On Tuesday, left-aligned institutions working within the Democratic Party flexed their political muscles as insurgent progressive candidates carrying all three major contested congressional primaries on Tuesday — two of which were against high-profile incumbents. While the rest of the political class is arguing over whether the brand of democratic socialism that looked ascendant in New York can be exported to other parts of the country, some of the groups behind Tuesday’s win are already testing just that.
In New York’s congressional primaries, the three winning candidates aligned with the city’s popular mayor, Zohran Mamdani. They include state assembly member Claire Valdez, former city comptroller Brad Lander and community organizer Darializa Avila Chevalier. In these races, Lander and Chevalier defeated incumbent representatives while Valdez defeated the sitting Brooklyn Borough president, Antonio Reynoso, who also enjoyed the support of the outgoing Rep. Nydia Velázquez, D-N.Y.
While significant attention has been paid to Mamdani’s role as a “kingmaker” in these races, there has been less attention given to the left-aligned organizations that helped power some of these campaigns. For example, Valdez and Chevalier were both supported by the Democratic Socialists of America while Lander was supported by the Working Families Party, with both organizations acting as political organizations that largely operate within Democratic Party politics — though the WFP does sometimes nominate candidates separate from the Democratic Party.
The impact of these endorsements, and the support that comes with them, is illustrated when these races are compared to one where progressive groups largely sat on the sidelines, as in New York’s Sixth, where Chuck Park, a former foreign service worker and progressive, challenged Rep. Grace Meng, D-N.Y. In an interview with Salon, Park reflected on how support from these progressive institutions seems to have made a significant difference in the race.
“It’s absolutely clear to us that the lack of some institutional power and institutional support, to provide either funding or field reinforcements, is where we fell short,” Park told Salon. “I think it could have been the difference if we had either a Working Families Party endorsement many months ago, or if I had sought DSA endorsement many, many months ago.”
These left-wing victories in New York City have also been met with a wave of consternation from the party’s leadership and centrist wing, arguing that these types of candidates can’t win outside of places like New York City.
In the Sixth District, Meng held onto her seat, defeating Park 57% to 43%. This represents a dramatic shift from the last time Meng faced a primary challenger in 2020, when Meng defeated Meliquiades Gagarin with 65% support to their 20% support, with another candidate receiving around 14% support. Park was also able to build this coalition with little to no outside support from statewide and national groups and while only receiving donations from individual people, rather than political fundraising committees.
Whereas some political endorsements serve primarily as a marker of who a candidate is aligned with, an endorsement from the DSA, for example, or the Working Families Party, comes along with at least some access to those groups’ preexisting volunteer base. For example, the Park campaign was able to recruit around 1,000 volunteers by the end of the campaign, which represents a solid base of support for canvassing and other activities. The Valdez campaign, however, boasted more than 4,000 volunteers by the end of the campaign.
Notably, Park did publicly seek the endorsement of the WFP, and while membership voted overwhelmingly to support him, the endorsement was not approved by party leadership. And, although his agenda was basically aligned with that of DSA candidates, he did not seek the DSA endorsement in this year’s campaign. When asked whether he would run again in 2028, and seek the support of one of these groups or a national organization like the Justice Democrats, Park said he had not made that decision yet.
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The DSA also deferred when asked about their future ambitions and whether they might broaden the scope of their endorsements in the future election season. Grace Mausser, a DSA co-chair, highlighted the decision-making process in the group, which is rooted in membership votes.
“NYC-DSA is immensely proud of our accomplishments Tuesday, and our success will certainly factor into our strategic considerations in the future. Our endorsement process is extremely democratic and member-driven,” Mausser said. “We can’t say for sure what endorsement we will make in the future, but we will definitely be debating and deciding them collectively.”
(Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images) Democratic Congressional candidate Brad Lander stands with New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani after winning the 10th District Democratic primary on June 23, 2026, in the Brooklyn borough of New York City. Lander defeated incumbent Dan Goldman.
These left-wing victories in New York City have also been met with a wave of consternation from the party’s leadership and centrist wing, arguing that these types of candidates can’t win outside of places like New York City, and that their nomination damages the Democratic Party’s brand. These arguments echo similar claims made by centrists last year following Mamdani’s primary victory.
Usamah Andrabi, the communications director at the Justice Democrats, a group involved in Tuesday’s races that works to elect progressive Democrats to the House, told Salon, however, that this style of politics is already translating into other parts of the country.
Andrabi highlighted candidates like state Rep. Chris Rabb in Philadelphia, Dr. Adam Hamawy in New Jersey and Rev. Frederick Douglass Haynes III in Texas, all of whom won their respective primaries, as examples of this working elsewhere. He also pointed to Rep. Summer Lee, D- Pa., who represents Pennsylvania’s 12th district in the western part of the state, as someone who has succeeded in deploying this political strategy in an area often seen as a bellwether for national politics.
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“There’s a reason it’s our most successful cycle to date, and that’s because Democratic voters are looking for progressive fighters who excite them and galvanize them but who will have the moral courage and political clarity to not only take on and defend Republican extremism, but also root out the corporate rot in the Democratic Party,” Andrabi said.
The key to the style of campaigning that won out on Tuesday, according to Andrabi, is having a vision for what politics can deliver that excites people. This is why he thinks the centrist wing of the party often has trouble replicating the energy that fuels winning campaigns like those in New York.
“What we are seeing is such an excitement for these left-wing progressive champions of the working class, and that is exactly what the Democratic Party has been asking for and demanding and paying millions of dollars to research to figure out how to win,” Andrabi said. “It’s being handed to them on a silver platter and the only reason they’re not accepting this and running with people like these leaders at the front of every ticket is that our party continues to be more beholden to lobbies like AIPAC, crypto and corporate interest than the needs of our own voters.”
Following New York’s primaries, the next high-profile race featuring a left-wing challenger going up against an established incumbent is in Colorado, where attorney Melat Kiros is facing Rep. Diana DeGette, D-Co., in a Denver area district. The most high-profile test of this left populist style of politics and political campaigning, however, will likely come in November, when Democratic nominee Graham Platner is set to face off against Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, in the closely watched Maine Senate race. If Dr. Abdul El-Sayed prevails in the Democratic primary in the Michigan Senate race, his candidacy will also be seen as a test for the statewide viability of these politics in a major presidential swing state.
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