Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) has long been a target of the far left in New York City, largely because of his outspoken support for Israel and his Jewish constituents.

But Torres emerged with a commanding victory over a far-left challenger in Tuesday’s Democratic primaries, even as pro-Israel Reps. Dan Goldman (D-NY) and Adriano Espaillat (D-NY) were defeated by democratic socialist-aligned challengers. Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso, a progressive backed by party leaders, was also defeated by a challenger aligned with the Democratic Socialists of America. 

Observers attribute Torres’ landslide win against former New York Assemblymember Michael Blake to a variety of factors, including the different demographics of his district — which includes the heavily Jewish neighborhood of Riverdale, as well as some of the poorest neighborhoods in the city— as compared to the other three districts, his strength as a member of Congress and as a campaigner and Blake’s own weaknesses as a candidate.

Torres is popular in the district, has prioritized constituent services, has been a longtime presence in the district — as a city councilman from 2014 to 2020 before his time in the House — and maintains a strong reputation locally, Torres campaign spokesperson Benny Stanislawski said.

That’s in spite of the online vitriol that’s frequently directed the congressman’s way by the far left.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), in an MS NOW interview on Wednesday, pointed largely to the demographics of the districts — wealthier voters taking more of an interest in Middle East policy issues — as the reason for the differential results.

“What’s interesting is that, in some of those districts, which tended to be higher-income districts … there was an outsized focus on issues connected to the Middle East, the Middle East,” Jeffries said. “In other districts, for instance, in the South Bronx, Ritchie Torres was running against somebody who was heavily critical of Ritchie Torres’s position on Israel, and he won by fifty points.”

Strategists largely offered a similar assessment.

Torres is a strong fit for his district, as an Afro-Latino man who grew up in housing projects in the district, Hank Sheinkopf, a longtime New York Democratic strategist, said. 

The voting population in Torres’ district, overall, is less friendly to the far left than the other districts where left-wing candidates surged, and Torres retained strong support among both the Jewish community and older minority voters.

Blake didn’t benefit from the same institutional DSA backing that others received. Blake himself is not a DSA member and is “not particularly DSA-adjacent, although he’s tried to position himself there since the mayoral primary,” Jake Dilemani, another New York Democratic strategist, said.

“[The DSA] supports candidates who they think have the best shot at winning based on who the candidate is, but also who or what the district is,” Dilemani said. “They pick carefully where they engage, and I think a combination of, potentially, they couldn’t find a legitimate candidate for them to run, coupled with the district is not as favorable to a DSA candidate as some of the others, they wanted to use their resources wisely.”

Strategists said Blake is also known as being a politically unreliable striver — he pivoted during his recent mayoral campaign and congressional bid against Torres from being a supporter of Israel and ally of AIPAC to staunchly anti-Israel, for instance — who has run for a slew of different offices.

“I don’t know that anyone particularly took his candidacy all that seriously. He’s run for nearly every single office there is, with the exception of maybe king of England,” Dilemani quipped.

Blake also faced a barrage of attacks and scrutiny from the outset of his congressional campaign, something that was not the case for other candidates like Darializa Avila Chevalier, who defeated Espaillat.

“Torres is a better pol[itician] and a smarter campaigner. He just is,” Sheinkopf said. “The other guys … didn’t define their opponents. Torres knew that anything was possible. He has a smarter way of looking at New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, and he did what was appropriate to protect himself.”

Sheinkopf also speculated that Mamdani didn’t want to take a chance on Blake when he had other, easier targets that were more fertile ground for his brand of politics. DSA-style politics have typically thrived among younger populations newer to the area, a smaller contingent in Torres’ district.

Sheinkopf noted that Torres also significantly outraised Blake — he stockpiled millions in campaign cash even before Blake emerged as his leading rival.

And, strategists said, Torres’ outspokenness on behalf of Israel has been somewhat less prominent over the past year, even as the congressman’s views and positions have remained largely the same. Torres offered some criticism of Israel last year, similar to that expressed by some other pro-Israel Democrats.

“It’s smart on his part,” Sheinkopf said. “He understands that survival is important. Has he betrayed the pro-Israel community and the Jewish community as others have? The answer is no. Is he being smart about it? The answer is yes, and we should respect him for that.”

Strategists said Torres can’t count on his strong victory on Tuesday deterring future efforts to challenge him.

Dilemani emphasized that “two years is an eternity in politics,” and that it would be foolhardy to try to predict what might happen in the next race.

“The DSA people have no sense of what fits and what doesn’t fit … they will do it again because they can,” Sheinkopf said.