New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani's slate of three progressive challengers swept Democratic congressional primaries on Tuesday, defeating two sitting House members and the handpicked successor to a third in a coordinated rebuke of the party establishment six months into the mayor's tenure.

Former city Comptroller Brad Lander beat Rep. Dan Goldman in New York's 10th District by 65.7 percent to 34.1 percent. Darializa Avila Chevalier, a 32-year-old doctoral student and democratic socialist, unseated Rep. Adriano Espaillat, the five-term chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, in the 13th District. State Assemblywoman Claire Valdez defeated Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso by more than 20 points in the 7th District, the seat being vacated by retiring Rep. Nydia Velazquez.

The result, framed Tuesday as a test of Mamdani's transferable coalition, instead delivered the mayor three new House allies and a direct loss for Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries, who had campaigned for the incumbents. It also sharpened a fight inside the party over Israel, immigration enforcement and taxation heading into November's midterms, when Republicans are defending a narrow majority.

The fallen incumbents

Goldman, an heir to the Levi Strauss fortune who led the first impeachment inquiry of President Donald Trump in 2019, was a two-term incumbent backed by pro-Israel groups. Lander, who is also Jewish, has described Israel's war in Gaza as genocide; Goldman has condemned settler violence but stopped short of that label. "Tonight, the voters of 10th District have spoken," Goldman said. "While this is not the outcome I worked so hard for, I respect their decision."

Espaillat, 71, was the first Dominican American elected to Congress and had held his upper Manhattan and Bronx seat for a decade. Avila Chevalier, who helped organize pro-Palestinian protests at Columbia University, ran without prior office. Mamdani described her as a person "of clarity, of conscience and of conviction."

What Mamdani did

Mamdani, a democratic socialist who took office in January, campaigned in person for all three candidates and framed the primaries as a contest over the direction of the party. "It's not just a question of electing more Democrats. It's a question of electing better Democrats," the mayor said Tuesday. "When I look at these candidacies, I see in them a willingness to also put working people back at the heart of our politics."

All three winners have pledged to abolish Immigration and Customs Enforcement, to tax the rich and to characterize Israel's military campaign in Gaza as genocide, which Israel denies. In his victory speech, Lander said the result showed voters "want leadership ready to fight, not fold, against authoritarianism."

The blowback

Jeffries, speaking on Capitol Hill before polls closed, downplayed the slate's significance. "We have agreed to strongly disagree," he said of Mamdani. "A handful of primaries that go in one direction or the other, in a given state or two, aren't going to reshape who we are as House Democrats."

Fox News framed the sweep as a "far-left surge" and reported that Republicans intend to use the winners' positions on ICE, taxation and Israel against Democrats in competitive districts this fall. Mike Marinella, a spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee, said in a statement that "every House Democrat, in safe and competitive districts alike, will now answer to the radicals calling the shots." Trump, in an overnight post on social media, called Goldman "weak and pathetic" and wrote that "America the Beautiful will NEVER be a Communist Country!!!" The substantive Republican argument, that the slate's platform will be difficult to defend in swing districts, mirrors a concern voiced privately by establishment Democrats in Washington.

In the 12th District, where Mamdani made no endorsement in the race to succeed retiring Rep. Jerry Nadler, state Assembly Member Micah Lasher, a former Nadler aide backed by party leaders, defeated Jack Schlossberg, the 33-year-old grandson of President John F. Kennedy, and anti-Trump lawyer George Conway, who took about 6 percent.

What is next

The three primary winners will be heavy favorites in November in their solidly Democratic districts and would take office in January 2027. Their arrival would expand the Congressional Progressive Caucus and place a bloc of Mamdani-aligned members inside a Jeffries-led conference that campaigned against them.