Mamdani-backed candidates test New York left-wing coalition in primary races

Brad Lander knocked off two-term Rep. Dan Goldman in New York’s 10th Congressional District Democratic primary, giving Zohran Mamdani the clearest proof yet that his 2025 mayoral surge could be turned into a congressional machine. The district runs through lower Manhattan and Brooklyn, and the race drew unusual attention because Goldman, a former Trump impeachment lawyer, had made the contest a proxy for fights over Israel and the Democratic Party’s direction.

Mamdani did not stop at one endorsement. He backed Lander, Assemblymember Claire Valdez and Darializa Avila Chevalier, then joined Bernie Sanders at a Brooklyn get-out-the-vote rally on June 18, where the pair pressed voters to line up behind the three candidates. Mamdani used the rally to argue that his picks represented the party’s future, a bid to show that his base could move beyond his own name on a ballot.

Turnout showed the contests were landing with Democratic voters across the city. The New York City Board of Elections said 420,000 New Yorkers had voted by 6 p.m. on primary day, not counting mail ballots, and its early-voting totals showed 172,743 city voters had already checked in by the end of the nine-day early-vote period. That level of participation made the primaries the sharpest citywide test yet of whether Mamdani’s coalition can be transferred from a mayoral race to House nominating contests.

The results gave Mamdani two clear wins and one tighter fight. AP projected Valdez as the winner in the 7th District, while late returns in the 13th District showed Avila Chevalier ahead of Espaillat, 48.62 percent to 46.92 percent, with 77 percent of expected votes in. Taken together, the races showed a left flank that can prevail in some New York City districts and force an entrenched incumbent into a close count in others, especially where Israel, ethnicity and long-standing local loyalties still shape the vote.