{"id":890360,"date":"2026-06-24T22:06:21","date_gmt":"2026-06-24T22:06:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/890360\/"},"modified":"2026-06-24T22:06:21","modified_gmt":"2026-06-24T22:06:21","slug":"who-won-new-yorks-democratic-primaries","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/890360\/","title":{"rendered":"Who won New York’s Democratic primaries?"},"content":{"rendered":"

This story is adapted from Slate\u2019s new and revamped Slatest newsletter. You can\u00a0sign up here<\/a>\u00a0to get it in your inbox every day.<\/p>\n

The day after an election can sometimes feel a little disorienting. We can all Google who won, but why and what it means remain up for debate. Last night\u2019s Democratic primary elections for Congress in New York, Maryland, and elsewhere are no exception. Progressive victories in New York City have gotten the most attention, but the story gets more complicated as you zoom out. Here\u2019s what you need to know.<\/p>\n

So why is everyone talking about NYC?<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Big Apple fancies itself the center of the universe (as a former resident, I think I\u2019m allowed to say so). But voters there really did rebuke the Democratic Party powers that be, fueling lefty victories in three closely watched races. Former city Comptroller Brad Lander unseated Rep. Dan Goldman in a district that spans lower Manhattan and parts of Brooklyn. State Assembly member Claire Valdez beat Brooklyn\u2019s borough president for a newly open House seat. And Darializa Avila Chevalier, a Ph.D. student and first-time candidate who has supported abolishing prisons and once tweeted \u201cFuck Kamala Harris,\u201d ousted five-term Rep. Adriano Espaillat.<\/p>\n

What do the three winners have in common? <\/strong><\/p>\n

For one thing, they\u2019re almost certainly headed to Washington this fall because of how overwhelmingly Democratic their districts are. For another, they\u2019ve harshly criticized Israel over the war in Gaza. And all were endorsed by Zohran Mamdani, the city\u2019s Democratic Socialist mayor, burnishing his kingmaker bona fides<\/a>.<\/p>\n

So insurgent candidates surged? That doesn\u2019t sound like a very complicated story to me.<\/strong>
Then allow me to complicate things. Elsewhere in NYC, the establishment prevailed. Rep. Ritchie Torres\u2014a centrist, pro-Israel Democrat\u2014handily won in the Bronx. Micah Lasher, an establishment wonk<\/a> who has criticized some pro-Palestinian protesters, dispatched Kennedy family scion Jack Schlossberg<\/a> in Manhattan. And in Maryland, which also held primaries yesterday, a state delegate named Adrian Boafo who got support from pro-Israel and pro-cryptocurrency super PACs claimed the Democratic nomination for a safe blue congressional seat.<\/p>\n

I see a lot of progressives crowing. Were last night\u2019s results just an ideological story?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Not quite; several races scrambled the usual moderate-vs.-progressive lines. Despite his establishment ties, Lasher supports Medicare for all. So does Espaillat, a member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, who lost anyway. Valdez\u2019s opponent was backed by New York\u2019s progressive Working Families Party. And Lander went on TV today<\/a> and called for Democrats to \u201cbuild bridges between more progressive candidates and more moderate candidates.\u201d But it\u2019s true that some moderates are feeling burned. Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman called it \u201ca banner night\u201d for the \u201cdirtbag left.\u201d<\/p>\n

OK, so what\u2019s the big takeaway?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Some of the results are more proof that many Democratic voters are mad at their party\u2019s current leadership. But others show how easy it is to cherry-pick narratives about who\u2019s winning the party\u2019s internal struggles. The messy reality is that the line between establishment, moderate, and progressive isn\u2019t always so clear-cut. And we\u2019re still only about halfway through primary season, so we\u2019ll have to wait to see how those divides shake out.<\/p>\n

I hear you. But my big question is whether Democrats can win back the House in November. What did we learn about that?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Great question. Progressives have repeatedly failed to win general elections in the swing districts that actually decide House control. But lucky for Democrats, primary candidates with a better shot of unseating Republicans romped in those places last night. Cait Conley, an Army veteran who ran counterterrorism in the Biden administration, will face Rep. Mike Lawler, a vulnerable Republican, in New York\u2019s Hudson Valley. And if November ends up being a blue wave, Christopher Gallant, another Democratic Army vet, could put Republican Rep. Nick LaLota\u2019s Long Island seat in play.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/p>\n

Tolga Akdo\u011fan<\/p>\n

And there we go! You\u2019re all caught up on the election. It\u2019s time for some fun. Allow us to offer:<\/strong><\/p>\n

A podcast that ends an ancient beef: <\/strong>On Slate\u2019s ICYMI, host Kate Lindsay reveals she\u2019s in an unspoken, decade-long Venmo feud<\/a>, and then gets some expert help on bringing it to a close. Come for the drama, stay for a thoughtful discussion of how payment apps have changed our understanding of money.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. \n <\/p>\n

    It\u2019s the Oddest, Dirtiest Military Tradition. Pete Hegseth Would Hate It. It\u2019s Perfect.
    \n <\/a>\n <\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    An eye-witness account of a wild-yet-delightful military tradition: <\/strong>Every summer since the mid-1900s, Naval Academy students have climbed a grease-covered 21-foot slab of granite. Why? Well, it\u2019s complicated. But it\u2019s also amazing to see, and writer Pat Cassels graciously brings the rest of us along for the ride<\/a>.<\/p>\n

    And of course, a good sports read for between World Cup games: <\/strong>We\u2019ve entered the third round of the group stage, where matches are played simultaneously to discourage shenanigans. Tonight at 6 Eastern some big names are in action: I\u2019m watching Morocco\u2013Haiti, but you might choose Scotland\u2013Brazil instead. South Africa\u2013South Korea is at 9, as is Czechia\u2013Mexico. If you happen to be attending a game, consider yourself lucky. Slate\u2019s Nitish Pahwa spoke to fans who paid big for tickets\u2014but never got them<\/a>.<\/p>\n

    Finally, how to start your day off right: <\/strong>Our brand-new morning newsletter, Your Morning Slate, kicked off this week! Sign up here<\/a> to get great recommendations and a quick tour of the best of Slate in your inbox. It goes great with coffee.<\/p>\n

    That\u2019s all for us. Thanks for reading! We\u2019ll be back tomorrow.<\/strong><\/p>\n

    <\/p>\n

    Sign up for Slate’s evening newsletter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This story is adapted from Slate\u2019s new and revamped Slatest newsletter. You can\u00a0sign up here\u00a0to get it in…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":890361,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,405,403,238560,5226,5225,5228,5227,5597,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":["post-890360","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-america","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-newsletter-exclusive","tag-newyork","tag-newyorkcity","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-slate-plus","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116807362789543162","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/890360","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=890360"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/890360\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/890361"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=890360"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=890360"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=890360"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}