Bernie Sanders

Speaking to supporters at Kings Theatre on June 18, the democratic socialist mayor urged the crowd to help elect the three progressive congressional candidates he has endorsed: Brad Lander, Claire Valdez, and Darializa Avila Chevalier.

The get-out-the-vote rally doubled as a show of force for the city’s left, with Mamdani trying to turn the energy that carried him into City Hall into wins further down the ballot. That coalition was powered in part by young and first-time voters, who helped fuel Mamdani’s mayoral primary win and are now central to the question of whether his campaign’s mix of digital organizing and door-knocking can translate to other races.

Mamdani candidates face weak early voting turnout

The turnout environment this year is much different from the one that helped propel Mamdani’s mayoral campaign. Through six days of early voting, Board of Elections data showed 92,347 citywide check-ins, less than half the 212,444 recorded at the same point in last year’s mayoral primary.

The largest raw decline was in Brooklyn, where early voting fell from 78,311 check-ins at this point last year to 26,464 this year. Manhattan now accounts for the largest share of the early vote.

“Our work has never been about any one person, any one office, or any one election,” Mamdani told the crowd Thursday evening, still decked out in his Knicks jersey from the ticker tape parade and City Hall ceremony earlier in the day. “Our work has been about one movement.”

That movement, Mamdani argued, now has to prove it can do more than win the mayoralty. He said supporters must knock doors, make calls, text friends and bring neighbors to the polls before Tuesday’s primaries.

Primary is biggest test yet of Mamdani political strength in Democratic party

The rally comes just over six months into Mamdani’s term and placed him at the center of a set of congressional races that could help define the city’s progressive politics beyond City Hall. Lander is running in New York’s 10th Congressional District, Valdez is running in the 7th, and Avila Chevalier is running in the 13th, with Lander and Avila Chevalier looking to unseat incumbents Dan Goldman and Adriano Espaillat.

Thursday evening also sought to boost state legislative candidates backed by the same progressive coalition: Aber Khawas in Queens’ 12th State Senate District, Illapa Sairitupac in Lower Manhattan’s 65th Assembly District, Samantha Kattan in Queens’ 37th Assembly District, Eli Northrup in Manhattan’s 69th Assembly District and Brian Romero in Queens’ 34th Assembly District.

Mamdani framed Tuesday’s races as a direct challenge to a Democratic establishment that, he said, has failed to meet the urgency of the moment.

“People often ask me what I think of the state of the Democratic Party,” Mamdani said. “This slate here today is our answer.”

He added moments later: “The Democratic Party must change.”

He argued that the party has been too cautious, too beholden to political calculation, and too focused on telling voters what cannot be done. He said Democrats need to offer an affirmative agenda around affordability, housing, child care and working-class power.

“For far too long, our party has seen its job as managing decline instead of delivering material change for working people,” Mamdani said. “It has seen its job as explaining why we cannot instead of showing how we can.”

The mayor also tied the New York primaries to the party’s national future, saying the fight over the 2028 presidential race “starts now” and “starts on Tuesday.”

For Mamdani, the congressional races are also a test of whether his endorsement can move voters. So far, Mamdani’s post-mayoral endorsement power has had uneven results.

Diana Moreno, his preferred successor in his former Queens Assembly district, won easily in a February special election, but Mamdani hit a bump months later on Manhattan’s West Side, where Carl Wilson defeated his endorsed candidate, Lindsey Boylan, in a closely watched Council race.

Since taking office, he has tried to present his administration as proof that democratic socialist politics can coexist with basic municipal competence. On Thursday, he returned to that argument, saying voters had been offered a false choice between a government that could handle everyday services and one that could pursue larger progressive goals.

“Government can fix crumbling streets, bring people together, and transform our city,” he said.

Democratic socialist scramble to get-out-the-vote

Sanders, who headlined the rally, helped to give the night a national progressive frame. But the event’s immediate purpose was local: getting Mamdani’s preferred House candidates over the finish line.

The Vermont senator and democratic socialist firebrand used his remarks to argue that Mamdani’s victory was part of a broader wave of progressive and democratic socialist wins across the country. He said Mamdani had taken on “the Democratic establishment, the Republican establishment, the President, the oligarchs” and won, then urged the crowd to spend the final days before the primary helping Lander, Valdez and Avila Chevalier win their own races.

“What tonight is about,” Sanders said, is making sure that “Brad and Claire and Darializa become the next Congress people for New York City.”

The rally repeatedly returned to the mechanics of turnout. Organizers asked attendees to sign up for canvassing shifts, with the event not taking place in any of the congressional districts. Supporters were repeatedly urged not to leave the theater without committing to get-out-the-vote work. The message of the night was that enthusiasm alone would not be enough.

Lander, Valdez, and Avila Chevalier each made their pitch as candidates who would confront corporate power, defend immigrants, and push the Democratic Party leftward.

Lander framed his campaign around “solidarity,” tying together labor rights, protections for immigrants, housing affordability, and opposition to billionaire influence in politics. He pointed to his record in city government, including labor protections for fast food workers, delivery workers and freelancers, and said he would bring that same approach to Congress.

He also linked his campaign to the fight against ICE and U.S. support for Israel’s war in Gaza, saying he would sign on to the Block the Bombs Act and oppose funding for “Netanyahu’s wars.”

And while the former comptroller appeared hand in hand with Valdez and Avila Chevalier, he has not endorsed their campaigns.

Valdez, a union organizer and Assembly member who is challenging Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso and Council Member Julie Won to replace retiring Rep. Nydia Velázquez, told the crowd that working people are squeezed by bosses, landlords, debt and war. She described workers in Bushwick, Greenpoint and Maspeth struggling with rent, long hours and corporate pressure, and said her own first union meeting helped her understand solidarity as a source of political power.

“For the first time in my working life, I didn’t feel alone,” Valdez said.

Avila Chevalier, who introduced herself as a teacher, public defense investigator, Afro-Latina organizer and Harlem renter, cast her campaign as a people-powered challenge to entrenched political power. “This is what a movement looks like, not a machine,” she told the crowd, while arguing that Espaillat had failed renters, immigrants and working-class residents in the district.

Mamdani later offered his own case for the three candidates, saying Lander “put his own back on the line” for immigrants detained by ICE, Valdez had organized for a cease-fire and been arrested protesting ICE, and Avila Chevalier had worked to reunite families separated by immigration enforcement. He told the crowd the three candidates represented the kind of leaders New York should send to Congress.

Mamdani also criticized outside spending against the candidates, accusing powerful interests of trying to protect incumbents and preserve their influence. He singled out AIPAC, accusing the group of moving millions in “dark money” to preserve its power.

“When we win,” Mamdani said, “we will make it clear that our movement is more powerful than their money.”