Zohran Mamdani's Influence Grows as Socialist Allies Sweep NY Races

Aber Kawas -- the DSA member and Mamdani-backed candidate who once described 9/11 as a terror attack that a “couple people did" -- cinched the Democratic nomination to rep a western Queens based state senate district Tuesday night.

Kawas, a self-described “Muslim civil right advocate,” won with 60% of the vote in her primary race against Assemblyman Steven Raga (D-Queens) to replace outgoing state Sen. Mike Gianaris (D-Queens) with 95% of precincts reporting.

Kawas has also been listed as a speaker for CAIR, a controversial Muslim charity accused of Hamas links.

While Gianaris, who held a significant amount of power as deputy majority leader and chair of Senate Democrats’ campaign arm in Albany, made endorsements in several other primary races, he did not weigh in on his chosen successor.

The Zo-mentum is real.

Socialist Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s far-left slate of Big Apple congressional hopefuls prevailed in Tuesday’s Democratic primary – with firebrand Darializa Avila Chevalier projected to pull off an AOC-style upset.

Former city Comptroller Brad Lander and state Assemblywoman Claire Valdez were quickly projected by the Associated Press and NY1 to win over their establishment Democrat opponents.

Avila Chevalier held a razor-thin 49.3% to 46% lead over Rep. Adriano Espaillat with 86% of votes counted late Tuesday, leading the five-term incumbent to concede.

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Claire Valdez lauded the efforts of the Democratic Socialists of America, declaring the far-left group has created a "durable" movement in her victory speech.

"We haven't just won an election, we have declared that this movement is durable that is growing," the rookie lawmaker said. "And that it will not stop until working people are no longer asked to build the table and go out today, the information on the table."

Valdez vowed to lead the fight against ICE, vowing "in me they will have a champion" and continue to fight for Palestinian "liberation."

"We'll use our money to save lives here instead of destroy them abroad," she said.

Valdez received the nomination in NY-7, beating out establishment pick with Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso.

President Trump skewered a pair of his old foes after Dan Goldman and George Conway lose their bids for New York Congressional seats.

The incumbent Goldman lost Tuesday to Brad Lander in the NY-10 race.

Conway, whose now ex-wife Kellyanne worked in the first Trump administration, failed to crack double digits in the crowded field for NY-12 seat.

President Trump-backed Anthony Constantino bested the New York Republican Party's endorsed candidate in a race for upstate Rep. Elise Stefanik’s House seat.

The Associated Press called the race in Constantino's favor Tuesday evening with the Amsterdam-based stick company CEO garnering 58% of the vote as of 77% of precincts reporting Tuesday.

The race played against the backdrop of Stefanik, a staunch Trump ally, ending both her bid to become New York’s next governor and re-election for Congress.

The state’s GOP establishment had lined up behind Smullen, who received the endorsement of state party Chairman Ed Cox and the majority of Republican and Conservative committees in his district.

But Smullen’s path to victory was complicated by Trump’s blockbuster endorsement of Constantino, an eccentric upstate entrepreneur. 

“Anthony is strongly supported by many of our most Highly Respected MAGA warriors in our movement, including Mayor Rudy Giuliani and Roger Stone!” Trump wrote on TruthSocial in April, sending out another message of support just before Tuesday's election.

Smullen, for his part, had accused Stone – a Trump operative and Constantino – of duping the president into the endorsement.

“A consultant got to the president, someone who is being paid by my opponent, and I think the president’s made a mistake,” Smullen said.

Mayor Mamdani hugged Assemblywoman Emily Gallagher at Claire Valdez's party.

Rep. Adriano Espaillat has conceded the race in New York's 13th Congressional District, saying serving in Congress was the privilege of his life.

Surrounded by current and former lawmakers, Espaillat thanked his supporters for standing with him as he tried to fend off a challenge from DSA member Darializa Avila Chevalier.

"Tonight wasn't our night, but I love you anyway," he said.

Micah Lasher won the Democratic primary in New York's 12th Congressional District, defeating state Assembly Member Alex Bores in a race that became a national battleground over artificial intelligence, according to early vote tallies.

