Jeffries tops the DSA list
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.”
Everyone in New York has to recalibrate’
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.
