The organized left scored a major victory last week when Zohran Mamdani was elected mayor of New York City, elevating to executive office a politician who became one of the nation’s most prominent democratic socialists during the campaign.

Now, as the movement seeks to ride momentum from Mamdani’s win and grow its influence at the federal level, some emerging challengers are setting their sights on a handful of pro-Israel Democrats in the House — posing what is likely to be the first key test of its political credibility in the upcoming midterm elections.

While next year’s primaries are still more than six months away, some early signs indicate that the far left is already facing obstacles in its efforts to target established incumbents, raising questions about its organizational discipline and messaging ability, not to mention alignment with Mamdani — who is now walking a delicate path in seeking buy-in from state leadership to deliver on his ambitious affordability agenda.

Jake Dilemani, a Democratic consultant in New York, said “there is and should be euphoria among the left” after Mamdani’s victory, “but that does not necessarily translate into toppling relatively popular incumbents.”

“One swallow does not make a summer,” he told Jewish Insider on Tuesday.

In a pair of looming congressional contests in Brooklyn and the Bronx, for instance, potentially divided primary fields are now threatening to split the vote to oppose Reps. Dan Goldman (D-NY) and Ritchie Torres (D-NY), both of whom are preparing to seek reelection amid left-wing backlash over their support for Israel.

Brad Lander, the outgoing comptroller and an ally of Mamdani, has told associates he is planning to challenge Goldman in a progressive district covering parts of Brooklyn and Lower Manhattan, people familiar with his thinking told JI recently. 

Lander, who was reportedly boxed out of a top job in Mamdani’s administration over conflict with the mayor-elect, has acknowledged that he is “seriously considering” a House bid, but has yet to confirm his timeline for publicly making a decision. One person familiar with the matter said he is likely to launch a bid after Mamdani assumes office in early January. Lander has denied that there are any tensions with Mamdani or his team.

While polling has shown that Lander would be a formidable challenger to Goldman, thanks to his popularity in the district where he once served as a longtime city councilman, some observers have speculated that he could face skepticism from voters who may see his bid as a consolation after failing to secure a role in City Hall. 

Lander and Goldman were seen mingling at some of the same receptions during the Somos conference in San Juan, Puerto Rico, last week, but did not appear to interact.

In addition to Lander, Alexa Avilés, a far-left city councilwoman closely aligned with the Democratic Socialists of America, is also weighing a challenge to Goldman, provoking fears among his critics who say he will benefit from a crowded field that helped him secure a narrow victory in his first House primary in 2022.

Yuh-Line Niou, a former state assemblywoman who placed second in that primary, has been considering another bid as well, sources told JI, after she lost by a margin of just two points in a race that centered in part on her controversial support for the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement.

Goldman, for his part, has sought to downplay the role that Israel could play in the race, arguing that the Trump administration presents a more serious threat to his constituents. 

But Avilés, for one, is almost certain to raise Israel in a potential primary challenge, owing to her vocal opposition to the war in Gaza, which she has called a genocide, and outspoken criticism of AIPAC. “The tide is turning, but the forces remain pernicious and persistent,” Avilés said during a panel discussion at Somos last week, warning of “a Congress that is very much controlled by AIPAC.”

“Saying no to violence is not a radical idea,” Avilés added in comments hinting at a challenge. “And you know what, y’all? If people are not stepping up, then we need to remove them.”

In the Bronx, Torres, who is among the staunchest defenders of Israel in the House, has already drawn a primary opponent focusing overwhelmingly on his pro-Israel record and contributions from AIPAC, in an effort to channel the anti-establishment zeitgeist that helped boost Mamdani’s insurgent campaign.

Michael Blake, a former state assemblyman who came in eighth place in the New York City mayoral primary, launched his campaign to unseat Torres last week. But he is facing accusations of hypocrisy over his own previous well-documented ties to AIPAC and past statements voicing strong support for Israel — contributing to a somewhat turbulent rollout that has cast doubts on his viability.

On the sidelines of the Somos retreat last Friday, Blake, who has twice visited Israel and spoken at AIPAC events, insisted that “you can be critical of governmental policies” and it “does not make you antisemitic or anti-Israel.” 

Blake, who also ran against Torres in a crowded primary in 2020, said he now supports an arms embargo on Israel, but clarified that, if elected, he would continue to vote for defensive aid for its Iron Dome missile-interception system — views that are unlikely to win converts among voters in Riverdale, a predominantly Jewish Bronx neighborhood where Torres has built a loyal following.

