NYC NOW - Mamdani Backed Candidates Score Major Wins in New York City Primaries

Episode Date: June 24, 2026

Candidates backed by Mayor Zohran Mamdani and the Democratic Socialists of America won several key congressional primaries in New York City. WNYC’s Jimmy Vielkind breaks down the results, and political scientist Dr. Christina Greer explains what they could mean for the future of the Democratic Party in New York and beyond. -Got any questions, comments or story ideas? Send us a message at [e-mail] Photo: Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images NEW YORK, NEW YORK - JUNE 23: Supporters keep track of election results during a primary-night watch party for NYC Congressional candidate Claire Valdez at 99 Scott Studio on June 23, 2026 in the East Williamsburg neighborhood of the Brooklyn borough of New York City. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

From WNYC, this is NYC Now. I'm Jene Pierre. New York's primary election is in the books. On today's episode, we discuss the biggest winners in the road ahead to the general election in November. But before we get into that, here's what's happening in our region. Frank Caron, one of former Mayor Eric Adams' oldest and closest allies, has been arrested on federal corruption charges. He joins a growing roster of Adams' aides facing prosecution. The fed's arrested Caron, the former mayor's longtime advisor and chief of staff, along with three others, as part of an investigation into an alleged bribery scheme involving a city contract.

The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York alleges that Coron, his brother Anthony, and two others, quote, devised and executed a scheme to exploit the city's migrant crisis for profit. That's according to an indictment, which was unsealed on Wednesday. They say Frank Caron agreed to steer a multi-million dollar shelter contract. contract to a hotel that one of the other defendants owned in exchange for about $120,000 in bribes. Prosecutors said the bribes were funneled through Anthony Corone via a bank account tied to Frank Caron's law firm. Court records show a 13-count indictment, including charges for bribery, money laundering, and other offenses. Corone has denied any wrongdoing and his attorney says the case is circumstantial. All of the defendants have pleaded not guilty.

Meanwhile, NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch says members of the department's Internal Affairs Bureau and FBI officials executed search warrants involving the homes of current and former high-ranking police officials as part of a bribery investigation. That's the latest in a string of law enforcement actions targeting corruption in the nation's largest police force. A law enforcement source tells WNYC that the investigation stems from bribery-related incidents that occurred several years ago, with former NYPD chief of department, Jeffrey Madri. Madri resigned in late 2024 amid allegations of sexual misconduct. The spokesperson says none of the NYPD officials at the core of the investigation have been arrested or charged.

Governor Kathy Hokel is standing behind a new state law banning law enforcement officers from wearing masks on duty. And it's happening in the face of a legal challenge from the Trump administration. Because hiding in your face is nothing more than a fear tactic, an intimidation tactic. And that's not how we keep people safe in this state. The governor's remarks come after the state and federal governments filed dueling lawsuits over the newly passed mask ban. The state law applies to all law enforcement officers.

But it's federal immigration enforcement officers who have faced scrutiny for wearing masks on duty. The Trump administration contends the law violates the Constitution, particularly provisions that place federal law ahead of state law. Officials tasked with keeping New Yorkers safe are turning to high schoolers to better understand what's driving violence in the city. Renita Francois is Deputy Mayor for Community Safety, and she's been on a listening tour at schools across the five boroughs to hear from students. More than half of the young people I spoke to directly knew someone who carried a gun or who had been harmed by a gun. One young lady mentioned being in middle school and knowing a child in middle school that was murdered.

She says the goal of the tour is to get ideas from students about the kinds of support they need. Francois says students have told her that they want things like better access to jobs and better mental health services. Results are in for New York's primary races, and the biggest winner was Mayor Zoramamam Dhani, and he wasn't even on the ballot. I'll explain after a quick break. Welcome back. Political observers around the country are watching to see if the balance of power in the House of Representatives changes this fall. But this week in New York City, some congressional primary. are telling the story of the balance of power

in some of the more left-leaning districts in the five boroughs. WMYC's Jimmy Vilkine is here to explain it all. Hey, Jimmy. Hey, Jemey. You know, you can't have a general election without the primaries. I know this is a really exciting time for you. That's right. Just remind listeners what we're talking about here.

