Zohran Mamdani says he and allies he endorsed carry a 'national message' — progressive wave sweeps NY primaries as moderates push back

28 June 2026 | New York, Washington — Updated 10:30 GMT

Zohran Mamdani, the New York City mayor, said on Sunday that he and a slew of democratic socialist allies who prevailed in recent primary elections are carrying a "national message" to struggling working Americans hungry for a new kind of politics "coast to coast."

Mamdani made that triumphant clarion call on ABC News's This Week just five days after he had seen his endorsed candidates win Democratic nominations in three races for New York congressional seats, as well as for five state legislature positions in Albany. He made no effort to disguise his delight that his clean sweep marks a dramatic shift in Democratic politics – not just in New York City, which he has led since January, but also across the US.

"We don't have to nationalize that message," Mamdani remarked. "That is a national message – it's a national crisis."

Fifteen self-labelled "moderate" Democrats in the US House signed an open letter targeting the progressive wave. "We are capitalist, not socialist," they said. "We are mainstream, not extreme. We are proud, not ashamed, of America."

Asked by This Week what he thought of his critics putting out a manifesto against him, Mamdani joked: "Sounds pretty socialist to me." He added: "I'm not interested in writing a manifesto, or frankly, in reading one. I'm interested in delivering."

On Thursday, New York's rent guidelines board voted to freeze rents for about 1m apartments. "We've delivered free childcare for two-year-olds for the first time in New York history," Mamdani told ABC News, adding that they had also repaired 165,000 potholes.

Tuesday's primary results in New York were especially poignant because Mamdani's allies ousted two incumbent Democratic representatives. Brad Lander defeated Dan Goldman, and Darializa Avila Chevalier beat Adriano Espaillat. Claire Valdez also took the party's nomination over Antonio Reynoso.

Welcome to the new politics — where progressives are winning, the Democratic Party is fighting over its soul, and a "national message" is being carried from New York to Washington.

Mamdani Declares 'National Message' as Progressive Allies Sweep NY Primaries

Zohran Mamdani, the New York City mayor, said on Sunday that he and a slew of democratic socialist allies who prevailed in recent primary elections are carrying a "national message" to struggling working Americans hungry for a new kind of politics "coast to coast."

Mamdani made that triumphant clarion call on ABC News's This Week just five days after he had seen his endorsed candidates win Democratic nominations in three races for New York congressional seats, as well as for five state legislature positions in Albany. He made no effort to disguise his delight that his clean sweep marks a dramatic shift in Democratic politics – not just in New York City, which he has led since January, but also across the US.

He said that collectively they were carrying a "New Deal understanding" of Democratic politics to Congress and on to the "national stage." It spoke, he said, to Americans feeling exhaustion at struggling to make ends meet "every single day."

Mamdani's clear framing of last Tuesday's victories as a political jolt of nationwide significance poses a challenge to the established leadership of the Democratic party of the sort that they fear most. It is one thing for the mayor of New York to confine his brand of democratic socialism to America's largest and wealthiest city. It is quite another when he injects it into Washington.

Established Democrats, branding themselves as "moderates" and Mamdani as "extremist," have not held back from attacking his burgeoning political movement. Richard Blumenthal, a Democratic senator from Connecticut, predicted: "The effort to nationalize New York is going to fail. What's happening in New York will be really irrelevant by the time of the [midterm] elections in November."

Moderates Push Back: 'We Are Capitalist, Not Socialist'

Fifteen self-labelled "moderate" Democrats in the US House signed an open letter that, though it did not mention Mamdani or his endorsed allies, was clearly targeted at them. "We are capitalist, not socialist," they said. "We are mainstream, not extreme. We are proud, not ashamed, of America."

Asked by This Week what he thought of his critics putting out a manifesto against him, Mamdani joked: "Sounds pretty socialist to me."

He added: "I'm not interested in writing a manifesto, or frankly, in reading one. I'm interested in delivering."

