Zohran Mamdani: Kingmaker

The Establishment Should Be Terrified — Three incumbents. Corporate-backed, AIPAC-funded, Hakeem Jeffries-Endorsed Democrats. They All Lost. And It's Just The Beginning.

There’s a new leader of the Democratic Party, and his name is Mamdani.

M-A-M-D-A-N-I

In three hotly contested congressional primaries in New York City, there were three incumbents with establishment backing, corporate PAC money, AIPAC support, and the endorsement of House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries. Each faced three people-funded progressive challengers.

The incumbents lost. All three of them.

Darializa Avila Chevalier defeated Adriano Espaillat by 4 points. Claire Valdez defeated Antonio Reynoso by a shocking 21 points. And Brad Lander defeated Dan Goldman by an astounding 32 points.

Every single candidate NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani endorsed won their primary. Every single one.

And with Chris Rabb’s victory in Pennsylvania’s 3rd Congressional District, and Graham Platner’s overwhelming victory in Maine’s Senate race, something is becoming impossible to deny: the people-powered progressive movement is not a moment. It is a majority. And it is just getting started. Let’s Address This.

What This Actually Means

Let’s be precise about what Mamdani’s endorsees defeated last night—because the stakes of these primaries were not abstract.

They defeated candidates backed by Hakeem Jeffries—the leader of House Democrats. He’s the man at the top of the party’s institutional infrastructure, whose endorsement is supposed to be the gold standard of Democratic primary electability.

Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (Source: Charles Rex Arbogast/AP)

In the NY primary, that endorsement meant little. Mamdani’s picks defeated each of them. They defeated candidates funded by corporate PACs—the same donor infrastructure that has spent decades ensuring the Democratic Party remains safe for Wall Street, pharmaceutical companies, the insurance industry, and the defense contractors who profit from endless war.

They defeated candidates backed by AIPAC—the lobbying organization that has poured tens of millions of dollars into Democratic primaries specifically to punish candidates who dare to name Israel’s genocide on Palestinians and demand its end.

And they defeated candidates supported by billionaires—the same class of ultra-wealthy donors whose financial support comes with the implicit understanding that the politicians they back will govern for them, not for working people.

The people who beat all of that are three people-funded progressives who have made economic justice for working families the centerpiece of their campaigns, demand universal healthcare, reject AIPAC, and condemn Israel’s genocide in Gaza.

Dalarializa Avila Chevalier (L), Claire Valdez (M), and Brad Lander (R)

The establishment’s theory of Democratic politics has always been: move to the center, take the corporate money, don’t make donors uncomfortable, and win. Last night, that theory lost in three congressional districts simultaneously—beaten by a movement operating on a completely different logic. One that says: fight for working people without apology, reject corporate money without hesitation, name genocide without equivocation, and trust that voters will respond.

Immense credit likewise to the Working Families Party, which supported each of these winning candidates and has been an indispensable organizational force in building the infrastructure that makes these victories possible. Progressive politics does not win on inspiration alone. It wins on organization—and the WFP has been doing that organizing since before it was fashionable and before any victory was guaranteed.

The loud response from voters is not a minor upset. It is a realignment. And Zohran Mamdani is at the center of it.

And the best part? This movement is only getting started.

If You Liked What You Saw In New York—Here’s How You Can Help Take It Nationwide

These primary victories in deep blue seats were both extraordinary—and also just the opening acts.

Nearly 40 states still have primary elections to conclude before the midterms. The window to reshape the Democratic caucus in the House and Senate—to replace corporate centrists with people-powered fighters who will actually hold the fascist in the White House accountable—is open right now.

And we have an extraordinary slate of candidates who deserve your attention, your donations, your volunteer hours, and your votes if you live in their districts. Here is just a snapshot of those whom I am supporting.

• Melat Kiros is running for US Congress in Colorado District 1. She is a refugee from Ethiopia, a lawyer whose firm fired her for condemning Israel’s genocide, and a working family’s champion who faces a 30 year incumbent.

• Former Rep Cori Bush is running for her old seat in US Congress in Missouri District 1. A seat she lost due to AIPAC’s absurd spend. Bush is one of the most courageous human rights voices in the country, fighting to return to Congress and continue the work she has always done for the most vulnerable.

• Oliver Larkin is running for US Congress in Florida District 25 against one of the most corrupt and conservative Democratic members of Congress, Jared Moskowitz. Larkin is a people-funded challenger in a state that desperately needs bold progressive leadership representing them in Washington.