Lasher, who represents the Upper West Side's 69th Assembly District, had 39% of the vote when the Associated Press called the race for him at 10:08 p.m. with 85% of votes counted.

Bores had around 35% of the vote, followed by Jack Kennedy Schlossberg, former President John F. Kennedy's grandson, with close to 11%.

Lasher had the backing of the Democratic establishment, including outgoing Rep. Jerry Nadler, who endorsed him Feb. 9 after announcing his retirement after 34 years in office.

Bores, representing the Upper East Side's 73rd Assembly District, had entered as the early fundraising frontrunner, raising $2.2 million by early 2026 -- more than three times Lasher's initial haul -- though nearly half his money came from California, according to City & State.

The flood of outside cash that defined the race traced back to Bores's support of the RAISE Act, one of the nation's toughest AI safety laws, passed by the New York Legislature in a bipartisan vote.

Critics of the legislation, poured millions into attack ads against Bores while supporters committed millions more to keep his campaign afloat. In the end, nearly 50% of all AI-focused super PAC spending nationally this cycle was directed at this single Manhattan race, according to The Guardian.

But the torrent of outside money was not enough to overcome Lasher's deep roots in the district. Lasher will be heavily favored in the November general election in a district that has not elected a Republican to Congress in decades.

President Trump-backed Republican Michael LiPetri won a hard fought GOP primary over Rudy Giuliani-endorsed insurgent Greg Hach to take on Democratic Rep. Tom Suozzi in New York's swing Third House District covering parts of Nassau County and Queens.

It was a rare split between Trump and ex-Big Apple mayor Giuliani, a longtime pal of the president who served as his personal lawyer.

The Nassau County Republican Party and GOP gubernatorial candidate Bruce Blakeman strongly backed LiPetri, a former state assemblyman who lost to Suozzi by only 3 percentage points in 2024,  when he was the Republican nominee.

LiPetri ended up with more than 81% of the vote, according to the Associated Press, which called the race for him at around 10 p.m.

In a sign that the race was competitive, Vice President JD Vance parachuted in for a Long Island event last week where he trashed Suozzi and lauded Lipetri at what was billed as a government, not campaign, event.

Hach, 55, a successful attorney and Air Force veteran, poured $1 million of his own money into the primary campaign. He vowed to plow more of his fortune into the race if elected the Republican nominee.

Suozzi, 63, a former Nassau County executive, is slightly favored to win re-election during a mid-term general election with Republican Trump, who has sagging popularity in New York, at the helm in the White House.

He quit Congress to mount a failing primary campaign for governor against fellow Democrat Kathy Hochul in 2022.

But Suozzi won back the seat in House District 3 in a special election following the expulsion of Republican Rep. George Santos, a serial liar who was convicted of corruption.

He later won re-election in a surprising nail-biter against LiPetri.

Mayor Zohran Mamdani praises Brad Lander after Democratic nomination in NY-10, comparing his politics to Mr. Rogers.

"I knew then [during mayoral primary] what we all know now, Brad brings a kindness to this work he brings sincerity to this work," Mamdani said at Lander's celebration.

"He brings a vision a of politics than what we've seen for so long and when we think of what our country needs, we need an understanding of what Mr. Rogers used to talk about. We need a good neighbor.

"I am so proud to stand here," Hizzoner said before embracing his former foe last year.

A US Army veteran who worked in the Department of Homeland Security during the Biden administration won a crowded Democratic primary Tuesday and will take on Republican Rep. Mike Lawler in the general election.

Cait Conley received 7,462 votes, or more than 52%, as of 9:50 p.m. with 37% of ballots counted, enough to secure her victory in what was effectively a three-way race between her Beth Davidson and Effie Phillips-Staley, according to the Associated Press.

Her win sets up a key Hudson Valley battleground race as Dems take aim at Lawler, a two-term incumbent congressman in a seat insiders view as one of the party’s best pickup opportunities in New York in this year’s midterm elections.

Conley previously worked in cybersecurity in DHS before moving back to the 17th Congressional District to run for congress.

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