Mamdani’s Socialist Disciples Take Aim at Hakeem Jeffries and New York City Democratic Congressmen, but Why Is the Mayor-Elect Not on Board?

The New Yorkers who voted in Democratic Socialist Zohran Mamdani — at nearly 1.04 million in total — had, in the mayor-elect’s estimation, unleashed a progressive movement that could deliver “life-changing” policies to both the city and, possibly, the Empire State.But on Wednesday night, when speaking before the DSA’s Electoral Working Group during a closed-door meeting in a Greenwich Village church, Mr. Mamdani warned the group not to overplay the once-unthinkably lucky hand they were now playing in New York politics. City Councilman Chi Osse, a Democrat Socialist from Brooklyn, had just announced he was challenging Hakeem Jeffries in a primary for New York’s 8th Congressional District. Mr. Osse, 27, has already filed the paperwork to unseat Mr. Jeffries — the embattled House minority leader — and is aggressively courting the DSA’s endorsement, which they have until Sunday to vote to grant or refuse.Mr. Mamdani had a different ask of his compatriots: Vote “no” on Osse.“The choice is not whether to vote for Chi or Hakeem at the ballot box; the choice is how to spend the next year. Do we want to spend it defending caricatures of our movement, or do we want to spend it fulfilling the agenda at the heart of that very same movement?” Mr. Mamdani said, according to the Daily News. Endorsing Mr. Osse, he added, would instead make it “more difficult to deliver on the life-changing policies that more than 1 million New Yorkers voted for just two weeks ago.” Indeed, ousting Mr. Jeffries would cost New York City a powerful ally in Washington.Mr. Mandani’s plea for pragmatism did little to dissuade Mr. Osse. If anything, Mr. Mamdani’s astonishing rise — from failed rapper to neophyte socialist State Assemblyman in Queens to, now, Gracie Mansion’s newest tenant — appears to have emboldened his socialist acolytes to go off half-cocked on vulnerable establishment Democrats. Armed with vernacular fonts, social-media fluency, and an all-consuming zeal to hold Israel accountable for whatever ails modern society — three tactics that served Mr. Mamdani well — candidates like Mr. Osse and Harlem-based community organizer Darializa Avila Chevalier are determined to put an end to “the era of machine politics.” In a selfie video posted on his X account, Mr. Osse called on the DSA to endorse him in his run against Mr. Jeffries, “a man whose millions from AIPAC become billions for bombs.”“I believe we have an obligation of circumstance,” he said.He already raised over $150,000 in contributions and secured a thousand volunteers for his campaign. “This will grow Black socialism and strengthen the movement — for the sake of our neighborhoods, and the millions overseas, we will never meet,” Mr. Osse said. Ms. Chevalier, 31, is mounting a primary challenge against five-term Congressman Adriano Espaillat, 71, in New York’s 13th Congressional District in Manhattan and the Bronx. Like Mr. Osse, she campaigned for Mr. Mamdani. She was on the frontlines of the student protests at her alma mater, Columbia University, organizing against, as she puts it in her campaign video, “what we all know is a genocide in Palestine.”“And as the daughter of immigrants, it’s personal to me when ICE kidnaps my friends,” she says in her video, which includes footage of pro-Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khlalil’s arrest in March by immigration officers.She accused Mr. Espaillat, the first-ever Dominican-American elected to Congress, of taking money from “the very institutions that are making life harder for New Yorkers here,” which included “AIPAC, landlords, and corporate PACs.” She has already secured the backing of the Justice Democrats, who backed Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in her 2018 primary challenge against incumbent Democrat Joe Crowley (who, like Mr. Jeffries, was a senior member of House leadership).Other progressives are following Mr. Mamdani’s blueprint. A former state assemblyman and Democratic National Committee Vice Chair, Michael Blake, is challenging Representative Ritchie Torres in New York’s 15 Congressional District. Mr. Torres — who’s made a name for himself criticizing his party for focusing too much on identity politics — is a supporter of Israel.“We need to focus on cost of living. We have to focus on how people need us to help them with groceries as opposed to Ritchie’s helping to support a genocide,” Mr. Blake said earlier this month. The New York City Comptroller, Brad Lander, is expected to stage a primary challenge to Representative Danny Goldman, whose support for Israel has made him a ripe target for the progressives at the gate. On Thursday, Mr. Lander was seen standing high on the ledge outside his office at the David M. Dinkins Municipal Building, leading some to suspect he was either filming a video announcing his primary challenge against Mr. Goldman or he was on the verge of committing suicide. In an X post on Thursday, Mr. Lander assured the public that he was doing neither.“Looking forward to sharing our end-of-term video message (including how grateful I’ve been to serve New Yorkers from the Municipal Building) in a few weeks,” he added. But Mr. Lander is expected to take the proverbial plunge against the incumbent Mr. Goldman. Evidently, if he follows Mr. Mamdani’s playbook, he just might be the one progressive to land big in 2026.

Mamdani’s Socialist Disciples Take Aim at Hakeem Jeffries and New York City Democratic Congressmen, but Why Is the Mayor-Elect Not on Board?

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