It’s New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s party now — even if not everybody in the Big Apple feels invited.

The mayor’s candidates for Congress jumped out to early leads Tuesday night, with former City Comptroller Brad Lander comfortably defeating Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY), a stalwart opponent of President Donald Trump who nonetheless lost support from his party’s base over his lukewarm support for the new mayor and longstanding pro-Israel record. Lander won 66% of the vote to Goldman’s 34%, with 90% of the vote counted as of Wednesday morning.

The shocks to the party establishment continued throughout the night, as Democratic Socialists of America-endorsed state Assemblywoman Claire Valdez jumped to a commanding advantage over party favorite, Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso. Valdez easily defeated Reynoso, 56%-36%, with 92% of the vote counted.

And the capstone on the night for Mamdani’s Israel-critical congressional trifecta came when networks announced the ouster of Rep. Adriano Espaillat (D-NY), the chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, against radical doctoral student and Columbia encampment leader Darializa Avila Chevalier, whose inflammatory X feed — and attendance at an anti-Israel rally the day after the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks — did little to derail her candidacy. In a much tighter race, Avila Chevalier beat the incumbent, 49%-46%, with 88% of the vote counted.

Signs of the ascendance of the far left within overwhelmingly Democratic big cities have been visible for months. Mamdani’s astounding mayoral victory in 2025 mobilized a slew of like-minded candidates to run for office — in New York City and beyond. In Philadelphia, DSA-endorsed candidate Chris Rabb won a Philadelphia-based congressional seat last month. Last week, DSA-backed Janeese Lewis George romped to victory in the race for mayor in the nation’s capital, and is on track to become the city’s next top executive. 

In many ways, Lander was the most conventional of the Mamdani-backed candidates. 

The former mayoral candidate was a heavy favorite from the moment it became clear he would not receive a job in Mamdani’s administration and instead took aim at the Brooklyn-Manhattan House seat, parts of which he had represented in local government since 2010.

Nonetheless, the self-described “progressive Zionist” bear-hugged the democratic socialist mayor and courted his left-wing base with escalating criticism of Israel. This at times created embarrassing moments for Lander, as when Jewish Insider discovered that his top consultant recruited from the independent “Hot Girls for Zohran” social media campaign had pushed pro-Hamas content and anti-Israel conspiracy theories online — and on the day of the vote, when New York City First Lady Rama Duwaji snubbed him by leaving him off her own list of endorsements.

The race also put Lander in the awkward spot of appearing in an ad that aired during the NBA finals with Mamdani and his two other endorsed House candidates, even as Lander insisted he was backing neither of them.

But in the end, it mattered little to Democratic voters, and the mayor and the new Democratic congressional nominee embraced in front of cameras at his campaign celebration in Brooklyn.

Nor did Lander’s non-endorsement seem to damage Mamdani’s other candidates. A registration and turnout operation among the Satmar Hasidim proved insufficient to lift Reynoso over Valdez in the race to replace Rep. Nydia Velazquez (D-NY).

Reynoso and Valdez largely echoed each other in their condemnation of the Jewish state, but Valdez made it a centerpiece of her campaign, even going so far as to falsely suggest AIPAC was financing a PAC backing her opponent. The real money behind the last-minute spending campaign was Randi Weingarten’s American Federation of Teachers, in alliance with former City Comptroller Scott Stringer, one of Mamdani’s unsuccessful opponents last year.

Stringer and the AFT also sought to block Mamdani’s boldest play of all: dislodging Espaillat, a reliable pro-Israel Democrat, and replacing him with Columbia encampment leader and doctoral student Avila Chevalier. Mamdani declined to denounce Avila Chevalier’s history of attacking interracial relationships, promoting COVID-19 disinformation and parroting Russian government talking points online — or her denunciations of Democratic stalwarts such as former President Joe Biden and former Vice President Kamala Harris. 

Mamdani also refused to condemn her participation in an anti-Israel rally one day after the Oct. 7 attacks, a gathering he had denounced at the time, even as Avila Chevalier defended her decision to attend the event.

Strong turnout in gentrifying Manhattan sections of Espaillat’s district, and weak participation in the working-class Bronx areas, gave Avila Chevalier a decided advantage over the incumbent.

Even downballot, Mamdani-aligned candidates romped, with public defender and Jews for Racial and Economic Justice member Eli Northrup easily defeating Rabbi Stephanie Ruskay in a Manhattan state Assembly district with a large Jewish population. Both contenders for the seat emphasized their Jewish identity in the closely watched primary, but Ruskay — related by marriage to former UJA-Federation CEO John Ruskay, and an associate dean of The Rabbinical School at the Jewish Theological Seminary — was the favored candidate of longtime Upper West Side political establishment.

Northrup, who has expressed ambivalence about Zionism, represented an insurgent politics in the Mamdani mold, even though he is not a member of the Democratic Socialists of America.

In Queens, Palestinian-American activist Aber Kawas rode the mayor’s endorsement to an effortless victory. Mamdani’s candidate to take over Valdez’s seat in the state legislature, Samantha Kattan, rolled over her opposition. Another Mamdani contender in Queens, Brian Romero, similarly romped. In Lower Manhattan, his candidate for Assembly Illapa Sairitupac —like the others, a member of the DSA — won with a plurality.

Three additional DSA candidates tossed out incumbents without the mayor’s endorsement, bringing the organization’s total wins on the evening to six. This means the mayor and DSA can now count on a growing bloc of loyalists in Albany, which has power over many aspects of city policy. It also means a shift in the makeup of a body long dominated by lawmakers supportive of Israel.

In assembling his slate, the mayor spurned and burned allies: rejecting his old ally Velazquez’s favored successor for his own DSA loyalist in Valdez, breaking a reported pledge not to back a challenger to Espaillat and even — as sources told JI — shrugging off a request from one of his most prominent Jewish supporters, former Manhattan Borough President Ruth Messinger.

But on Tuesday night, Mamdani towered triumphant over friends and enemies alike, building a bloc in Congress to squeeze House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY).

Even in the one contentious House race where he declined to weigh in, to replace Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY), a candidate working with his political advisor Morris Katz prevailed: Assemblymember Micah Lasher beat out a crowded and costly field to victory.