New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani made one of his sharpest calls yet for change in the Democratic Party on Thursday night as he rallied with his slate of progressive congressional candidates in Tuesday’s Democratic primaries.

Democratic Party Criticism

“For far too long, our party has seen its job as managing decline instead of delivering material change for working people,” Mamdani said at a rally headlined by Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders. “It has seen its job as explaining why we cannot instead of showing how we can, and that old way of thinking will lose on Tuesday.”

Mamdani’s insistence that the Democratic Party as it currently exists will be unable to win a presidential election again marks a new line of critique for the 34-year-old democratic socialist, whose anti-establishment campaign last year broke new ground for the progressive movement.

Now six months into office, Mamdani is testing his political influence, endorsing three progressives in New York’s Democratic primaries: Assemblymember Claire Valdez, who currently represents Queens; Brad Lander, the former city comptroller; and Darializa Avila Chevalier, an educator and immigrant rights’ activist.

Challenging Incumbents

Valdez is running for retiring Rep. Nydia Velazquez’s seat. The other two are challenging incumbents: Lander is trying to unseat Rep. Dan Goldman and Chevalier is targeting Rep. Adriano Espaillat while also facing scrutiny over deleted social media posts disparaging Democratic leaders and her attendance at a pro-Palestinian rally the day after Hamas’ October 7, 2023, attacks on Israel.

In picking his slate of challengers, Mamdani is also taking on House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, the Brooklyn-based Democrat who has endorsed both Goldman and Espaillat.

Original reporting: El Paso News (HLL/CB) — read the source article.