New York City mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani holds a press conference at the Unisphere in the Queens borough of New York City, US, Nov. 5, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Kylie Cooper

A sweeping series of victories by Democratic Socialists of America-backed candidates has intensified concerns among pro-Israel Democrats that one of the country’s most influential political strongholds is moving sharply away from its historic support for the Jewish state.

Tuesday’s Democratic primaries delivered a major triumph for New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, an ardent anti-Israel activist, and the socialist coalition that helped propel him into office. Candidates backed by Mamdani scored victories in congressional and state legislative races across the city, expanding the influence of a movement that has increasingly defined itself through opposition to the Jewish state, hostility toward traditional Democratic leadership, and skepticism toward American capitalism.

Among the night’s most consequential results was former New York City Comptroller Brad Lander’s defeat of US Rep. Dan Goldman in New York’s 10th Congressional District. Goldman, one of Congress’s most outspoken Jewish Democrats and a supporter of Israel, became a target of progressive activists after defending Israel’s right to strike Hamas following the Palestinian terrorist group’s Oct. 7, 2023, massacre across southern Israel. Lander, who has been sharply critical of Israel’s conduct in Gaza and leveled accusations of “genocide” against Jerusalem, was backed by Mamdani and emerged as one of the movement’s highest-profile victories.

However, the anti-Israel political earthquake was not isolated to the Goldman-Lander contest.

In New York’s 7th Congressional District, state Assemblymember Claire Valdez defeated Antonio Reynoso, the candidate backed by retiring US Rep. Nydia Velázquez and much of the Democratic establishment. Valdez’s victory represented another major win for the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) and the Mamdani political network. Valdez, a member of DSA, has also accused Israel of “genocide.”

Even more striking was the outcome in New York’s 13th Congressional District, where Darializa Avila Chevalier unseated five-term incumbent Adriano Espaillat, one of the most powerful Democrats in New York and chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. The upset stunned political observers and demonstrated the ability of socialist-aligned activists to defeat entrenched incumbents once considered politically untouchable.

Chevalier was a leader of the radical Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD) organization, a group which organized celebrations of the Oct. 7 atrocities and has regularly disrupted academic life with a number of other unauthorized, surprise demonstrations. The group calls for the complete dismantling of “Western civilization.”

Taken together, the victories by Lander, Valdez, and Avila Chevalier amounted to what observers have called a political earthquake. All three candidates were aligned with Mamdani’s insurgent coalition and defeated either incumbents or establishment-backed rivals, cementing Mamdani’s status as one of the most influential figures in Democratic politics and signaling a dramatic expansion of socialist influence within the party.

For supporters of Israel, the elections carry significance far beyond New York City.

For decades, New York’s Democratic Party served as one of the strongest centers of support for the US-Israel alliance. Home to the largest Jewish population outside Israel, the state produced generations of Democratic leaders who viewed support for the Jewish state as both strategically important and morally necessary. That consensus is increasingly under pressure.

Many of the activists and organizations supporting the new socialist movement have embraced rhetoric accusing Israel of genocide, advocated restrictions on military aid to Jerusalem, and aligned themselves with anti-Zionist campaigns that reject Israel’s legitimacy as a Jewish state. Critics argue that the movement’s growing power is normalizing hostility toward Zionism within Democratic politics.

The results also represented a setback for US House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries. Candidates he supported, including Goldman and Espaillat, were defeated by challengers aligned with Mamdani’s movement. Some of the victorious candidates declined to commit to supporting Jeffries’s leadership, raising questions about how much influence the party’s left flank could wield in a future Democratic congressional majority.

Beyond Congress, DSA-backed candidates also picked up at least six New York state legislative seats, expanding the movement’s influence in Albany and demonstrating that Tuesday’s victories were not isolated events but part of a broader effort to reshape Democratic politics from the local level to Washington.

For pro-Israel Democrats, the warning signs are difficult to ignore. The defeat of Goldman alone would have been notable. The simultaneous victories of Valdez and Avila Chevalier suggest something larger: a coordinated and increasingly successful effort to move the Democratic Party toward a more socialist, more anti-establishment, and more anti-Israel political future.

Whether New York proves to be an outlier or a preview of where the national Democratic Party is headed may become one of the defining political questions of the years ahead.

Not every pro-Israel Democrat fell victim to the socialist surge. In the Bronx, US Rep. Ritchie Torres decisively defeated challenger Michael Blake, who had made Torres’s support for Israel a central issue in the race. Torres, one of the Democratic Party’s most outspoken defenders of the US-Israel alliance and most vocal critics of anti-Israel extremism on the political left, won by a wide margin despite facing months of attacks over his pro-Israel positions. His victory suggests that while anti-Israel activists achieved significant gains elsewhere, there remains a substantial constituency within the Democratic Party that continues to support strong ties between the United States and Israel.

Further, New York State Assemblyman Micah Lasher emerged victorious in the race for New York’s 12 District. Lasher, who competed in a district with one of the highest concentrations of Jewish voters in the country, did not accuse Israel of “genocide” and describes himself as a supporter of the state’s right to exist. Lasher also did not back efforts to condition or block military aid transfers to the Jewish state.

Nonetheless, the results of Tuesday night’s primary contests have sent pro-Israel voices reeling. Bethany Mandel, a conservative writer, urged Jews to flee the Big Apple.

“It’s time for Jews to leave New York,” Mandel wrote.

However, she encouraged Jews not to switch their party registration and continue voting in Democratic competitions to keep the party from veering too far left.

“If you live in a heavily blue district, DO NOT disenfranchise yourself and switch your registration. Register as a Democrat AND VOTE in primaries,” she added.