• Florida State Representative Angie Nixon is running for US Senate in Florida. Her primary opponent is Alexander Vindman, a center-right Democrat who denies Israel’s genocide on Palestinians, praises the IDF for their ‘high’ standards, and exhibits grotesque bigotry against Americans who are Muslim. Angie Nixon is a Black woman who has spent her career in service to her community and whose platform is built on the values that working Floridians actually need. I have interviewed her, I know her record, and I am proud to support her.

• William Lawrence is running for US Congress in Michigan District 7—his opponents are two conservative corporate Democrats. Lawrence is part of a new generation of progressive organizers bringing real accountability to a state that has been let down by centrist Democrats who promised more than they delivered.

• Dr. Abdul El-Sayed is running for US Senate in Michigan—a Rhodes Scholar, Columbia-trained physician, Oxford-trained epidemiologist, and the only candidate in that race who has never taken a dollar of corporate money. He is fighting for universal healthcare, economic justice, and the soul of Michigan’s Democratic Party.

• Aisha Farooqi is a lawyer running for US Congress in Michigan District 11—a principled, people-funded candidate who represents exactly the kind of new leadership Michigan needs.

• Michigan State Rep Donavan McKinney is running for Congress in Michigan District 13 against a corporate Democrat worth something absurd, around $100M. McKinney, meanwhile, is a working families Democrat in the truest sense of the phrase.

• Salaam Bhatti is running for US Congress in Virginia District 1. Salaam is a poverty lawyer with a decade of service to the most marginalized, running a 100% people-funded campaign with no AIPAC or corporate PAC money. He is the candidate Virginia’s new district deserves.

• Wisconsin State Representative Francesca Hong is running for Governor of Wisconsin—a fighter whose record in the state legislature reflects the values that Wisconsin’s working families have been demanding and not receiving from their state government.

• Minnesota Lieutenant Governor Peggy Flanagan is running for US Senate—a historic candidate whose commitment to working families, Indigenous rights, and economic justice makes her exactly the kind of senator Minnesota needs.

I encourage you to click on their names to learn about them, donate to them to fuel their people powered movements, and volunteer for them to help them win their primary elections. These are but a snapshot of the powerful new generation of leaders we need to elect. Every single one of these candidates is running a principled campaign centered on working families, economic justice, universal healthcare, ending the genocide in Gaza, and protecting our climate. But let’s pause for a moment.

Every single one of them faces the same corporate centrist establishment Democrats—funded by the same donors, backed by the same institutions, operating on the same failed theory of politics that got us into this mess in the first place.

We have the chance to replace them with principled leaders who will fight to revive our Republic and hold the fascist in the White House accountable.

The Lesson the Establishment Refuses to Learn

There is a phrase I keep returning to as I watch this movement build: if politicians wanted to, they would.

Zohran Mamdani has proven this beyond any reasonable dispute. He promised to govern for working people—and he is. He promised to fight antisemitism—and he invested 800% more in funding doing so. He promised to tax the rich—and he did. He promised to make New York City safer without 5000 new cops—the city has seen a historic drop in crime under his leadership. He promised to fill 100,000 potholes, build public grocery stores, deliver free childcare, and tax luxury second homes—and he did. He promised to endorse and organize for people-powered progressive candidates—and last night, they won.

He made those promises because he in believed them—and then he kept them. And he’s not stopping.

The establishment tells us that bold, principled, people-funded politics is naive. That you have to play the game. That you have to take the corporate money. That you have to soften your position on genocide to make the donors comfortable. That you have to accept incremental half-measures because that’s just how the system works.

Mamdani is not accepting that. His candidates are not accepting that. And increasingly, Democratic primary voters are not accepting that either.

Conclusion

The future of the Democratic Party—the future of our democracy—does not belong to the consultants and the corporate donors and the incumbents who have been comfortable for too long. It belongs to the organizers. The fighters. The people-funded candidates who knock on doors and make phone calls and show up in community spaces and earn their votes one conversation at a time.

Last night proved it. Forty more states of primaries will keep proving it.

The future looks bright. Let’s make it blinding to those who seek to divide us with hate.

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Qasim Rashid is a human rights attorney, author, and host of Let’s Address This—a platform dedicated to human rights, accountability, and the people-powered politics that corporate media ignores. Subscribe, share, and let’s remain relentless in our mission for a more perfect Union.