Mamdani's far-left allies want to primary Hakeem Jeffries and other NYC Democrats

CNN

09-07-2025

Democratic socialists in New York City emboldened by Zohran Mamdani's mayoral primary win are warning that they may go after five House incumbents next — and Hakeem Jeffries, the minority leader at the top of their list, is daring them to try.
Jeffries' political operation even has a nickname for those talking up threats to the House minority leader back home: 'Team Gentrification.'
That phrase reflects that Mamdani turned out young progressives who, according to unofficial election data, were largely Whiter and wealthier as a whole than the longtime residents of the districts represented by Jeffries and others being targeted. But it also speaks to the resentment many Democratic politicians in the nation's largest city — and in places around the country that aren't as deep-blue as New York — have at being told by Mamdani supporters there's a new reality that they now need to adapt to, and quickly.
Mamdani's allies, including key leaders of the Democratic Socialists of America and Working Families Party, are talking about running primary challengers against Jeffries and several other incumbents, including Reps. Ritchie Torres, Jerry Nadler, Dan Goldman and Yvette Clarke.
In all but Torres' district, Mamdani and city comptroller Brad Lander, who cross-endorsed each together in the ranked-choice mayoral primary, got more votes combined than Cuomo in the initial round of voting, according to unofficial results released on election night. Those results don't yet reflect who primary voters ranked below their first choices.
Ashik Siddique, a national DSA co-chair, pointed out that Mamdani himself got his start organizing for a Palestinian pastor running for a Brooklyn city council seat in 2017. Mamdani's win, Siddique said, 'feels full circle,' and for future races, 'it's really proof of concept.'
At least so far, Mamdani is not getting in his allies' way. Asked whether Mamdani thinks those House incumbent challenges should happen — of if he'd make any moves to stop them — his press secretary told CNN he was declining to comment.
The members of Congress themselves and close advisers say they all have the community ties, political operations and resources to fend off whatever may come at them. They diligently say that anyone can run in a democracy, but chuckle or roll their eyes at hearing of lines like Mamdani ally Bronx state senator Gustavo Rivera saying, 'My colleagues in Congress that stood against us, they might have to watch out.'
If Mamdani wins, they say, he'll have a hard enough time running the city without his ranks going to war with the city's congressional delegation. They're expecting him to keep the peace, especially in a year when they're trying to win the majority in competitive districts far from the Big Apple where democratic socialism has come off more an imposition than an inspiration.
Don't go to war with them or mistake them for Cuomo, they say, or even, in a phrase Jeffries often returns to, expect them to 'bend the knee' as they weigh whether to endorse Mamdani. Jeffries will make an endorsement decision after he meets with the candidate in person next week.
And a top Jeffries adviser this week issued a pointed warning: Target the House minority leader and he won't just beat them; he'll respond by going after the democratic socialists from Brooklyn elected to the state legislature, whose primaries would be on the same day next spring.
'Leader Hakeem Jeffries is focused on taking back the House from the MAGA extremists who just ripped health care away from millions of Americans,' Jeffries senior adviser André Richardson told CNN. 'However, if Team Gentrification wants a primary fight, our response will be forceful and unrelenting. We will teach them and all of their incumbents a painful lesson on June 23, 2026.'
Jeffries has spent years daring those he tends to dismiss as poser progressives to try to take him on. The last time he faced a challenge from a socialist — in the 2012 primary for his first election against a longtime city councilman — he got 71% of the vote. He's only done better since.
Last week, Jeffries held together every member of his conference against Trump's sweeping agenda bill, then topped off that opposition with a nearly nine-hour speech.
But he has for years been tagged by the city's far left as a moderate. Opponents like to point to his fundraising as evidence, calling him a corporate Democrat.
'His leadership has left a vacuum that organizations like DSA are filling. I think that is more important right now,' New York City's Democratic Socialists of America chapter co-chair Gustavo Gordillo told CNN. 'To me it often seems like he is the one picking the fight with the left, and I think he should focus on fighting the right.'
State Sen. Jabari Brisport, a democratic socialist who represents some of the same parts of Brooklyn as Jeffries, said his congressman is 'rapidly growing out of touch with an insurgent and growing progressive base within his own district that he should pay more attention to.'
Mamdani won roughly 46% of the first-round primary vote in Jeffries' congressional district compared to the nearly 38% carried by Cuomo.
A challenge needs a challenger, though. Brisport ruled out a run. No one else is stepping up yet either.
Rep. Greg Meeks, who endorsed Andrew Cuomo in the mayor's race, called anyone thinking of a primary against Jeffries 'foolish.'
'We are all here to combat some of the craziness that Donald Trump is doing,' Meeks said. 'The only way to do that is to win the House majority and we have an opportunity to elect a New Yorker, who would be the first African American to be the speaker of the House, which then puts a check on Donald Trump and controls everything that's on this floor.'
Aides to incumbents from New York City and their colleagues privately admit to looking over their shoulders since Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez beat then-Rep. Joe Crowley in a 2018 primary. But they say they have learned their lessons.