“I do think we have to be attentive of the moment that we’re in right now,” Blake said of his thinking last week, while confirming he would “absolutely” seek support from the DSA, which has so far only endorsed candidates running for state office next year. 

Marshall Wittmann, an AIPAC spokesperson, said that the group’s “grassroots members understand the stakes in the upcoming midterms and that is why they are deeply motivated and engaged to help elect pro-Israel candidates and defeat detractors.”

Blake cross-endorsed with Mamdani in the primary and has enthusiastically supported the mayor-elect. But Torres, who once cautioned Mamdani was unfit to lead New York City because of his close ties to the DSA, has since spoken positively about the incoming mayor and praised one of his early appointments as “exceptional” on Monday, complicating the political fault lines in the primary.

A lesser-known primary challenger, Andre Easton, is also campaigning against Torres using similarly hostile rhetoric about Israel and AIPAC. Easton, an independent affiliated with the Party for Socialism and Liberation, has said he is running “to fight for the Bronx — not billionaires who fund genocide in Palestine,” and claims that Torres “pockets money from AIPAC” while children in the district “live in poverty.”

Marshall Wittmann, an AIPAC spokesperson, said that the group’s “grassroots members understand the stakes in the upcoming midterms and that is why they are deeply motivated and engaged to help elect pro-Israel candidates and defeat detractors.”

“The track record demonstrates that being pro-Israel is good policy and good politics as 96% of AIPAC endorsed Democrats won their elections last cycle,” he added in a statement to JI on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, another pro-Israel Democrat, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), is expected to draw a more established far-left primary challenger in the coming weeks, setting up a high-profile fight for the Brooklyn House seat he has held for over a decade. 

Chi Ossé, a young city councilman and Mamdani ally who has developed a sizable following on social media, is reportedly planning to seek support from the DSA, as he prepares to launch an insurgent bid to topple Jeffries, long a target of the far left. Ossé recently became a member of the DSA after quitting the group in 2020, he said on social media in 2023, noting that when he first left he “wasn’t aligned with the organization” but that there was “no bad blood.”

Still, he may face resistance from Mamdani, who claimed an endorsement from Jeffries late in the election and is hoping to avoid intraparty conflict while balancing a tenuous coalition to advance his daunting campaign pledges. He has also distanced himself from the DSA’s most extreme positions and said their respective platforms are “not the same.”

“It’s not clear that wins from election night will translate into intra-party primary victories in a midterm election,” Basil Smikle, a professor at Columbia’s School of Professional Studies and a Democratic strategist, said on Tuesday. “There’s a lot of time between now and then but the organizing framework has certainly been established to make a strong run.”

Mamdani, who criticized Jeffries’ pro-Israel views before the mayoral election, had reportedly sought to preempt Ossé’s plans to oppose the congressman who could be the next speaker of the House. As the councilman now moves forward against Mamdani’s apparent wishes, the potential primary battle could place the mayor-elect in an uncomfortable position, possibly fueling tensions with an activist base eager to capitalize on his victory. The DSA did not return a request for comment.

Despite such issues, some experts said that the left remains formidable ahead of next year’s primaries, even as it confronts some potential disorganization. 

“It’s not clear that wins from election night will translate into intra-party primary victories in a midterm election,” Basil Smikle, a professor at Columbia’s School of Professional Studies and a Democratic strategist, said on Tuesday. “There’s a lot of time between now and then but the organizing framework has certainly been established to make a strong run.”

Hank Sheinkopf, a veteran Democratic strategist, said that “every pro-Israel Democrat is a target for the newly empowered DSA BDS gang,” and warned that incumbents “should be prepared for a long and costly battle.”

In addition to New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani’s race, we’ve been spotlighting two other mayoral contests where socialist, anti-Israel candidates were running competitively against more traditionally liberal standard-bearers: in Minneapolis and Seattle. 

If Mamdani’s bare 50% majority in the three-way race signaled that a far-left candidate could prevail in a deep-blue city — even while dividing the Democratic Party — the underperformance of the two other far-left challengers on big-city ballots underscores the limited appetite even deep-blue constituencies have for radical politics. 

In Minneapolis, Mayor Jacob Frey won reelection to a third term over Democratic Socialists of America-affiliated state Sen. Omar Fateh. The race was close: While Frey held a substantial 10-point lead in the first round of balloting, he narrowly secured a victory by six points (50-44%) in the second round of the city’s ranked-choice election system. 

Fateh formed an alliance with two other left-wing candidates in the race, but ultimately enough people who didn’t back Frey in the first round chose him as a second or third preference.

