himself Muslim, has also spoken out forcefully against antisemitism and Islamophobia. He has himself been unjustly accused of antisemitism by 600 Jewish rabbis and the conservative media for his remark that American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), the Zionist lobbying group, is “a monster” that attempts to control legislation. And he is personally the victim of anti-Islamic attacks, such as Alabama Senator Tommy Tuberville’s post showing Mamdani’s photo alongside the terrorist attack on the Twin Towers on 9/11 together with the caption “the enemy is inside the gates.”
Stunning Election Success
Rising above personal and political attacks, Mamdani used his political influence and DSA’s remarkable mobilizing capacity to win stunning victories in the recent Democratic Party primary elections in New York City. Mamdani backed as candidate for Congress former rival for mayor Brad Lander, who as former comptroller had been the highest-level Jewish official in NYC government. Lander defeated incumbent Dan Goldman, who was backed by the Israel lobby. Mamdani’s other candidates for Congress, both DSA members and virtual unknowns also won. State assemblywoman Claire Valdez, 36, and campus activist Darializa Avila Chevalier, 32, both defeated powerful progressive rivals. Valdez defeated Antonio Reynoso, the Brooklyn borough president, and Chevalier won over Representative Adriano Espaillat, the influential chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. Having won their primaries, these candidates are virtually assured of election to Congress given the notorious weakness of a Republican Party in New York City.
Mamdani and his crew defeated long established Democratic politicians, progressives backed by the Working Families Party, and candidates supported by the labor union bureaucracy. The Mamdani-DSA victories have shaken up the local Democratic Party and the city’s progressives too.
“These victories prove that democratic socialists are building a winning coalition,” NYC-DSA co-chair Grace Mausser said in a statement. “While the Democratic establishment and MAGA fascists ignore the needs of working people, democratic socialists are speaking to the ever-growing base of voters demanding we end war, abolish ICE, tax the rich, and win universal healthcare.”
The question is whether Mamdani’s influence and DSA’s politics and organizing ability can really reach beyond New York City and have an impact on the national Democratic Party, dominated as it is by moderate professional politicians and corporate donors. Can Mamdani and DSA reach the heartland?
28 June 2026
Dan La Botz
Dan La Botz was a founding member of Teamsters for a Democratic Union (TDU). He is the author of Rank-and-File Rebellion: Teamsters for a Democratic Union (1991). He is also a co-editor of New Politics and editor of Mexican Labor News and Analysis.
“Yet another example of Vickie Paladino calling for the federal government to retaliate against people she disagrees with,” said congressional candidate Darializa Avila Chevalier.
City Council member Vickie Paladino looks at Council member Chi Ossé as she speaks during a meeting at City Hall on November 13, 2024 in New York City.
(Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)
Julia Conley
Jun 30, 2026
COMMON DREAMS
Darializa Avila Chevalier, the progressive organizer whose primary victory over five-term Democratic Congressman Adriano Espaillat last week stunned the party’s establishment, was among those calling for the expulsion of New York City Council member Vickie Paladino Tuesday night after the Republican issued “a thinly veiled call” for the government “to kill” democratic socialists.
On the social media platform X, Paladino posted an image of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) 2025-27 National Political Committee, including national co-chairs Ashik Siddique and Megan Romer, and mused that in the past, government agencies may have mobilized to kill the 27 people in the picture to stop their left-wing activities.
“There was a time in our history, not too long ago, when the CIA/FBI would’ve made sure unabashed revolutionaries like this were neutralized one way or another,” said Paladino (R-19). “In fact, that was basically the entire point of having them.”
Paladino appeared to be referring to the FBI’s Counterintelligence Program (COINTELPRO), which surveilled, infiltrated, and tried to disrupt groups and movements that fought for civil rights and against the US war in Vietnam. COINTELPRO was involved in the 1969 raid in Chicago in which police killed Black Panther Party leaders Fred Hampton and Mark Clark.
“This is insane,” said US Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) after Paladino suggested the US government should use the FBI and CIA to “neutralize” DSA organizers, who are working to elect advocates for Medicare for All, universal childcare, and abolishing US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, among other increasingly popular progressive proposals.
Chevalier, a member of the DSA’s New York City chapter, called for Paladino to be “expelled.”
“We need public leaders who will fight for a politics of life and the council member has shown time and time again that she does not,” said Chevalier.
