The morning after New York’s Democratic primaries, Mayor Zohran Mamdani told reporters the results amounted to a “shift in the balance of power” between “working people” and “special interests.” He spoke on Wednesday, June 24, at a press conference.
Three candidates he endorsed won Democratic nominations for Congress: Brad Lander, Darializa Avila Chevalier and Claire Valdez. Several of the Democratic Socialist candidates he backed, Chevalier among them, beat established Democratic incumbents in their districts. The Jerusalem Post called it an early test of Mamdani’s pull beyond City Hall.
Babies not bombs
Throughout the press conference, the mayor pointed to the winners’ calls to restrict US military aid to Israel and move federal money to domestic priorities. He praised Avila Chevalier’s often-repeated slogan, “Babies not Bombs.”
“The working person is struggling in our city to afford basic needs,” Mamdani said. The slogan, he added, is “the kind of conscience, the kind of clarity, the kind of conviction that has been missing in our politics for far too long.”
Asked which federal policies the new nominees might affect, he named two. Valdez supports a “foreign policy that understands human rights for all,” he said, and Lander has committed to co-sponsoring the Block the Bombs Act, which would prohibit the sale of certain US-made offensive weapons to Israel.
Questions about November
A reporter asked whether Chevalier’s election could complicate campaigns for Democrats as a whole. She has faced scrutiny for past social media posts attacking Democrats and for appearing at an October 8, 2023, pro-Palestinian rally in Times Square. Mamdani answered with one word: “No.”
“She often speaks about a politics of life,” he said. He described what he sees as the choice in her district: “tens of billions of dollars being spent at a national level to bomb children overseas, while children in our own districts are struggling.”
He also waved off a question about how the wins might play in November, when Democrats are trying to win back the House. “Every time the fight for working people takes a step forward, you will hear Republicans say that this is actually going to jeopardize the existence of that very fight,” Mamdani said.
Trump responds
President Donald Trump reacted to the sweep on Truth Social. “America the Beautiful will NEVER be a Communist Country!!!” he wrote.
A reporter put the post to Mamdani and asked whether his goal is to make America a socialist country. His answer: “My goal is to make America a place that every American can afford.”