Asked if he was worried now, Rep. Adriano Espaillat, a Cuomo backer who got to Congress after challenging longtime Rep. Charlie Rangel, said simply: 'No.' He urged socialists to keep the peace as national Democrats try to win districts far from the Big Apple where democratic socialism has come off as more of an imposition than an inspiration.
So far, only one House incumbent from New York City has endorsed Mamdani since he won: Nadler, the 17-term dean of the delegation who had stuck with Scott Stringer, his old protégé, despite a campaign that never took off.
People familiar with Nadler's decision-making say he wanted to be a signal to fellow Democrats but also a check on anyone considering coming at him — combined, Mamdani and Lander got almost 54% in his district according to the unofficial first-round results, compared to Cuomo's 37%.
Nadler easily won a 2022 primary in a redrawn district against another incumbent, but even ardent supporters acknowledged he was struggling physically at points in that race. Nadler is now 78 and aware of rumors again circulating that his retirement is imminent, but he said he plans to run again — and 'I'll put my record against anybody in terms of progressivism.'
'I think that there's some movement for generational change, but the electorate will look at people on the merits. They're not going to get rid of everybody that's older than whatever, nor are they going to keep everybody,' he said during a break while Jeffries was delivering his record-setting speech against the Trump megabill's final passage last week.
Several Nadler allies told CNN that they did not want to offend the beloved congressman by going public with their fears he might not be up to fending off a Democratic Socialists of America-driven challenge. But Nadler aides have been working with Mamdani's team to build up the new mayoral nominee's outreach into areas of Manhattan where he did not do well and among Jewish communities suspicious of the assemblyman's views on Israel and what many say has been an insufficient condemnation of antisemitism.
'He's certainly not an antisemite,' Nadler said, while adding on Mamdani's critical views of Israel, 'I think he'll have to satisfy that.'
Nadler's district, which covers the Upper West and Upper East sides of Manhattan, would not be prime territory for the DSA. Most see a better fit in the Lower Manhattan and Brownstone Brooklyn district represented by Goldman, who's only in his second term. Mamdani and Lander took a combined 70% of the vote in the district, compared to Cuomo's 22%.
Efforts are underway to urge Lander into a Goldman challenge, but people who know the city comptroller say he's been more focused on helping Mamdani and potentially serving in a top position in City Hall.
Through a spokesperson, Goldman said his focus was on fighting Trump's cuts to the social safety net and the deployment of immigration officers across the city.
'We live in a democracy, so anyone is welcome to throw their hat in the ring,' he said.
Clarke, whose district was almost evenly split between Mamdani and Cuomo, said anyone who sees what happened in the mayoral primary as the dawn of a new age in New York is getting ahead of themselves.
'I'm not saying that it didn't surprise me. I'm saying it wasn't necessarily socialist politics. It was the messenger and the message,' Clarke said.
Like other members, Clarke has spoken by phone with Mamdani. The conversation went well, she said, as other members told CNN theirs did. Like the other members, she made a point of saying that Mamdani is the Democratic nominee. Like other members, she said she is still deciding whether to formally back him.
The Mamdani ripple may not just be in primaries: Justin Brannan, who placed second for city comptroller on the same primary ballot that Mamdani carried, says the results have him taking another look at challenging Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, the lone Republican member from New York City, in a district covering Staten Island and Brooklyn which has trended increasingly Republican.
'Every year, whether it's the midterms or the presidential election when there's people from Manhattan chartering buses to Ohio and Pennsylvania,' Brannan told CNN. 'I'm like, 'Guys, just take the ferry to Staten Island – there's a swing district here.''
Jamaal Bowman, who beat an incumbent to win a seat stretching from the Bronx to just north of the city in 2020 only to lose it to a challenger himself in 2024, said he's now constantly getting pitched on running against Torres, a progressive who has nonetheless enraged many Mamdani supporters for both being a staunch supporter of Israel and then endorsing Cuomo. Mamdani posted some of his weakest numbers in that district, with less than 33% compared to Cuomo's 52%.
Though Bowman told CNN, 'I personally don't think that that is a priority per se,' he urged his former colleagues, including those in suburban districts, to move quickly to embrace Mamdani's approach to expanding to younger and more racially diverse voters rather than still worrying about losing moderates.
'Everyone in New York has to recalibrate their stuff,' Bowman said.
Several members of the congressional delegation, meanwhile, have noted privately that Mamdani never himself expressed support for former Vice President Kamala Harris when she became the Democratic presidential nominee last year.
Torres declined to address on the record how he'd marshal his significant campaign fundraising and support on the ground if faced with a challenge next year.
Though Torres said the mayoral primary results were enough to end his flirtation with a primary challenge of his own to New York Gov. Kathy Hochul next year, his only response to the prospect of facing a challenge for his own seat was a mocking reference to the perennial stunt candidate who received 0.1% in the mayoral primary.
'The thought of Paperboy Prince keeps me up at night,' he said.