The Brooklyn Young Democrats also accused Paladino of “encouraging political violence” and called on the City Council to condemn her comments “and consider appropriate action—including expulsion.”
Ryan Deitsch, co-founder of the gun control group A March for Our Lives, addressed the New York Police Department and Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch, asking whether Paladino’s threat raised any “red flags.”
The council member’s comments came less than a week after a number of progressive primary victories in New York City, including Chevalier’s. The election results led centrist Democrats to quickly mobilize against democratic socialist candidates, warning that progressive contenders are “bomb-throwers, not problem solvers”—even as Mamdani secured a two-year rent freeze that will affect roughly 1 million rent-stabilized apartments, as New Yorkers and people across the country struggle with rising costs.
One DSA organizer said in response to Paladino, “Imagine if Zohran Mamdani said something about having the [Republican National Committee] chair and co-chair ‘neutralized one way or another’ with a secret police force.”
“Expel Vickie Paladino from the NYC Council,” they added, “and have her arrested and charged for making a terrorist threat.”
‘The Israel Lobby is Toxic, and That Was Proven Again’: Breaking Down the NYC Primaries
On Tuesday night, all three of the Democratic candidates endorsed by New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani won their primaries.
The victories of Brad Lander (over two-term Rep. Dan Goldman in NY-10), Darializa Avila Chevalier (over five-term Rep. Adriano Espaillat in NY-13), and Claire Valdez (to replace a retiring Rep. Nydia Velazquez in NY-7) have ignited a debate about the future of the Democratic Party and generated a meltdown among pro-Israel centrists.
Will this progressive insurgency extend beyond New York? What does it say about Mamdani’s power in the city? How will Lander, who has equivocated on the issue of Palestine, govern on the issue in Congress?
Mondoweiss U.S. correspondent Michael Arria asked political consultant Peter Feld about these questions and more.
Mondoweiss: Did anything about last night’s results surprise you?
Feld: Well, I didn’t expect Valdez to win by such a large margin, but it just goes to show the strength of Mamdani’s operation and the strategy that they put together when they chose these three races. They were well-selected.
That’s a good segue. Can you talk about the Mamdani of it all? He goes 3 for 3 with his endorsement picks amid the usual right-wing, pro-Israel campaigns smearing him as an alleged antisemite.
What does last night say about Mamdani’s political power in the city and the power of NYC-DSA more broadly?
I think both Mamdani and DSA really exponentially increased their power yesterday. Mamdani and his team ran these races in a way that would really cement the understanding that he’s created a new type of organizing in the city, as his victory last year showed.
It also demonstrates, as you noted a few weeks ago, that the smear campaigns that have been used against Mamdani and against Palestine advocates don’t work anymore. That we’re going to have a member of Congress who attended the October 8th rally in Times Square, which would have been considered politically disqualifying, but now turns out to be actually qualifying. It’s been pointed out in in quite a few ways that support for Palestine is a touchstone of authenticity at a time when Democratic politicians really are lacking in it, as you can see in the party’s low ratings.
One indication of that is the weakness of several incumbents, like Dan Goldman and Adriano Espaillat, but also a number of others that nobody was watching, who all scored surprisingly low victories against opponents that didn’t have much money or name recognition, like Grace Meng winning with just 57% against an opponent without much money.
And I think we’re going to see it’s not over yet. We’re going to see this in other states and other primaries where there is no Mamdani, and that will be the real test. Mamdani certainly showed the careful strategy in his planning, and demonstrated the strength he brings when he endorses political candidate and puts his muscle behind them.
But the issues also drove a lot of these results, particularly in District 10.
Some people asked, why is Dan Goldman in trouble? He’s been a standard issue, garden variety liberal Democrat on 90-odd percent of the issues. So why would he lose? Well, we have the answer. It was because he was completely out of step with his district, including a lot of Jewish voters, on an issue that people wrongly thought would consolidate Jews in favor of someone like Goldman. We learned that Jewish voters and non-Jewish voters in lower Manhattan and parts of Brooklyn in that district do not want to be represented by somebody who voted to sanction the ICC, who voted to censure Rashida Tlaib, who’s voted for every weapons system Israel ever wanted, who couldn’t call it a genocide. That doesn’t represent us. And it’s an important enough issue that we will make a change.
You alluded to this, but we have the midterms coming up, and the Republicans seemingly have some Trump-created problems as a result of the Iran War.