Fateh, a progressive affiliated with the DSA, has accused Israel of committing genocide, among other anti-Israel views, and campaigned with Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), who remains one of Israel’s harshest critics in Congress. 

Members of Fateh’s staff had also expressed hostile views towards Israel; his communications manager, Ayana Smith-Kooiman, said in a series of now-deleted social media posts that Israel “does not have a ‘right’ to exist” and “must be dismantled,” and said she did not care about Hamas a month after the Oct. 7, 2023, terror attacks — statements that drew rebuke from Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN). 

The outcome is also looking favorable for the more-moderate incumbent in Seattle — though far from certain. Mayor Bruce Harrell, who trailed his socialist challenger Katie Wilson during the summer primary, is now leading her in the general election by eight points, 54-46%, with more than three-quarters of votes tallied. 

Wilson, who has expressed hostile views towards Israel, including calling the Jewish state’s war on Hamas a “genocide,” led over Harrell in the primary. Wilson has expressed support in the past for divesting from investments in Seattle that support Israeli actions, which is in line with the BDS movement. 

Additionally, some Seattle Jewish community leaders have expressed deep concern over Wilson’s candidacy and her relationships with anti-Israel activists, including Kshama Sawant, a former far-left Seattle city councilmember who has faced accusations of stoking antisemitism.

However, the race is still far from being decided. Many ballots are left to be counted, including a significant share from left-leaning parts of the city. 

If both of the other socialist, anti-Israel candidates go down to defeat, combined with Mamdani’s bare 50% majority in heavily-Democratic New York City, it’s pretty clear that as an electoral strategy, left-wing activism and anti-Israel politicking is still a losing formula. 

On the other hand, the fact that the far-left candidates were able to win between 45-50% of the citywide vote — with one win, one loss and one race still too close to call — it’s a sign that this brand of radical politics isn’t going away. 

As progressives have gained traction in local races across the country, Katie Wilson, a self-described socialist now mounting a formidable bid for mayor of Seattle, has increasingly drawn comparisons to Zohran Mamdani, the far-left Democratic nominee for mayor of New York City whose primary upset in June stunned the national political establishment.

Like Mamdani, a 33-year-old democratic socialist and state assemblyman, Wilson, the co-founder and executive director of Seattle’s Transit Riders Union, took political observers by surprise when she handily led the August “jungle” primary with just over 50% of the vote — defeating the moderate incumbent mayor, Bruce Harrell, by a nearly 10-point margin.

Wilson, in her early 40s, is preparing to face Harrell once again in the Nov. 4 election, where analysts say she is now well-positioned to oust the first-term mayor. Harrell has struggled not only to land on a vision that resonates with voters but to effectively articulate an argument against his upstart challenger, who has focused on a populist message of affordability that Mamdani has also championed throughout his own campaign.

But while her record of commentary on Israel and the war in Gaza is far more limited than Mamdani, who has long been an outspoken critic of the Jewish state, many Jewish leaders in Seattle are expressing concern over Wilson’s statements about the conflict amid what they describe as a lack of outreach from her campaign with just five weeks until the election.

In a handful of recent remarks, Wilson has accused Israel of genocide in Gaza — a characterization that Jewish leaders and community activists have found troubling as voter sympathy for the Jewish state, especially in the progressive Seattle area, has sharply declined.

“I am strongly opposed to the genocide in Gaza,” Wilson said in a comment posted to social media in August. “As mayor of Seattle, my ability to end the violence is limited, but I will do everything I can to end the suffering of Palestinians and guarantee the safety of Muslims, Jews, and people of all faiths and backgrounds in Seattle.”

Meanwhile, Wilson has suggested that she is “open to divestment” if Seattle “has investments that are indirectly supporting Israel’s actions,” according to an email response to a person who asked about her stances on Israel that was posted to social media in July. 

Elsewhere in the note, Wilson said that she was “familiar with the ‘end the deadly exchange’ efforts of a few years ago and think that’s something that could be done through executive action,” referring to a movement seeking to prohibit American police officers from training with Israeli law enforcement officials. The American Jewish Committee has accused the campaign of helping to fuel an antisemitic trope suggesting Israel is responsible for American police brutality.

Regina Sassoon Friedland, regional director of the American Jewish Committee’s Seattle office, echoed a range of Jewish community leaders in taking issue with Wilson’s rhetoric on Israel.

“While AJC does not endorse or oppose candidates, it should be noted that claims of genocide against Israel lack factual or legal foundation,” Friedland told Jewish Insider on Tuesday. “Not only are such accusations baseless, but they distort realities on the ground when no mention is made of Hamas, whose announced purpose is annihilating Israel.”

