Last night’s primary results in New York were not just a bad night for more centrist Democrats. They were a signal that the party’s center of gravity has shifted somewhere most Americans, especially those outside coastal cities,would barely recognize.
Zohran Mamdani, New York City’s new socialist mayor and a card-carrying member of the Democratic Socialists of America, spent the spring recruiting and backing a slate of candidates to reshape Congress and the state legislature in his image. It worked. Brad Lander defeated incumbent Rep. Dan Goldman in the 10th Congressional District. Claire Valdez took the 7th. Darializa Avila Chevalier, a 32-year-old community organizer, ousted five-term incumbent Adriano Espaillat in the 13th. By the end of the night, DSA was on track to pick up at least six more seats in Albany. Axios called it a socialist “earthquake.” That’s about right.
Before we dive into what the election results mean, we first must understand what does this movement actually believe? The DSA’s national platform calls for dismantling the free market, describes American foreign policy as imperialism that must be opposed, and advocates for defunding police departments and open borders. Their candidates in New York are pushing rent freezes, “free and fast” public buses, and wealth taxes they describe as just a start. The problem here is nothing is ever free, and higher taxes never stick to just the wealthy.
These are positions the Democratic Party’s mainstream once kept at arm’s length. After last night it’s clear that arm got a lot shorter, and the Democratic Party has once again leaped further to the left.
Outside of their policy platform, DSA literature and leaders have described the United States as a fundamentally racist, imperialist power whose institutions need to be torn down rather than reformed. That is a different animal from run of the mill Democrats. DSA’s members proudly state that they do not love America.
While the Democratic Party’s establishment in New York tried to stop this socialist takeover, they failed. They spent money. They made the case for pragmatism. Yet despite those efforts, they still lost. That tells us a lot about the future of the Democratic Party. When the mainstream of a major party can no longer hold its own primary against a faction that openly rejects American exceptionalism, the free market, public safety, and our institutions, that is a structural shift that impacts every single American.
Wisconsin voters must pay attention for a specific reason. Francesca Hong, a state representative and DSA member since 2020, is running for governor. She is not fringe within her party. She is running towards the top of a primary alongside a crowded field that includes the lieutenant governor, a county executive, and a former U.S. Senate candidate. She has the full backing of Wisconsin DSA chapters, has supported abolishing ICE and dismantling our police, wants a progressive income tax that would be the highest in the country, and an expansion of government that would make FDR blush. Importantly, the rest of the field is running to the left to try and catch Hong’s momentum. DSA’s wins Tuesday give her movement yet another credibility boost.
The question for Wisconsin is whether the Democratic Party here wants to follow New York’s path to socialism. Because if the socialist wing of the party can topple five-term incumbents in congressional races, it couldcertainly clear a path in a state primary and bring with them their policy platform that is more radical than we have seen in modern history.