There’s a standard refrain from centrists after results like last night’s, when people say New York City doesn’t represent the rest of the country. However, as you say, the issue of Israel/Palestine obviously transcends the location.
Do you believe progressive campaigns will help shape the midterms in some capacity, and what would you say to people who say NYC is not reflective of the wider United States?
Well, I think that the insurgent progressives are going to help save the midterms.
First of all, we’ve seen lots of places besides New York City where people with similar perspectives on Palestine have won upset victories. Analilia Mejia and Adam Hamawy in New Jersey, Chris Rabb in Pennsylvania, and at the end of this month, there’s a strong possibility that Melat Kiros in Colorado is going to defeat longtime incumbent Diana DeGette. We have primaries to come in Florida. We have general election contests in California that will be progressive Democrats versus mainstream Democratic incumbents such as Doris Matsui and Jimmy Gomez. So we’ll find out soon enough that this type of movement is not limited to New York.
But I would also suggest to people who say that New York isn’t the world that they look at the polling on Israel and the Iran war nationally. It’s impossible to get those huge numbers we’re seeing react negatively to Israel if it were only New York.
In Michigan, it looks like we’re going to have Abdul El-Sayed cruising to a victory in the primary. I predict he’ll win the general election and go to the Senate. I believe he will be a stronger candidate in the general election than his main opponent, Haley Stevens, would be. We’ll have to see if some progressive insurgents can win primaries in swing districts and then prove we can carry those districts in November with a similar message — not just primaries in blue districts.
There’s been a lot of focus on the three candidates Mamdani backed, but there were other left-wing victories as well. Can you talk about those?
DSA won seven out of the eight legislative races that they that they targeted. And the eighth one was a very narrow loss. So the power of DSA and the Mamdani left in New York certainly goes beyond these three congressional races, and it will embolden other challenges in the future. I don’t think we’re done yet. A lot of incumbents at the state Assembly level who were not targeted by DSA and weren’t followed closely got very low reelection percentages. It makes sense because it’s really the same voters.
Organizing breeds organizing and victory breeds victory. I think we’re looking at a movement that’s really feeling its power and deciding where to go next.
Last weekend we saw a lot of establishment Democrats crying to the New York Times about how they were Mamdani’s allies and now he’s turned against them. Well, Mamdani did the biggest favors for the establishment you could ever imagine. He vaporized Chi Osse’s challenge to Hakeem Jeffries challenge, and he vaporized Kathy Hochul’s challenge, and both of them would have been fighting the same voter revolt that took down Espaillat and Goldman. A lot of people including me were upset, but other people are saying this was smart because he was able to focus on these three winnable races and have the maximum impact.
But Hakeem Jeffries should not be resting easy, not only for a future re-election, but even in a speakership, there’s a decent chance that the bloc of progressives that come in next January if Democrats win the House will be larger than the Democratic majority. And those progressives will be able to put Hakeem Jeffries’ speakership, should it happen, into a chokehold over issues like Israel and corporate giveaways and healthcare, and a lot of other things that are important to the people who elected them. Neither Avila Chevalier nor Valdez have committed to support Jeffries for Speaker.
It seems like the writing had been on the wall for Goldman for over a year. Are there current incumbents who should be getting nervous about potential challengers?
There are quite a few incumbents who could face challenges in two years. But we have to see how they perform once they’re back in Congress next year. One of the great benefits of a stunning sweep like we saw yesterday is that it puts fear into the establishment Democrats.
And it may change the way that they act in office.
So I do think that there’s every possibility of a wide palette of challenges in 2028 to establishment Democrats, not least of whom would be Chuck Schumer, who I think almost could plan his retirement at this point. I have a feeling that Schumer looked at last night’s results and is seriously reconsidering whether he even wants to subject himself to the kind of campaign he will have — whether that’s a challenge from AOC or, should she decide instead to run for president, some other progressive running against him.
Schumer is a clear example because he’s the leader in the Senate. Jeffries is the leader in the House. So both of them are really in a unique position, because they don’t have a free hand to govern the way they would want to, looking at last night.
Beyond that, I would say let’s see if the surviving establishment Democrats who go back to Washington next year get the message or not. If they do, then it will change who gets challenged.
What does last night mean for pro-Israel lobbying groups, like AIPAC? It’s obviously a big loss for them and their message.