In addition to her comments, some Jewish community leaders say they are discouraged by Wilson’s relationships with anti-Israel activists including Kshama Sawant, a former far-left Seattle city councilmember who has faced accusations of stoking antisemitism. Wilson also claimed an endorsement from CAIR Action, a political advocacy group affiliated with the Council on American-Islamic Relations, whose executive director has drawn condemnation for praising Hamas.

A recently established political action committee called The Kids Table, which seeks to promote “pro-Jewish candidates for state and local office” in Washington state and is led by a group of Jewish millennial activists, claimed that Wilson has “allied herself with vitriolic anti-Jewish candidates” and “talked about focusing city resources on foreign affairs issues, rather than on local ones, including the urgent problem of Jewish safety and security in Seattle.”

“Time and time again we hear deep concern about Katie Wilson’s candidacy,” the group told JI of its conversations with the Jewish community, adding she did not respond to a “candidate questionnaire about antisemitism and extremism” that had been sent to her campaign and was filled out by Harrell.

Even as Wilson has only glancingly weighed in on Israel throughout the race, where strategists say it has not been a prominent issue for many voters, the broader organized Jewish community has otherwise observed a distinct absence of engagement from her campaign. 

The Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle, for one, has not heard from her, several members told JI.

Scott Prange, an at-large member of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Seattle, said he was “not personally aware that Wilson has made any outreach to the Jewish community in Seattle.”

“And at a time when, especially in Seattle, antisemitism runs rampant amongst the left in the wake of post-Oct. 7 rhetoric and propaganda,” he told JI on Tuesday, “she has only fanned the flames by echoing hollow narratives about Israeli genocide in Gaza and calling for divestment of any city funds invested in Israel.”

Jack Gottesman, president of Sephardic Bikur Holim Congregation, an Orthodox synagogue in Seattle that includes around 300 families, said he “would welcome the opportunity to meet with Katie Wilson, but to date I have not seen meaningful outreach from her or her campaign to the Jewish community.”

“Jews have been part of Seattle’s fabric for well over 100 years, and it is important that candidates engage respectfully with all communities,” he told JI this week. “Her description of the situation in Gaza as a genocide was a mischaracterization. These are complex issues that demand depth, not slogans. I hope she recognizes the weight of her words.”

Wilson’s campaign did not respond to numerous interview requests from JI over several weeks.

In contrast with Wilson, Harrell, who was elected in 2021, has maintained what Jewish leaders largely called a strong voice in support of Israel and against rising antisemitic violence. Nevet Basker, a co-chair of Washingtonians for a Brighter Future, a separate pro-Israel PAC that has endorsed Harrell, said that the local Jewish community “appreciates” his “clear opposition to antisemitism.”

“We recognize the immense challenges the mayor has faced” and “applaud his commitment to ensure that all Seattle residents and visitors are safe and welcome,” Basker told JI in a statement. 

Rob Spitzer, the president of B’nai B’rith International and a vice chair of the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle, said Harrell “has reached out” and “is generally supported by the community,” while recalling “meetings with him and his police and security team about protecting the Jewish community and our institutions.”

The Kids Table, for its part, countered that Harrell “has failed to meet this moment of crisis for the Jewish community,” noting that “pro-Palestinian protestors blocked the interstate for six hours and weren’t cleared or charged, and ‘kill your local colonizer’ was spraypainted on statues at the mayor’s alma mater, with zero comment from his office.”

Still, the group told JI in a statement, “Wilson’s candidacy, alliances with anti-Jewish figures and organizations, and lack of engagement have many Seattle Jews very worried about the next four years.”

Harrell’s campaign also did not respond to requests from JI for an interview.

While he has sought to connect Wilson to the movement to defund the police, which she says is not her goal, Harrell has avoided commenting on her approach to Israel, underscoring the shifting political dynamics around views that until recently would likely have been seen as too extreme for the Democratic Party but have now become acceptable to many voters.

Despite concerns from Jewish community leaders, Israel “hasn’t been front and center” in the race as a “topic of discussion or debate,” Sandeep Kaushik, a political consultant in Seattle who is not involved in either campaign, told JI. 

Kaushik attributed Wilson’s unexpected rise in part to what he called the “Mamdani effect” and said she is the “front-runner,” even as he expects “the general election war is about to start” as pro-Harrell outside spending flows into the race and attacks ramp up in the final weeks.

“I think the mayor is now fighting for his political life,” Kaushik said.