> A governing nightmare for Democrats. If Hakeem Jeffries becomes House speaker, he will struggle to placate the ascendent left while protecting members in swing districts

https://archive.is/tilyc#selection-251.0-543.36 [Caution (Redirect)]

Dims fukt. 

One year after winning the Democratic primary to become New York’s mayor, Zohran Mamdani showed himself to be a kingmaker on Tuesday. His picks knocked off two sitting House Democrats and beat the handpicked successor of a third who is retiring. Challengers backed by Mamdani’s Democratic Socialists of America also ousted three members of the State Assembly.

The city isn’t reflective of the country, and none of these seats will be competitive in the fall, but the Democratic leaders of the House and Senate are from New York, and the results underscore how hard it will be for both of them to lead their divided caucuses next year.

Democrats are experiencing their own version of a tea party movement 16 years after Republicans. The base detests anyone perceived as part of the establishment, no matter how progressive their voting record. This puts pressure on leadership to lurch leftward and refuse any compromises on issues like funding the government.

That, in turn, will make it harder for Democrats to win in 2028.

Not even the chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus was safe from the animosity toward the establishment: Five-term Rep. Adriano Espaillat fell to Darializa Avila Chevalier, a 32-year-old PhD student.

Avila Chevalier has previously advocated for opening all borders; abolishing police and prisons; seizing private property; and nationalizing various industries. “The pyromania associated with anarchism is very intriguing to me,” Avila Chevalier wrote in a 2020 social media post that’s since been deleted.

With Mamdani’s endorsement, state Assembly member Claire Valdez won the Democratic primary to replace retiring Rep. Nydia M. Velázquez. The incumbent supported the Brooklyn borough president. “Solidarity forever, abolish ICE, free Palestine, organize your union and join DSA,” Valdez said after being declared the winner.

When House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-New York) appeared on the TVs during Valdez’s victory party, the crowd chanted: “You’re next.”

Finally, Rep. Dan Goldman fell to former city comptroller Brad Lander. Unlike Valdez and Avila Chevalier, Lander left the Democratic Socialists of America after it held a rally to criticize Israel the day after the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks. But Lander characterizes Israel’s response to Hamas’s terrorist attack as a genocide.

Goldman became a Democratic favorite as a House lawyer who helped spearhead President Donald Trump’s first impeachment, and he had a liberal voting record, but that wasn’t enough to save him.

The energy may be on the far left, but Tuesday did not see a socialist sweep. Mamdani stayed neutral in the primary to replace retiring Rep. Jerry Nadler (D), and Nadler’s pick won. Micah Lasher, an Assembly member, beat Jack Schlossberg, whose main qualification was being the grandson of President John F. Kennedy. Lasher also fended off Alex Bores, another member of the Assembly who tried to make the race a referendum on regulating artificial intelligence.

In Maryland, retiring Rep. Steny H. Hoyer (D) got his former aide Adrian Boafo through the primary to replace him. And state Senate President Bill Ferguson (D) survived a spirited primary challenge after he resisted Gov. Wes Moore’s pressure to redraw House districts to get rid of the sole Republican in the congressional delegation.

It’s now been eight years since Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-New York) won a shocking primary upset over Joseph Crowley, the No. 4 in House Democratic leadership. The party has moved her direction during the intervening years, and it looks poised to come even closer next year. It’s difficult to imagine a Speaker Jeffries being more adept at controlling the socialists on his left than John A. Boehner, Paul D. Ryan or Kevin McCarthy were with the House Freedom Caucus.