The Israel lobby is toxic, and that was proven again yesterday. Nevertheless, they’re still crowing about several victories that they had in a variety of districts, including NY-17, where their preferred candidate Cait Conley was nominated. They won the race in Maryland where they had spent a lot of money. Obviously they failed in these three marquee races in New York, but we’re not going to be able to stop fighting them. They don’t just shrivel up and fade away. They adapt their tactics.
Now, things may be changing faster than they can adapt. We’ve talked before about some of the things that they’ve done to adapt. For one thing, they’ve thrown in the towel on aid to Israel in order to preserve arms sales. So that will become the new battle.
They used a lot of tactics against Darializa Avila Chevalier that they previously used against Jamaal Bowman and Cori Bush, but this time they didn’t work. I’m talking about criticizing her for what she said about Kamala Harris and Joe Biden, for example. Those were big messages that were used in 2024 against Bowman and Bush. But they didn’t work against Darializa. Neither did her old, deleted social media posts. And so what we’ve also learned is that sometimes vast amounts of money are not enough.
Now the money does do something. Espaillat came closer to winning than I thought he would, because his poll numbers were in the 30s, and he ended up doing better than that. That could be the result of the massive money that was spent against Avila Chevalier in the final two weeks. But it didn’t work. And they do have to hide their hand as best they can. You have investigative journalists like Ryan Grim and Mondoweiss that draw attention to the secret spending that AIPAC’s doing and exposing it. And then that becomes the issue. It became an issue in the Valdez versus Reynoso race. It certainly became an issue in the Espaillat-Chevalier race.
And their desperation was so great in the Espaillat race that we saw the most intense and atrocious racism used against Avila Chevalier, implying that her ethnic background was was Haitian rather than Dominican, as if Haitian is a slur, using a version of great replacement theory to fearmonger that Mamdani and Avila Chevalier were trying to push out the longstanding Dominican community. Thankfully this was rejected, but it just shows the desperation that as much as AIPAC and its allies scream racism — claiming that Mamdani was attacking Jews when he called AIPAC “dark money monsters” — they are totally comfortable using racism if that’s what they think they need to do to win.
It’s an incredible sign of changing times that, while AIPAC has to hide its hand and avoid any mention of Israel, a successful candidate for Congress like Claire Valdez would air a TV ad that is all about Palestine. I don’t think anyone would have believed this even two years ago. I think it has a lot to do with why she was able to defeat a solid, popular progressive like Antonio Reynoso, who was supported by most labor unions and the Working Families Party.
Let’s talk about Lander, who was endorsed by Mamdani and has criticized Israel, despite referring to himself as a Zionist and equivocating on some of these issues. How do you see him governing?
I think we have to see what Brad Lander is going to do, because he won overwhelmingly.
And I think he proved that there is an upside to being many things to many people. We talked earlier about Mamdani’s “team” approach. One of the most interesting things that happened was Mamdani going to great lengths to co-brand the three candidates he was endorsing, including in a very powerful ad that linked all three and ran during the Knicks finals. The ad showed him passing the basketball to Lander, who then passed it to Avila Chevalier, who then passed it to Valdez.
But Lander, trying to appeal to everyone and thread the needle, had to disavow any endorsement of Avila Chevalier. He had let it be known that he left DSA after their Twitter feed promoted that October 8th rally. And of course, Avila Chevalier was at that rally. I passed by a canvass last week in Tompkins Square Park where the volunteers presented Lander with a t-shirt that showed the basketball ad imagery of all four, Mamdani and the three candidates. Lander sheepishly folded it up and said that he’d be giving it to his son, but he wouldn’t be wearing it.
So, Lander is the poster child for all the contortions that liberal Zionists have to go through this new political environment. But he’s a very talented politician. Lander really leads a charmed life. He came in a distant third for mayor, but managed to convert that into a congressional seat. That’s about as impressive an accomplishment for a politician as we’re likely to see. So he’s one to watch.
He’s also very ambitious. I wouldn’t rule out Lander running for Senate — probably not in two years, it’s too soon for him to go up against Schumer, but maybe in four years against Kirsten Gillibrand, who should be feeling very, very nervous right now. She shares all of Schumer’s liabilities and has managed to skate under the radar. She said horrifically racist things against Mamdani last year. She proudly serves on the Senate Abraham Accords Committee. I don’t think that’s going to fly in 2030. And she’s very lucky that she’s not up for reelection sooner than that.
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