By Sheldon Ranz

After Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani’s historic victory last year as New York City’s first socialist mayor, the pundits were only happy to predict he would get nothing done in office, being hopelessly blocked by centrist political opposition. Not only has Hizzoner made his doubters eat a massive amount of crow over the first six months of his first term, but Tuesday June 23’s primary results represented a major expansion of his coalition when the voters ousted centrist congressional representatives (or turned back such challengers) and replaced them with pro-Palestinian advocates that he endorsed and for which he campaigned mightily:

• Former NYC Comptroller Brad Lander’s big win over incumbent Congressman Dan Goldman. Goldman has voted for military aid to Israel consistently despite token verbal criticisms of Netanyahu. Not only has Lander called out Israel for its genocide of Gaza but has embraced the sanctions aspect of BDS and has frequently been arrested protesting ICE abuses.  Mamdani and Lander had cross-endorsed each other during the mayoral primary last year. His backing of Lander for this contest was the fruit of that cross-endorsement.
• Queens Assemblymember and DSAer Claire Valdez solidly defeated Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso for the retiring Nydia Velazquez’s open seat.  Velazquez and a host of establishment Democrats endorsed Reynoso, but his campaign stood no chance against the DSA election machine.
• Harlem DSA insurgent Darializa Avila Chevalier edged out five-term incumbent Adriano Espaillat, chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. In spite of some foolish youthful tweets coming back to shame her later on the campaign, she stayed focused and marshaled her group’s resources effectively.

Mamdani also endorsed a slew of candidates for the State Senate and Assembly, and all but one won.  Congrats to prior SDUSA endorsee and new Queens State Senator primary winner Jessica Gonzalez-Rojas, who defeated incumbent Jessica Ramos, who infamously endorsed Andrew Cuomo during the mayoral primary last year. New York State now welcomes its first Palestinian American State Senate primary winner, Aber Kawas, from Queens, taking over for the retiring Michael Gianaris. New Assemblymember primary winner from the Upper West Side is attorney Eli Northrup, who backs BDS and leans Democratic Zionist. He defeated a liberal Zionist rabbi in his contest. Eon Huntley took out incumbent Stefan Zinerman from East New York, Brooklyn and Christian Celeste Tate finally ended the real estate advocacy dynasty of the Dilans by defeating Erik Dilan. The elder Dilan, Martin, was defeated in 2018 by SDUSA endorsee Julia Salazar. Samantha Kattan‘s election to the Assembly shores up Mamdani’s growing political influence in Queens, as does the election of Brian Romero, former chief of staff for Jessica Gonzalez-Rojas. Finally, Illapa Sairitupac won the Chinatown Assembly seat abandoned by Grace Lee. If you add in Mamdani’s Assemblymember replacement from Queens, Diane Moreno, that is a net gain of seven socialists in the Assembly and two in the Senate. Not too shabby for a night’s work!

For a genuine progressive to win on Triumphant Tuesday, you had to have an endorsement from Mamdani, DSA or both, the sole exception being Conrad Blackburn, who lost his Assembly race by just 8% up in Harlem with both endorsements in hand. But if you were a progressive hero or heroine with neither endorsement, it was not going to be your night.  When SDUSA endorsed former State Assemblymember Yuh-Line Niou for State Senate recently in her run against Grace Lee, it seemed a no-brainer that Mamdani would endorse Niou since they were both hunger strikers backing the taxicab walkout years ago during the DeBlasio administration and they had maintained a friendship since. And, Lord knows, Niou needed the mayor’s endorsement since all of the establishment Democrats were lined up in support of Grace Lee, a pro-real estate, pro-Israel advocate. So there Niou was, David versus Goliath, but without her Mamdani slingshot, ending up with just 37% of the vote because voters were maybe wondering what she did to piss off their increasingly beloved mayor to the point that he would refuse to endorse her. Maybe we will find out what really happened behind the scenes, but for now, losing a brilliant legislator like Niou to a centrist hack like Lee is a bitter pill to swallow.

Another mysterious mayoral move is his non-endorsement of David Orkin. He is a Queens DSA lawyer who organized chapters of Jewish Voice for Peace in Arizona and is a stalwart anti-Zionist who won his Assemblymember primary. Is Orkin’s opposition to both a Jewish homeland in Israel AND a Jewish State of Israel too much for Mamdani? In any event, the good thing here is that with Orkin and Northrup, Julia Salazar will no longer be the only Jewish legislator in Albany who backs BDS.

Figuring out how to make sense of the endorsements (and non-endorsements) matter, because as has been made quite clear, Mamdani’s endorsements have a powerful impact on the city’s and state’s body politic. The voters go along with his choices because they go along with him. He has earned their trust because of the impressive record of achievement his administration has compiled thus far:

• A major campaign promise fulfilled – he established free childcare for 2-year-olds.
• A second major campaign promise fulfilled – thanks to his appointments to the Rent Guidelines Board, the Board voted 7–1 for a two-year rent freeze on all rent stabilized apartments in the city, benefitting over one million New Yorkers.
• In a related matter, he created a Mayor’s Office to Protect Tenants that has already reclaimed over $34 million for renters and forced repairs in more than 6,000 apartments.
• SEWER SOCIALISM: He went after junk fees and subscription traps. He filled 100,000 potholes. He invested $50 million in parks, built new bus and bike lanes, and announced new rec centers and youth clinics. He’s even opening a city-owned grocery store to fight food prices.
• BALANCING THE BUDGET: Mamdani inherited a $12 billion dollar deficit from his predecessor, the corrupt Eric Adams. Yet, in a short time, he made the deficit vanish with no service cuts or no new taxes on workers. First, he secured $8 billion in new state assistance in exchange for endorsing Hochul for reelection over Bruce Blakeman for Governor and for undermining Antonio Delgado’s intended primary against Hochul. Second, he got the City Council to OK the pied-à-terre tax on second homes valued over $5 million. Third, he found nearly $2 billion in savings by reducing overtime, renegotiating contracts, updating old software, consolidating leases, phasing out unused programs nobody was using and collecting revenue owed to the city.  Lastly, he still had enough left over to put $2 billion back into the rainy day fund and $5.2 billion into the Retiree Health Benefit Trust.
• There is an increasing awareness of just how toxic Israel is. Mamdani’s approval ratings stayed high even as he became the first mayor to skip the Salute to Israel parade, reversed all of Eric Adams anti-BDS executive orders, and evicted Easy Aerial, a maker of Israeli drones, from the Brooklyn Navy Yards.

The impact of Triumphant Tuesday is already being felt outside the city and the state.  These are truly exciting times we live in!

Sheldon Ranz is the Director of Special Projects for Social Democrats USA and the editor of Socialist Currents.