Well, so there are these house primaries, and we're going to talk about these districts that lean so heavily democratic that the primary is just effectively, the general election. And there are really three places in New York City that we're going to focus on. The first is the 13th District, which is Uptown. That's Harlem, Washington Heights, parts of the Bronx, and it's been represented since 2016 by a guy named Adriano Espayat. Then there's the seventh district, which has the Western Queens, North Brooklyn. Some people call this area the Kami Corridor. It's been represented for more than 30 years by Nidia Velazquez, who's a stalwart of Puerto Rican political power

in the city and the nation. And then finally, there's the 10th district, which is thought of, people often describe it as sort of brownstone Brooklyn, like Park Slope, Kabul Hill, as well as parts of Lower Manhattan. Dan Goldman's a relative newcomer. He won that seat after it was created in 2022. And in each of these districts, like you said, whoever gets the Dem line is a shoe in in the general election, but there's been quite a split in the party that has emerged and that we now have answers to after the votes have been counted. That's right. So let's go around the map, shall we? What happened uptown? Well, it was a shocker. You know, this area had been really for a very long time dominated by African American and black political clubs in Harlem. And for decades, it was

represented by Charlie Rangel, kind of a stalwart representative. He was a very prominent member of Congress. And when he finally retired, there was a big battle between sort of, you know, of black political clubs in Harlem and Hispanic political clubs in Washington Heights and uptown. And out of that emerged Espayat, who was born in the Dominican Republic. And really, his election was a really big deal for the Latino community and particularly the Dominican community in Washington Heights. So Espyat has spent the last 10 years in Congress. He was a state lawmaker before that. And over time, he built up a pretty formidable political machine. Now, enter Daria Liza Avila Chevalier. She's also Dominican, but this was her first time as a candidate.

She's half Espyat's age, and she was a grad student at Columbia University during the protests that were there last year. She's an avowed socialist, and she won with Mayor Mamdani's endorsement as well as heavy backing from the Democratic Socialists of America, the DSA. She beat Espiat by about three percentage points. And, you know, these are words that we're going to hear quite all. in our conversation, the DSA and Mungani's endorsement. But let's move on, Jimmy, to New York 7, that race. Yeah, DSA was successful again. This time they went against a lot of their traditional allies, including labor unions and the Working Families Party and the state's current

Attorney General Tish James. All of those forces backed Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Renoso. He's been in office for a while. He was well liked in the district. And he got the endorsement of Velazquez, remember who is the outgoing Congress member. But the DSA and Maudey backed Assembly member Claire Valdez, who by comparison is kind of a relative political newcomer. She was a former union official, but she won big by more than 20 points. And that was even with the presence of a third party candidate, Julie Wan, who got about 6%. So it was significant for Juan, but not really a spoiler. Yeah. Let's get to that third race, New York 10. That race had a different flavor because the DSA wasn't really involved. And instead, the controversy had a lot to do

with American policy toward Israel and the ongoing war in Gaza. So former comptroller Brad Lanner harnessed lots of that progressive support to challenge incumbent representative Dan Goldman. Both men are Jewish. But Lander called the conflict in Gaza a genocide and said he would push to reduce support for the current Israeli government. He attacked Goldman for voting to send weapons to Israel. Now, some people might remember, Lander ran for mayor last year. He actually had an alliance with Mayor Mamdani that helped the mayor get to City Hall. And in this election, Mamdani returned the favor and rallied and backed Lander heavily. And Jimmy, I'm wondering, of the three races, which was most surprising the outcome to you? You know, I think to me, Avila Chevalier's

win over Representative Espyat was significant. She really didn't have much of a footprint she didn't have political experience. And so in that way, she was very much in the mold of Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who people might remember in 2018, sort of came out of nowhere and took out a major party boss, Joe Crowley, in Western Queens. AOC, as we call her, was sort of the first DSA member to win in New York City. And she's really touched off quite a movement that we can see is now spreading all over the city. Yeah. But, you know, what Chivalry did have was the endorsement of Mayor Mumdani. In fact, all these winners had that endorsement. How much of this is about Mumdani?

