David Smith reports:

In the back yard of a Brooklyn bar, beneath strung-up lightbulbs and swaths of fabric that swooped like great sails, an ecstatic crowd greeted Zohran Mamdani, the New York City mayor, and his victorious ally, Brad Lander. These Democrats also had a withering verdict on their own party establishment.

“To me, centrists can go fuck themselves,” said Léa Zimmerman, 34. “They’re fucking useless, they don’t stand for anything, and if they do stand on something, it’s pathetic. I’m done with pathetic, performative people.”

On Tuesday the biggest city in the US, and the wealthiest city in the world, rejected the status quo in favour of democratic socialism. Five days earlier Washington DC, the nation’s capital, did the same in a mayoral primary election. Los Angeles, the heart of the global entertainment industry, could soon follow suit. Leftwing candidates have also notched up wins in Illinois, Michigan, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Washington state and Wisconsin.

Once sacred tenets of US politics – unyielding support for Israel, unquestioning faith in capitalism – are under threat from surging frustration with the old way of doing things. No one personifies the tectonic shift better than Mamdani, 34, a democratic socialist who is also the first Muslim mayor in New York’s history.

As results rolled in on Tuesday evening, he flexed his political muscle after backing three insurgent candidates in Democratic primary elections for the US House of Representatives. All had promised to “abolish ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement]”, condemned Israel’s “genocide” in Gaza, and vowed to “tax the rich”. All emerged triumphant.

Lander, a progressive, ousted the two-term incumbent congressman Dan Goldman; Darializa Avila Chevalier, a democratic socialist and former campus organiser, toppled Representative Adriano Espaillat, head of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus; and Claire Valdez, another democratic socialist and former union organiser, defeated Antonio Reynoso for an open seat in Brooklyn and Queens.

The trio could be among more than a dozen leftwingers heading to Washington next year as part of what is being dubbed “squad 2.0”, a significant expansion from the original “squad” of four progressive women elected to the House in 2018. That might be enough to wield influence on Hakeem Jeffries, the Democratic House minority leader, by withholding votes on party priorities until their demands are met.

Mamdani enjoyed even more victories in state legislative races, where he successfully backed five other candidates, and wants more. The mayor said he hopes to “write a new chapter in our party’s history, where working people are back at the heart of that struggle”.

Democrats of all stripes were quick to recognise him as an ascendant force within the party, likely to wield influence on the national stage.

Bill Galston, a senior fellow in governance studies at the Brookings Institution thinktank in Washington, said: “Up until Tuesday night, Mamdani might have been dismissed as a fluke – an extraordinarily talented, energetic and personable young candidate, who was able to take advantage of extraordinary weakness in other quarters of the Democratic party to power his way to victory, but that it would be difficult to replicate him.

“As a result of Tuesday night, we have to say that – at least in the bluest parts of blue America – he represents a structural force, and not just a personal talent. I view this result as increasing the already substantial odds that there will be a credible leftwing candidate for president in the 2028 Democratic primary.” [Continue reading…]