Incoming New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani‘s landslide victory on Tuesday has emboldened the Democratic Party’s left wing, lending hopes of victory to several socialist congressional candidates hostile to Israel.
The failure of the Democratic Party’s old guard to stop President Donald Trump, combined with Israel’s war against Hamas terrorists in Gaza, has opened the door to a tectonic shift within the Democratic Party. As the party scrambles to regain its footing, socialists and candidates ranging from critical to hostile to Israel have seized the moment and launched campaigns for public office.
These campaigns include several campaigns for Congress. Activist Saikat Chakrabarti, a close ally of democratic socialist Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), launched a campaign for Rep. Nancy Pelosi’s (D-CA) Congressional seat. In a recent interview, Chakrabarti claimed that Israel was committing “genocide” in Gaza and described Jerusalem’s conduct, which resulted in a historically low number of civilian casualties, as “disgusting.”
“Yes, there is a genocide occurring in Gaza right now, and absolutely we should not be sending any weapons to further that genocide. It makes no sense. I don’t understand how you see what’s coming out of Gaza and not have your reaction not just be to not send weapons, but have your reaction not be to do everything you possibly can to stop that, to stop the bombing and starvation and shooting of children and civilians,” he told Current Affairs.
Activist Kat Abughazaleh launched her campaign for Illinois’s 9th Congressional seat earlier this year, running on a platform embracing many democratic socialist positions. She’s also known for her harsh stance against Israel, using the slogan “from the river to the sea,” which calls for the forceful removal of Jews from the entire land of Israel and the creation of a new Palestinian state there, and described the government of Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu as a “genocidal apartheid regime.”
Outside of the Israel issue, Abughazaleh is known for her inflammatory rhetoric regarding most other major issues as well, deriding her political opponents as “fascist.” Such language has been blamed for turning up the political temperature over the last several years, creating an environment where political violence is increasingly accepted, supported, and engaged in — resulting in the murder of conservative icon Charlie Kirk, among other acts of violence.
“I’ve fought fascists before as a citizen, union rep, and independent journalist. Now, I’m going to do the same in Congress,” her campaign website reads.
Polls previously found Abughazaleh in second place in the Democratic primary, but her run could be complicated by a federal indictment for impeding an ICE operation in Chicago. She’s been largely silent on her usually highly active social media since, so much so that she failed to publicly congratulate her ideological comrade’s victory in New York.
Mamdani’s impact could also be felt in the final remaining electoral contest of 2025 — a special election for Tennessee’s 7th Congressional District, to be held on Dec. 2. Aftyn Behn, referred to by Dickson County Democratic Party as “our very own AOC of TN.” The Republican nominee, Matt Van Epps, connected Behn to Mamdani after his victory, saying she was “even more radical” than the incoming mayor.
“Aftyn Behn praised Mamdani and said she was running on the same agenda,” Van Epps posted on social media, sharing a clip of her praising him. “She’d be even more radical than him if she made it to Congress.”
Behn has been heavily critical of Israel while a Tennessee state representative, calling its actions in Gaza a “genocide.”
Outside of Congress, socialist and anti-Israel candidates and activists are hoping to make even bigger gains. At the SOMOS democratic socialist conference in San Juan, Puerto Rico, on Thursday, the left wing of the Democratic Party was triumphalist in tone, voicing its aim of purging the Democratic Party of pro-Israel figures and sentiment.
“You do the right thing, you keep your job. You don’t do the right thing, you don’t keep your job,” activist Linda Sarsour, a major ally of Mamdani, said, with “the right thing” meaning opposition to Israel.
“There are some people that will do the right thing for the wrong reasons, but we don’t care why you do the right thing as long as you do the right thing,” she said. “If you do it because you think you’re getting primaried, that’s OK with us. People are saying ‘free Palestine’ because now they’re getting primaried — free Palestine.”
Alexa Aviles, a Democratic Socialists of America member of the New York City Council, said that Congress was controlled by Zionists and that they must purge them.
“We see a Congress that is very much controlled by AIPAC, who’s controlling all the right-wing media and all the conservatives as and lot of corporate Democrats, maybe almost all of them,” Aviles said during the event called “Colonialism, Resistance and Solidarity: Puerto Rico and Palestine.”
“We need to follow the money because super PACs are here and they’re real. We need to see who’s funding who,” she added.
Liberal talk show host Bill Maher noted the surge in socialist sentiment after the Democrats’ Tuesday victories, saying capitalism has “failed” certain people.
“I understand why they’re voting for socialism, because they can’t even make ends meet,” Maher said of Mamdani’s voters. “And they’re worried about eating at all.”
ZOHRAN MAMDANI’S UNIMPRESSIVE WIN
“How can capitalism be working so well for so many people? Again, it’s not just billionaires going to concerts…and other people it’s not working for at all?” he said. “When you’re 30 years old, and you still have roommates? Yes, capitalism has failed you.”
However, he noted the victory of candidates perceived as being more centrist, like Abigail Spanberger in the Virginia gubernatorial election, suggesting that a socialist takeover of the Democratic Party is not complete.