You know, I think that he should get a lot of credit here. He bet really big on these races, and basically he ran the table. Analysts told me that Mammani is popular, and he used his popularity to bring the people who helped elect him to bring that organizing prowess and those volunteers and that social media Riz to all of their campaigns. I'm sorry, Jimmy. Did you just say Riz? I did. You know, I hope I said that right.

My kids are going to yell at me if I didn't. Nice. What are some of the other unifying themes here? Well, you know, I think that there was a whole lot of old versus new. And again, that was definitely present with Avila Chivalier and Valdez. One analyst told me that even though Ray Noso wasn't an incumbent, he felt like one because he got that endorsement from the outgoing Congress member Nydia Velazquez. Espayat had a real compelling biography.

He was once an undocumented immigrant, but voters just wanted change. Again, Avila Chevalier was half of his age. I also think that this says a lot about sort of the DSA's power in New York City. They are clearly spreading in influence beyond their base in North Brooklyn and Western Queens, the area that some people like to call the Kami Corridor. There are several incumbent state lawmakers who went down to DSA challengers that we haven't talked about. And so I think that this is a sign of that part of the Democratic Party growing in strength and challenging kind of the moderate leaders who control the state government in a more significant way.

To me, it's a sign that the DSA is harnessing a lot of the energy that's in the party, at least in the five boroughs of New York City. Yeah. And we should point out that these weren't the only races on the ballot. Let's talk about the one statewide race, New York State Comptroller. That's right. So the current state Comptroller, Tom Denapley, he's really the only big incumbent to hold on last night. He bested two challengers, Drew Warshaw and Raj Goyle.

I really think it's because a lot of people just don't know much about the Office of Comptroller. They don't know what the Comptroller does. They don't know that he oversees a $300 billion pension fund. Yeah. And so it was hard for his challengers, Worshaw and Gawler. oil to make the case on a statewide stage that DeNapoli needed to go. So we talked about the energy of the party in the five boroughs. It really dissipates when you get outside. You know, moving around upstate New York where I live, you saw people with Tom DiNapoli signs. He had support from the Democratic Party.

He had support from major labor unions. And he was able to lean on that to just sort of get in for what is going to be if he's elected in November, a fifth full term. That's WMYC's Jimmy Vilkine, breaking it all down for us. Thanks so much for joining us, Jimmy. Thanks for having me, Janae. Now that we know the outcome of these races, let's get some analysis. Joining me now is Dr. Christina Greer. She's a political scientist, professor at Fordham University, and no stranger to the show. How's it going? I'm doing well. Thanks for having me.

Absolutely. So it was a major night for Mayor Mundani's political movement. I'm wondering what does that tell us about where Democrats are at, right? now and the strength of Mamdani's movement. Well, it's a great night for Mamdani and the DSA. He had sort of three big races that he backed and obviously got all of them across the finish line with great numbers. I do want to caution against saying that this is a democratic nationwide sweep. We're in a midterm election. It's a very low turnout election. And New York City is not necessarily representative of the entire country. So I'm reticent to say that this is a democratic narrative. What I will

say is that these candidates were able to articulate a vision that clearly voters resonated with, being very clear and concise about how our money is spent on the federal level and what message they plan to take to Washington, D.C. Some of the candidates are relatively green, as in Chivalier and Claire Valdez to a certain extent. And then you have Bradlander, who's, you know, hometown neighborhood hero. And so his win makes sense to a lot of people just because he's been in the political narrative for quite some time. But for Claire Valdez and Daria Lisa Chivalier, because they're relative newcomers on the scene, obviously the Momdani momentum and support and endorsement help them exponentially. Yeah. When we talk about those newcomers, these races are framed as establishment versus

