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Mayor Zohran Mamdani may be the new kingmaker of New York City politics. In a sweeping affirmation of his affordability-focused agenda, all three congressional candidates endorsed by Mamdani in a set of contested Democratic primary elections declared victory Tuesday night. Manhattan and the Bronx's Darializa Avila Chevalier and Brooklyn's Claire Valdez and Brad Lander were all joined on the campaign trail by the progressive NYC mayor in the weeks leading up to election night. Like Mamdani, Avila Chevalier and Valdez are members of the NYC chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America, which backed their campaigns.
We speak to John Tarleton, editor-in-chief of the New York City local independent newspaper The Indypendent, about the insurgent left of the Democratic Party and the potential national ramifications of the Zohran-DSA machine. The races also functioned as a referendum on the growing split in the Democratic Party over Israel/Palestine. While the pro-Israel lobbying group AIPAC funneled an estimated $50 million into their opponents' campaigns, Valdez, Avila Chevalier and Lander refused to take any funding from pro-Israel groups and consistently emphasized their support of efforts to restrict U.S. military aid for Israel. "If you ignore the Palestinian cause of Palestinian liberation, you do so at your own peril," says Tarleton.
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Four Senate Republicans sided with Democrats in a 50-to-48 vote calling for President Trump to end the war in Iran or seek congressional authorization to continue it. The House passed the same measure a few weeks earlier.
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Hours before visiting the Capitol, the president scrapped plans to sign a bipartisan housing bill, railing against "bad Republicans" for resisting his demands to ram through new voting restrictions.
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(First column, 11th story, link)
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FEMA has given cities and states $250 million to protect the World Cup from airborne threats. That equipment will remain in place after the tournament.
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Both Washington and Tehran need it.
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The president posted on social media that the signing was off until the Senate passes his election integrity bill. It is unclear whether he intends to kill the housing bill.
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A wave of progressive candidates endorsed by the Democratic Socialists of America and New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani won big in New York last night. DSA members Claire Valdez and Darializa Avila Chevalier defeated two Democratic Party establishment picks for Congress, Antonio Reynoso and five-term incumbent Adriano Espaillat. Other DSA candidates, including Palestinian American Aber Kawas, running for New York state Senate, notched wins further downballot. And Mamdani-backed candidate Brad Lander defeated Dan Goldman, another congressional incumbent.
Darializa Avila Chevalier joins Democracy Now! in her first live broadcast interview since her upset win. After weathering a vicious and often racist campaign conducted by her AIPAC-funded opponent Espaillat, Avila Chevalier is projected to become the first Dominican American woman to serve in the U.S. Congress, representing New York's 13th Congressional District.
"Americans are tired of this politics of death, politics of cynicism, and want to make sure that our resources are coming back to our communities and investing in the life and the needs of the people here," says Avila Chevalier, a former student organizer at Columbia University who has been active in the pro-Palestine and immigrant rights movements for over a decade. She credits part of her decision to run to her experience advocating for fellow student and Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil's release from federal ICE detention last year. "When I was first considering whether or not this was a race that I wanted to throw my hat in, I just kept thinking about Mahmoud and the millions of people like him and [Khalil's wife] Noor, who are so fearful right now, and what it would have meant to them to have a representative who was actually fighting for them."
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Adrian Boafo, a state delegate, won a primary to succeed the retiring Representative Steny Hoyer with help from more than $11 million in spending from pro-Israel and cryptocurrency interests.
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(First column, 16th story, link)
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Today is Election Day in New York, with a number of primary challengers hoping to unseat Democratic establishment politicians. The Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) have a packed slate of 10 candidates across congressional, state Assembly and state Senate races. "People are really looking for something else other than these corporate Democrats," says Liza Featherstone, author and columnist for Jacobin. Describing the DSA as a key part of the "grassroots base" of the left wing of the Democratic Party, Featherstone says DSA members want elected leaders who have come out of movements themselves, not just lifelong politicians who only turn to movements for endorsements every four years.
Palestine is a key issue in many of the races, with DSA challengers taking a strong stand against genocide, while some incumbents have received large donations from AIPAC-linked super PACs. "People are absolutely disgusted with the U.S. relationship with Israel, absolutely appalled by the killing that we've seen," says Featherstone. Today's primary results will show to what extent the DSA is seen as a genuine alternative to the establishment wing of the Democratic Party.
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