What happened
All three leftist congressional candidates backed by New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani won their New York City primaries on Tuesday, with two unseating incumbents. More moderate Democrats won elsewhere: Army veteran Cait Conley in New York’s competitive 17th District, former Rep. Ben McAdams in Utah’s newly redrawn 1st District and state legislator Adrian Boafo in retiring Rep. Steny Hoyer’s 5th District seat in Maryland.
President Donald Trump’s candidates won in two upstate New York Republican primaries. In South Carolina’s GOP gubernatorial runoff, his original pick, Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette, lost to Attorney General Alan Wilson, who Trump co-endorsed last week.
Who said what
Mamdani “made a big bet and emerged victorious,” becoming an “undeniable power broker in New York politics,” The New York Times said. Doctoral student Darializa Avila Chevalier toppled Rep. Adriano Espaillat in New York’s 13th District, while another democratic socialist, state assembly member Claire Valdez, trounced outgoing Rep. Nydia Velázquez’s pick to succeed her in the 7th District. In the 10th District, Brad Lander unseated Rep. Dan Goldman.
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In two of Tuesday’s most expensive races, Micah Lasher defeated fellow state assembly member Alex Bores, Kennedy scion Jack Schlossberg and anti-Trump pundit George Conway to succeed Rep. Jerry Nadler (D) in New York’s 12th District, and millionaire Rep. April McClain Delaney (D) beat billionaire former Rep. David Trone (D) to represent Maryland’s 6th District.
What next?
The doubling of democratic socialists in the House, to four, will likely push the Democratic caucus to the left, the Times said, also “creating headaches” for Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) as he seeks to become House speaker.