young leftist Democrats. But is there any evidence that older, long time New York City Democratic voters in Brooklyn or Uptown are coming around on these DSA candidates? I mean, I think, honestly, it's a little too soon to tell in the sense that turnout was so low. I mean, we have seen thus far with the numbers that have come in, the DSA candidates tend to get more educated voters. They tend to get younger voters. They tend to get transplant voters. We know that there's some real nuances in each district. You know, when we think about black voters in Harlem or, you know, Puerto Rican and Dominican voters in District 7, where Rinozo and Valdez were running, you know, these are candidates that appeal to the newer, whiter, younger electorate. And a lot of older black voters and Latino, meaning Dominican and Puerto Rican voters, you know, tended to go with the establishment, whether it's Adriano Espayat, who's a five-term congressman, or Rinozo, who is the current Brooklyn Borough president. He was a former city council member. He was endorsed by outgoing Nidia Velazquez. And so even though it was an open seat in District 7, he still felt like the establishment candidate because he had so much support from older establishment, former elected and elected officials.

So the open seat versus, you know, Chevalier actually taking out a five-term incumbent. Those two races did have some similarities. Yeah. I think, though, you know, when we get to 2028 where there are a lot more people in the electorate, when it's a presidential election year when Mamdani has had a little more time to have more wins and more losses, then I think the narrative gets a little more complicated because we are going to have hard conversations about what does it mean to have historic black. Puerto Rican and Dominican electives no longer representing particular communities, or what does it mean to have descriptive representation in, say, someone like Daria Lisa Chivalier, but not necessarily

an electorate that looks like the representative, meaning the rampant gentrification that's happening across New York City. Yeah, we definitely see that. You know, though these races where intra-party battles, you know, Democrat versus Democrat, these candidates, they differ in some key areas. Can you talk about the differences between those progressive Democrats and Democratic socialists? Right. Well, so each district, that was a little nuanced because, for example, in the 13th district, Chevalier versus Espayat, that was a very clear, stark differences between the two on issues of immigration, issues on Israel and APEC.

In District 7, you know, Rinozo and Valdez actually differed on some things, but actually not a lot. when you look at the big ticket items that the community was concerned about. It was really just the endorsements. You know, Claire Valdez had Mum Donny's endorsement and Raino had Nidia Velazquez's endorsement and some labor unions, which used to mean a lot. But as we've seen, rank and file members don't always follow union leadership in ways they did, say, 10, 20, 30 years ago. With the Bradlander and Dan Goldman, District 10, you know, we have two Jewish Americans running against one another, both of them relatively to the left, but Bradlander was even more to the left of Dan Goldman, and that district straddles Manhattan and Brooklyn, and a part of Brooklyn that has

been very supportive for Bradlander his entire career and would obviously turn out. But this is where the issue of Israel, between two Jewish candidates, became a central focal point for a lot of voters who wanted a more leftist policy towards Israel and APAC and decreasing the influence of APAC in American elections. And then the last district that, you know, got a lot of attention was District 12, where Jerry Nadler was retiring. His heir apparent was Michael Asher, which many people assumed Michael would make it across the finish line. But it was a complicated race only because there were so many people in the race. You have a Kennedy offshoot in the race. And you had Alex Boris who in the last few weeks really showed that he had a really interesting and powerful

ground game that was attractive to a lot of people who actually didn't necessarily want a Jerry Nadler 2.0. You quickly mentioned that endorsements from union leadership, they don't mean the same today as they did years ago. Can you talk a bit more about that and why? Yeah, let's just say 20 years ago, if you got the endorsement of a particular union, you could bank on X number of votes from that union. You know, I wrote a book called Black Ethnics, and I used Local 371, the Social Services Employees Union when the late Charles Ensley was president. At the time, there were 35,000 members. If Charles Lensley said, we're voting for X, you could pretty much bank on those votes, all of them. And now, I think in unions across the city, whether it's, you know, teachers or social service workers or

nurses, you name it, I think unions still carry, obviously they help with infrastructure building, they help with disseminating information, they help with a ground game. But I don't know if you can necessarily count on the number of votes that you once did. I think sometimes, you know, we see on the presidential election quite a bit, where, you know, union leadership and the rank and file membership is not always in lockstep. And sometimes you'll get a fraction of the union membership in rank and file voting, but you can't guarantee 100%, I think, the way we once did. Yeah, and I find that very interesting. When we look at districts 7, 10, and 13, does this DSA sweep, and I am kind including Brad Lander in that.

