Socialists Hijacked My City

You know I’m inclined toward dramatic retellings, but I swear, this is real. The socialists absolutely swept the New York primary races last night. And now you, dear reader, get to laugh at me even harder for ever choosing to live in this ridiculous place we call New York, trading my self-respect for a few slices of pizza with good crust.

“In the primary for retiring U.S. Rep. Nydia Velázquez’s seat, state Assembly Member Claire Valdez beat out Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso,” reports the Associated Press. “Democratic U.S. Rep. Adriano Espaillat lost his bid for reelection to Darializa Avila Chevalier, another [Mayor Zohran] Mamdani-backed democratic socialist. Avila Chevalier hasn’t held public office before and once helped organize pro-Palestinian protests at Columbia University.” Chevalier’s bio touts that she once “helped lead the removal of the Central Park statue of J. Marion Sims, fought for the release of Abdikadir Mohamed after 18 months of ICE detention under Trump’s ‘Muslim ban,’…[and] helped lead the 2023–24 Columbia encampment” in support of Hamas/Palestinians (depending on who you ask) and in opposition to Israel.

Relatedly, “a third candidate backed by Mamdani, former city comptroller Brad Lander, defeated U.S. Rep. Dan Goldman by running to his political left,” adds the A.P. “The race partly revolved around the war in Gaza, with Lander assailing Goldman for not being critical enough of Israel.”

One of the wildest components of all of this is the degree to which the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) claims to represent the working class. The actual results complicate that narrative, but DSA types never feel the need to let facts get in the way of a good story:

The DSA are a clownish group for many reasons, but one of the biggest is the almost-cartoonish gap between their constant self-proclamation as a movement of the working-class and the constant reality that their voters are overwhelmingly the complete opposite. pic.twitter.com/V9AH2nqAJz

— Jeb Fain (@JebFain) June 24, 2026

Chevalier is sort of standard fare in the category of extremely online, unhinged DSA 32-year-olds. She has, in the recent past, referred to former President Joe Biden as a “rapist” and “war criminal” during the 2020 election, referred to the U.S. as a “fucking disgrace,” and described interracial relationships involving white ladies as “fetishizing ugly colonizer women.” Now she’ll be in Congress, because we apparently have no standards.

Interestingly, all of this might be received rather poorly by Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D–N.Y.), who represents Brooklyn and aspires to become the next speaker of the House; Jeffries has implored political strategists within his own party to focus on flipping seats, not unseating incumbents. The whole Mamdani/DSA playbook has been about finding solidly blue areas and outflanking from the left, painting the existing guys as parts of the establishment (frequently using “AIPAC”—the American Israel Public Affairs Committee—as a slur). It’s an open question as to whether these new radicals in Congress will even support Jeffries in his bid for speaker at all.

And that brings us to the deeper dynamic I’m worried about, once I get past the frustration that these DSA clowns candidates won at all:

This is not a stable coalition. This is a city getting swept up in the Mamdani fever dream; downwardly mobile upper-middle-class elites believing that the DSA pitch is far more persuasive to the average Democrat than it actually is.

Democrats are confused. They have not secured a victory; they have secured a governing challenge, an unstable coalition that doesn’t agree on values or policy priorities. At least Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D–N.Y.) has proven herself to be a bit of a pragmatist, willing to heal fractures in the relationship between Sens. Bernie Sanders (I–Vt.) and Elizabeth Warren (D–Mass.); showing loyalty to former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi; working with some Republicans when their interests align; and having decent instincts as to when to hold her tongue in criticism of both the far-left flank of her party and Democratic leadership.

We have nothing to indicate that Chevalier or Valdez understand any of this. And we have nothing to indicate they can moderate, even the slightest bit, on Israel, housing policy, defense spending (and spending more broadly), immigration, or enforcement priorities.

“A year ago, it was not the end of a political movement,” Mamdani said at a victory party in Brooklyn last night. “It was the beginning.” This may be true, but politics and governing are wildly different beasts. Mamdani seems to have cracked the code for what appeals to the DSA 35-year-olds in the Commie Corridor, but he hasn’t done much more than that. Beware the hubris. Beware the fall.

Scenes from New York: Enough of this place already!!

QUICK HITS

• On the topic of AIPAC-as-a-slur: “In the waning days of the campaign, Valdez sought to tie Reynoso to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee—a tactic progressive candidates have long employed to mobilize their base, especially as the public’s view of Israel has grown increasingly negative,” reports Politico. “AIPAC said it was not involved in this race, and its independent expenditure arm did not appear to spend money on the contest.”
• “Ben McAdams, a former Utah congressman who has sought to shed his reputation as a moderate, won the Democratic primary Tuesday in a redrawn U.S. House district that Democrats are strongly favored to win this fall,” reports the Associated Press. “His victory over three progressive candidates disappointed voters who wanted to push the Democratic Party further to the left in a race that illustrated the ideological clash playing out in Democratic primaries across the country this year. “
• “Though President [Donald] Trump initially endorsed Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette in the Republican primary contest, he also endorsed her opponent, Alan Wilson, South Carolina’s attorney general, just days before the primary runoff election,” reports The New York Times. Trump’s hedging was smart, I guess: Wilson ended up winning, and Trump was able to claim a victory.
• “The Trump administration sued New York State on Monday over a law that would ban the use of masks by federal immigration agents and was set to go into effect this week,” reports The New York Times. “In a 40-page lawsuit, the Department of Justice argued that New York’s mask ban, which was signed into law in May by Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, was unconstitutional and put federal officers at risk. The lawsuit also challenged two other measures enacted by Democrats in Albany as part of the state’s budget. One requires all law enforcement officers to display their agency names, as well as their own names or badge numbers. The other prohibits local jails and police forces in New York from entering into certain agreements to assist the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.”
• Yesterday, the Senate (against all odds!) approved a war powers resolution that would curb Trump’s powers to wage war in Iran.
• China’s version of Instagram is set to go IPO.
• Stephanie Murray debunks some of the perceptions people have about elder care over at The Atlantic:

The piece is rooted in two observations: That many ppl vastly overestimate the amount of eldercare that is outsourced to paid workers these days. And that even those who understand that many older American are heavily reliant on kin often misunderstand *why* that is the case. pic.twitter.com/LJdVeuH8TF

— Stephanie H. Murray (@stephmurrayyyy) June 23, 2026

• “The $80 Pie Only a Former McKinsey Consultant Could Dream Up” over at Grubstreet is worth your time (the article, that is; not the pie), if you like rubbernecking at the bougie folks in the Hamptons.
• Interesting:

these are some wild splits on ai usage/sentiment pic.twitter.com/KUAEyiBZhf

— Random Walk (@MosesSternstein) June 23, 2026