Part of the danger that Mamdani represents to establishment Democrats is that he can now substantiate his argument that the party must deliver more to working Americans by pointing to his own concrete achievements. On Thursday, New York's rent guidelines board voted to freeze rents for about 1m apartments.

He said that such a record showed that democratic socialism was at heart pragmatic – "because if we cannot deliver for working people, then what is it for?"

Mamdani also unleashed piercing criticism of the established leadership of his party. "What we've seen over many years is a willingness to not only explain away the status quo, but frankly, even to look to benefit from the status quo," he said. "And that's not what working people are looking for from our party."

He charged the party hierarchy of failing to present a positive vision, and for thinking that merely attacking Donald Trump was enough. "You have got to have something you are not just willing to stand up for – but that you're also willing to explain how this is relevant to working people," Mamdani said when asked if one "can't just be anti-[the president]."

'Sewer Socialism' and Delivering for Working People

"I'm leading the wealthiest city in the wealthiest country in the history of the world," Mamdani said. "But it's also a city where one in four are living in poverty, and for far too many Americans, those contradictions have become their day-to-day life."

Tuesday's primary results in New York were especially poignant because Mamdani's allies ousted two incumbent Democratic representatives. Brad Lander defeated Dan Goldman, and Darializa Avila Chevalier beat Adriano Espaillat.

Claire Valdez also took the party's nomination over Antonio Reynoso, the established choice.

Chevalier has attracted particular attention over her political views, which include describing herself as a "prison abolitionist." In his ABC News interview, Mamdani refused to be drawn into that framing.

He said, "There are prisons. And what we're also showing in this city is that safety is not something that's up for debate – it's something that we're actually delivering on. And I'm proud to be the mayor of a city that currently has the lowest recorded number of murders and shootings in recorded history in New York City."

Democratic Party Divided: 'Big Tent' vs. 'Socialist' Label

Though several current Democratic politicians are openly spooked by Mamdani's rapidly growing influence within the party, others are keeping the door open to dialogue. Chris Murphy, another Democratic senator for Connecticut, told NBC's Meet the Press that the party was a big tent.

He said he did not want to see Democrats embrace socialism. "But we have to understand that people do not believe that this version of capitalism has worked," Murphy said. "And frankly, it hasn't."

Raphael Warnock, the US senator whose fellow Georgia Democrat Jon Ossoff is up for Senate re-election in November, told CNN's State of the Union: "I don't believe in abolishing the police. You don't have a country without borders."

But he added: "I'm worried about what's going to happen to ordinary people, who can't afford their lives right now. And both parties have not adequately responded to this deepening American crisis."

Democratic Socialists Are Winning in US Cities with Message of 'Getting Stuff Done'

Mayors such as New York's Zohran Mamdani show leftwing ideology can go hand-in-hand with effective governance. A trio of Democratic socialist victories in mayoral contests in three of the largest cities in the US has unleashed a new wave of hope on the left of the party. Zohran Mamdani and Katie Wilson took office in New York and Seattle, respectively, this year. Janeese Lewis George is set to follow in Washington DC.

As momentum around leftwing candidates appears to build, focus will turn to Los Angeles over the coming months, where another member of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) will attempt to continue this winning streak.

The common criticism of democratic socialism is that its proponents put their ideological interests before matters of effective governance. But after a string of high-profile wins, supporters are hopeful that Mamdani and others will prove the two can go hand-in-hand. Political sands are shifting inside the Democratic party, and its strongholds.

Beer in hand, Gustavo Gordillo, a Yale graduate who worked as a union carpenter before co-chairing New York City's chapter of the DSA, took in the scene on Tuesday night at 99 Scott Studio in East Williamsburg, where the Queens assembly member Claire Valdez was holding a victory party after winning the party's nomination for New York's seventh congressional district ahead of November's midterm elections.

They were joined by Mamdani, who had endorsed Valdez, and five victorious local Queens DSA-backed candidates who also won legislative primaries.

Voters want more from their politicians than rhetoric, Gordillo reflected on Wednesday morning. Mamdani's ability to deliver basic services well – like clearing sidewalks after a snowstorm – goes a long way toward selling support for DSA leadership, and for undermining establishment Democrats who stand in their path.