But does this DSA sweep foreshadow anything for national democratic aspirations? I'm reticent to sort of paint that broad of a brush just yet. I think that it was a fantastic night from Mamdani and the coalition that he built. He took some big chances. I don't think Bradlander's race was a big chance. I mean, Brad Lander has his own kind of built-in base in Brooklyn.

But obviously, going against Nidia Velasquez, who, by the way, was the first member of Congress. to endorse Mamdani when he was running for mayor. So going against the first Puerto Rican woman in Congress was a big deal. And Claire Valdez is Latina, but she's not Puerto Rican and she's not Dominican. And so the misreading, I think, of Dominican and Puerto Rican politics and power in New York City is something that I think the mayor will have to contend with down the road. Similarly, you know, his late endorsement of Dadaelisa Chivalier against Adriana Espiona, who endorsed Mamdani during his election with the explicit understanding that Mamdani would stay out of his race and not endorse anyone.

And so, again, we have Mamdani going against traditional institutional politician, who is some sort of stronghold, not just in Harlem and Upper Manhattan, South Bronx politics, but Dominican politics more broadly. And so I think even though the mayor had some great wins last night, which he should celebrate, and the DSA should celebrate, I think that there will be some more complicated questions down the road about his relationship with not just Dominicans and Puerto Ricans, but the Black electorate as well in Harlem as DSA candidates try and flex some of their muscle. They have some fantastic wins where DSA candidates will be going to Albany

and three DSA candidates will be going to Washington, D.C. So the next stop for these candidates is the general election in November. What are you watching for until then? Well, I want to see what kind of coalitions and bridge building happens, you know, especially in the 13th, I joined Esbayat and Keith Wright, who's the Manhattan Democratic leader, who was focused on his son's reelection, which his son Jordan Wright, won his assembly district. If Espayat, you know, we saw Andrew Cuomo try and launch an independent run in November, I'm curious if Espionat is thinking about that. There'll be a lot more people in the electorate.

Will Keith Wright sort of work with Chevalier and start from the ground? floor with making sure that Black Harlem actually has a voice and someone who wants to organize and work together in ways that Esperiat didn't seem terribly interested in doing. I'm curious as to how Claire Valdez, you know, her theory of the case was that she's an organizer. As she gets harder questions about how she will deliver for her district, she's not the most firebrand of individuals. So how does she use that kind of personality politic in a place like Washington, D.C., where she does not have a stronghold or a background?

And then Brad Lander, going against Dan Goldman. I mean, I think this is a natural step for him in his career. He's helped several different types of offices. And so I think he probably has the easiest transition and probably the least sort of demand and expectation as to how he will deliver. I want to switch gears really quickly while we have you. One of former Mayor Eric Adams' oldest and closest allies, Frank Caron, was indicted. And we're still learning about the.

the case, and I should note that Caron's lawyer is calling the case weak and circumstantial, but do you have any observations about what this might mean for the Adams legacy? Yeah, I mean, I think it helps the Mamdani legacy in the sense that so many New Yorkers were just exhausted by what seemed like consistent corruption and lack of focus, not just from Eric Adams, but the people who surrounded him. So the fact that these indictments are still trickling out, Even under a Trump administration, when we know that the Adams administration was quite friendly with the Trump administration, I think speaks to why so many people, not just in New York but across the country, are leaning in towards a Mamdani administration because not only is it just filled with joy, but it seems as though it's filled with trying to fulfill campaign promises with less drama and distractions. That's Dr. Christina Greer. She's a political scientist, professor at Fordham University and friend of the podcast.

Thanks so much for joining me. Thank you for having me. And thank you for listening to NYC Now. I'm Jenae Pierre. See you next time.