Mamdani-backed challengers defeat establishment Democrats as anti-Israel rhetoric reshapes key races
The night was humid, moist, and gloomy for traditional urban Democrats as candidates favored by Mayor Zohran Mamdani gained congressional seats in primaries where incumbents lost to young, radical challengers who made the “genocide” smear their defining campaign issue.
The 10th District, covering Lower Manhattan, Downtown Brooklyn, Park Slope, and Prospect Heights, will have former City Comptroller Brad Lander as its Democratic nominee, having bested two-term incumbent Dan Goldman with two-thirds of the vote.
The 7th District, stretching from Astoria to Williamsburg, was vacated by longtime Rep. Nydia Velazquez, whose favored candidate, Antonio Reynoso, lost to one-term Assemblywoman Claire Valdez. Although the Satmar factions favored Reynoso, they were outnumbered by young transplants who elected the candidate with the same background, having little experience in local politics but plenty of followers on social media.
At the northern tip of Manhattan, Columbia University protest leader Darializa Aviles Chevalier defeated five-term incumbent Adriano Espaillat in the district that includes Yeshiva University.
All three of these winners were endorsed by Mamdani, who took the risk of unseating members with seniority in favor of ideological loyalists hell-bent on advancing anti-Israel policies. Even in districts where pro-Israel incumbents won, the margin was not very comforting. In the 6th District in Queens, Grace Meng defeated Chuck Park with 57 percent, which is frightening considering that Park does not live in the district and had no political experience on the local level.
We can take comfort in the reelection of Ritchie Torres, who also faced a challenger focused on demonizing Israel. Likewise, on the state level, Pesach Osina of Far Rockaway won his primary for the State Assembly, hoping to join Simcha Eisenstein, Sam Berger, and Aron Wieder as the visibly Orthodox voices in that chamber.
They will have much work ahead of them in countering Not On Our Dime, the bill seeking to penalize nonprofits that support yishuvim in the Land of Israel. Initially proposed by Mamdani when he was an Assemblyman from Astoria, its future sponsors could include David Orkin, a first-time candidate who defeated Woodhaven incumbent Jenifer Rajkumar; Jessica Gonzalez-Rojas, who defeated State Sen. Jessica Ramos as punishment for endorsing Andrew Cuomo last year; and Aber Kawas, a Palestinian State Senate candidate who defeated incumbent Steven Raga.
Any hopes that the Jewish community has the discipline to punch above its weight and turn out a strong bloc vote were dashed on June 23, along with reliance on historically allied communities in this diverse city. The pro-Israel constituency in New York City may find itself in a political wilderness resembling that of cities in Canada and Western Europe. There will be more calls for relocating to Florida, making aliyah, and leaving the Democratic Party, in which the Jewish primary vote is no longer significant in determining the outcome. Looking back at history, this party was once a bastion of segregationists before embracing civil rights. It could take a generation to reverse the damage caused to the party’s historically centrist image by the influx of progressives.
As this country prepares to celebrate its 250th birthday, we look back and recognize that many of the shifts that benefited society were gradual, such as the abolition of slavery, civil rights for Native Americans, women’s suffrage, and the freedoms we enjoy as citizens. There have been past spells of antisemitism here, when both parties refused to ease immigration quotas as the Holocaust was raging across the Atlantic Ocean. Perhaps this spell will also run its course, or otherwise, those who seek to undermine Israel are inadvertently bolstering the case for its existence as a refuge for persecuted Jews who increasingly feel unwelcome by this city’s new political class.
By Sergey Kadinsky