Three candidates endorsed by New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani swept contested Democratic congressional primaries in New York, and the party's most prominent figures had nothing to say about it. Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Rep. Ilhan Omar both refused to answer questions about the socialist movement's growing grip on the Democratic Party, walking away from Fox News Digital without a word.
Rep. Hank Johnson of Georgia did speak, and what he said may have been more revealing than the silence.
Johnson welcomed the incoming lawmakers into the Democratic caucus, then pivoted to a broadside against Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and President Trump. The Georgia Democrat accused Netanyahu of manipulating Trump into war with Iran, called Trump's election "this mistake," and said Americans would have "an opportunity to correct" it. That a sitting House Democrat chose this moment to air those views tells you everything about the direction the party's activist base is pulling.
Darializa Avila Chevalier, Brad Lander, and Claire Valdez all won their Democratic primaries Tuesday night, beating more moderate Democrats in the process. Each carried Mamdani's endorsement. If they win their general elections, they will enter the House Democratic Caucus, and bring with them a set of positions on Israel, socialism, and foreign policy that the party's old guard has spent years trying to keep at arm's length.
The margins were not close. Newsmax reported that Lander crushed incumbent Rep. Dan Goldman, who had been backed by Gov. Kathy Hochul and House leadership, by a staggering 66.5% to 33.5%. Goldman had won his 2024 primary by 43 points. Chevalier, meanwhile, unseated Rep. Adriano Espaillat, chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and a close ally of House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries.
That makes Goldman the fifth sitting House member to lose renomination this year, the Washington Examiner noted, part of a broader anti-establishment wave within the Democratic Party that has seen progressive candidates backed by Mamdani and Sen. Bernie Sanders winning primaries across the country.
Sanders himself framed the trend plainly: "Progressives are on the march," he said on June 3.
Pelosi, the 20-term California congresswoman, did not formally endorse Mamdani. But her record on the broader socialist movement within her own party is more complicated than her public statements suggest.
In a 2019 CBS 60 Minutes interview, Pelosi drew a clear line:
"If people have that view, that's their view. That is not the view of the Democratic Party."
She was talking about socialism. Seven years later, asked about three socialist-aligned candidates who just routed establishment Democrats in the country's largest city, she had nothing to add. She walked away.
Pelosi's own political choices complicate her 2019 position. In 2024, she endorsed Dean Preston, described as a socialist candidate, for California's District 5 supervisor race. That endorsement drew little national attention at the time, but it undercuts any claim that Pelosi has maintained a consistent firewall against the socialist left. Her willingness to dismiss uncomfortable questions from conservative reporters is nothing new.
What is new is the scale of the problem. When three DSA-aligned candidates win in a single night, defeating incumbents backed by the party's own leadership, the question is no longer theoretical. It is structural.
Omar, a member of the progressive Squad, also refused to engage. Fox News Digital asked whether the three socialist candidates could complicate House Democrats' agenda and Minority Leader Jeffries' plans if elected to Congress. She walked away without responding.
Omar has never formally identified as a socialist, though she has supported many policies associated with socialism and has been backed by the Democratic Socialists of America. Her refusal to comment on the DSA's growing influence is notable precisely because she has been one of its primary beneficiaries.
The contrast between Omar's silence and Johnson's candor is instructive. Omar chose to say nothing. Johnson chose to say too much, and in doing so, revealed the ideological currents running beneath the party's surface.
Johnson told Fox News Digital he was ready to embrace the primary winners:
"I think Democrats in New York elected three new Democrats that will join our caucus, and I'm looking forward for them participating."
When pressed on the candidates' sharp criticism of Israel's military campaign in Gaza, Johnson drew a distinction that many in the pro-Israel community would reject:
"They were not anti-Israel. They were anti-Israeli government."
He went further, attacking Netanyahu directly: "The government of Benjamin Netanyahu has done a grave disservice to the nation of Israel and to its people." Then he turned to Trump and the conflict with Iran, calling Trump's election a "mistake" and accusing Netanyahu of having "manipulated" Trump into war.
Pelosi's financial dealings have drawn scrutiny of their own in recent months, with disclosures revealing millions in options trades that raise separate questions about her judgment and priorities.
Johnson's comments landed in a political environment already roiled by internal Democratic tensions. Lander, one of the three primary winners, used his victory speech to stake out ground that will test the party's coalition:
"You can criticize Israel and not be antisemitic. You can be an anti-Zionist and not be antisemitic."
Lander, who is Jewish, made those remarks as part of a broader case that the Democratic Party's old consensus on Israel is finished, at least in New York City.
The scope of the Democratic establishment's collapse in these primaries is hard to overstate. The Washington Free Beacon reported that Mamdani-backed candidates won all three contested NYC congressional primaries, defeating two sitting incumbents. The results shocked seasoned New York political operatives. One Espaillat supporter at the election night party told the Free Beacon, "I am crushed."
The wins raise uncomfortable questions about how long establishment Democratic leaders like Schumer and Jeffries can hold their positions. Pelosi's long career has been defined by her ability to manage the party's ideological factions. But managing a faction requires acknowledging it exists, and right now, Pelosi's political maneuvering appears to consist mainly of walking away from reporters.
The broader pattern is unmistakable. Progressive and socialist-aligned candidates are not winning in deep-blue college towns or safe protest districts. They are winning in New York City, the financial and media capital of the country, by historic margins, against incumbents with institutional backing, leadership endorsements, and gubernatorial support.
Pelosi's 2019 declaration that socialism "is not the view of the Democratic Party" was always more aspirational than descriptive. The DSA's influence within the party has grown steadily, and the New York primaries represent its most dramatic single-night showing yet.
The fact that neither Pelosi nor Omar would address it publicly suggests they understand the bind. Condemn the winners, and they alienate a base that is gaining power by the cycle. Embrace them, and they confirm what conservatives have argued for years: that the Democratic Party's center of gravity has shifted decisively leftward, toward candidates who want to reshape the party's relationship with capitalism, Israel, and American foreign policy.
Johnson's willingness to speak was the exception that proved the rule. He did not distance himself from the socialist winners. He welcomed them. And then he used the moment to accuse the Israeli prime minister of dragging America into war and to call the election of the sitting president a national mistake.
That is not a fringe voice. That is a sitting congressman, on camera, telling you where the Democratic Party is headed.
When the establishment's best response to a socialist sweep is silence from the top and open arms from the rank and file, the sweep is no longer a warning. It is a fact of life.