"It was through trying to implement the affordability agenda that we made the case for electing more democratic socialists, because we need to tax the rich to fund the program, and the governor and the current power structure fought us all the way in this past session," said Gordillo. "Our argument and our case that we're making to New York is we need to replace the existing politicians if we actually want to create a city and a state that's affordable for everybody. I think the mayor has prioritized pothole politics and sewer socialism as a way of showing that you can elect a democratic socialist to the highest level of office in the city, and that's actually going to result in a government that is more responsive to working people."

DSA's Growing Influence: From Seattle to Washington DC

Mamdani is the highest-profile democratic socialist running a US city today, but he is not the only one espousing its principles. Wilson, in Seattle, is a self-described democratic socialist, who won election (without the endorsement of the DSA) in November 2025 after rising to prominence for her advocacy for affordable housing, increased taxes on large corporations and workers' rights.

The DSA has won elections in part because of an army of activists ready to knock on doors and work the phones for candidates. But as democratic socialists rack up wins in executive positions like mayoral seats, ideological questions are giving way to practical ones.

"It's not just the knocking of the doors and the phone banking and getting out the vote, but also, like, what does it look like once we're in office?" said Megan Romer, DSA national co-chair. "We've got people who are turning themselves into experts on policy, who are hitting the ground trying to figure out what municipal garbage policy looks like? Why are there so many potholes? Why aren't they getting fixed? What is the issue here?"

"That lets us really present not just an alternative that's electorally viable, but that's viable politically, and they can really hold these positions and get done what we ran to get done."

That distinction is one reason LA's mayor, Karen Bass, is in the political fight of her life. In November, Bass faces a runoff against the city councilwoman and DSA member Nithya Raman – a first for an incumbent LA mayor in more than 20 years. (The DSA's local chapter has yet to formally endorse a candidate in the race.)

It is also a reason Lewis George, another DSA member, is expected to win the mayoral race in Washington DC after securing the Democratic nomination last week.

Swaths of the National Mall are walled off and torn up after events staged by Donald Trump's White House. National guard soldiers patrol streets to little practical effect. Voters who viewed the conciliatory posture of the DC mayor, Muriel Bowser, toward the US president with skepticism opted for a change in approach with Lewis George. But the nominee focused her campaign on sewer socialism, the everyday concerns of people in the city, and reminded them of her priorities on election night.

"From the start of this campaign, we championed the principle that DC residents deserve a government that works," Lewis George said in her victory speech. "Over time, failing public services eroded people's faith in government as a force of good in their lives. As mayor, I will be relentlessly focused on delivering reliable public services to every DC neighborhood. These are not trivial issues. They are core government functions and we need them to work."

Of course, plenty of mayors from other wings of the Democratic party, and other parties altogether, have their own ambitious initiatives to offer a "government that works" for their constituents.

In San Francisco, for example – arguably the bluest city in the US – the centrist Democratic mayor, Daniel Lurie, is riding high after recently announcing plans to offer free childcare to families earning less than $230,000 a year.

But in a handful of prominent cities, socialists are winning Democratic primaries because of a perception that the system is not working, said Corbin Trent, a former campaign aide to Bernie Sanders, the US senator from Vermont and a powerful figure on the Democratic party's progressive left.

Many establishment Democratic candidates had essentially argued "hey, things are mostly good – we gotta tweak some edges, but this is the greatest country ever, you know," suggested Trent, who also worked on the 2018 insurgent campaign of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the influential progressive congresswoman.

"And then they got beat by the guy who said that this was a shithole," said Trent. "And they didn't get it. And interestingly, they still don't get it. They still don't understand that actually people are not thrilled with this society, they're not thrilled with this economy, they're not thrilled with this democracy, they're not thrilled with this foreign policy. Go figure."

Who's Won Key Races So Far — At a Glance

It's been a good night for progressives in New York primaries so far while results have also come through from primaries and runoffs in Maryland and South Carolina. Here are the key winners at a glance:

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