Democratic Socialists of America candidates are challenging two pro-Israel Democratic incumbents in South Florida's Tuesday primaries, a direct test of whether the party's hard-left wing can gain ground in territory that matters for Republican House control.
Oliver Larkin, a 33-year-old DSA member and veteran of Bernie Sanders' 2016 presidential campaign, is running against two-term Rep. Jared Moskowitz in Florida's 25th Congressional District, a Broward County-anchored swing seat in southeastern Florida. Moskowitz, a former state representative and former Florida emergency management director, has been a strong and vocal supporter of Israel and has advocated for robust U.S. military and security assistance to the country. He carries backing from both the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and AIPAC, the major pro-Israel political group, Fox News reported.
Larkin has called the U.S. Senate an "undemocratic institution" and referred to Israel's ruling coalition as a "religious supremacist regime." He has the support of Hasan Piker, the far-left political streamer. The seat is one of roughly two dozen House districts expected to determine whether Republicans hold their majority, which means the Democratic primary winner will matter well beyond Broward County.
A few miles away in Florida's newly drawn 20th Congressional District, another DSA-endorsed candidate is mounting a similar challenge. Elijah Manley, a 27-year-old substitute teacher who describes himself as a socialist and who has overcome childhood homelessness, is taking on 11-term congresswoman and former Democratic National Committee chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz. Manley has earned endorsements from both the DSA and the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, along with what Fox News described as "a slew of groups on the left."
Wasserman Schultz's race carries its own complications beyond the socialist challenge. She does not live in the newly drawn FL-20 district, and Black leaders have criticized her as the only White candidate running for a majority-minority seat that Black lawmakers have represented for three decades.
The FL-20 field is crowded. Former Broward County Mayor Dale Holness is running, as is Luther "Uncle Luke" Campbell, the rapper and community activist best known for his role in 2 Live Crew. Former congresswoman Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick is also on the ballot, despite having resigned from Congress in April over allegations that she misused $5 million in federal funds. Cherfilus-McCormick denies the allegations.
The two Florida races fit a pattern that has played out across Democratic primaries this year. The party's left wing and its center-left establishment are locked in a fight over direction, and the results have been mixed. Earlier this month, Abdul El-Sayed won the Michigan Democratic Senate nomination and Peggy Flanagan won the Minnesota Democratic Senate nomination, both counted as left-wing victories.
But the DSA suffered a major setback when its member Francesca Hong lost the Wisconsin Democratic gubernatorial primary this month. That defeat showed the socialist brand has limits, even inside a party whose base has moved steadily leftward.
Larkin's platform goes well beyond the Israel question. His call to abolish the U.S. Senate, an institution he dismissed as "undemocratic", places him far outside mainstream Democratic positioning, let alone the center of American politics. When Fox News grilled him on policies that would rely on "other people's money," the exchange underscored how far the DSA wing has drifted from the fiscal restraint most voters expect.
Moskowitz, by contrast, has built a record as a pragmatic operator. His résumé includes running Florida's emergency management agency, and his pro-Israel stance has earned him institutional support from AIPAC and the DCCC, the kind of backing that signals the party establishment views his seat as one it cannot afford to lose.
The tension between the DSA faction and pro-Israel Democrats is not unique to Florida. A recent string of DSA primary victories that ousted sitting House incumbents has alarmed moderates who see the party's leftward shift as an electoral liability in competitive districts. One Democratic group launched a $15 million effort against Democratic Socialists, a sign of how seriously the establishment takes the threat.
The primary battles extend beyond the House. Rep. Byron Donalds, backed by President Donald Trump, is running for Florida governor in a crowded Republican field that includes Lt. Governor Jay Collins, former Florida House Speaker Paul Renner, and businessman James Fishback. No Democrat has won the Florida governorship in more than three decades, but former Republican-turned-Democrat congressman David Jolly, who switched parties last year, is the best-known candidate in the Democratic gubernatorial primary.
On the Senate side, Ashley Moody faces three Republican primary challengers. Governor Ron DeSantis appointed Moody, then the state's attorney general, to fill the seat Marco Rubio vacated when he stepped down to serve as Secretary of State in the Trump administration. The Democratic Senate primary pits Alex Vindman, the retired Army lieutenant colonel who gained national attention after testifying in Trump's first impeachment trial, against progressive state Rep. Angie Nixon.
Some veteran strategists have urged the Democratic establishment to draw a hard line. James Carville has called for a formal break with the socialist wing, arguing the association costs the party winnable races. Yet polling suggests the base may not agree, surveys have found that a majority of Democratic voters say they would support a "Democratic Socialist" candidate, a number that helps explain why the DSA keeps fielding challengers.
Alaska holds its own unusual primary on Tuesday. The state uses an all-party system in which all candidates appear on a single ballot and the top four vote-getters advance to the general election regardless of party. Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan is seeking re-election in a field of 16 contenders. Former Democratic Rep. Mary Peltola is among the best-known challengers, though she distanced herself last week from an endorsement by former Vice President Kamala Harris, a signal of how toxic the national Democratic brand has become in Alaska.
Adding a layer of confusion, a former teacher also named Dan Sullivan is on the Alaska Senate ballot. Republicans tried and failed to block him, accusing him of colluding with Democrats to split the vote and help elect Peltola. Both the second Sullivan and the Peltola campaign denied the accusation. Rep. Nick Begich, the Republican who holds Alaska's sole congressional seat, is also seeking re-election in the state's primary.
In Wyoming, Rep. Harriet Hageman, backed by Trump, is running for the Senate seat being vacated by retiring Sen. Cynthia Lummis. Hageman is leaving her at-large House seat to pursue the promotion. Both Alaska and Wyoming also have gubernatorial primaries, with term-limited Republican governors Mike Dunleavy and Mark Gordon stepping aside.
Meanwhile, in California, voters in the Bay Area district formerly held by Eric Swalwell will choose his replacement on Tuesday. Swalwell quit Congress four months ago amid sexual assault allegations that derailed his bid for California governor. Both candidates for the seat are Democrats. At least one Florida Democrat has said publicly that his state "thankfully" lacks the socialist presence now reshaping politics in other blue strongholds, a claim Tuesday's results may put to the test.
The Florida primaries carry the most national weight. FL-25 is a genuine swing district, and the outcome of the Larkin-Moskowitz race will signal whether DSA-aligned candidates can compete in territory where general-election viability matters, not just in deep-blue urban strongholds where the socialist label carries no penalty. Polling data showing that a majority of Democrats would back a Democratic Socialist makes the question more urgent for a party trying to hold its coalition together.
If Larkin or Manley pulls an upset, the DSA will have proved it can plant its flag in South Florida, deep in what the party's moderates consider safe territory. If both lose, the establishment will breathe easier, but the underlying pressure will not disappear. The candidates, the endorsements, and the money are already lined up for the next round.
When a party's rising faction wants to abolish the Senate and calls a U.S. ally a "supremacist regime," the question is no longer whether the left has a fringe problem, it is whether the fringe is becoming the center.
