A 'schism' in the Democratic Party?

**Brian Lehrer** (0:06)
This is Brian Lehrer's Daily Politics Podcast from WNYC Studios. It's Friday, June 26th.
Is the Democratic Party splitting apart? That's one of the questions ricocheting around Washington and New York this week, and it's coming from some Democrats themselves. After Tuesday's primary results in New York City, former DNC chair Jamie Harrison tweeted, Quote, If you hate the Democratic Party, then please don't run for our nomination. Don't use our resources. Don't rely on our volunteers. Don't use our infrastructure. Longtime Democratic Party establishment figure James Carville went on the Politics War Room Podcast and said this.

**James Carville** (0:53)
I actually do think it's time for Democrats to talk the S-word, schism.
I really do. And everybody's always said, no, no, we're a coalition, we're a big tent. And there's some, there's just some sh-t that I can't be in the same tent with.

**Brian Lehrer** (1:11)
Yes, there's some stuff he can't be in the same tent with. And there were these words from New York Attorney General Letitia James, who was speaking on CNN about Mayor Mamdani and his influence on the Democratic primary, quote, Some of the candidates that he has supported are individuals who do not understand the politics of New York City, the cultural differences from district to district who have not been part of the history and the struggle of some of these districts and are relatively new to the body politic. All of us are a little frustrated with the Democratic Party, but you don't blow it up. That's what MAGA has done.
So on Tuesday night, three congressional candidates with Mayor Zeron Mamdani's backing won their competitive Democratic primaries. Brad Lander beat two-term incumbent Dan Goldman in the 10th district. Daria Lisa Avila Chevalier defeated five-term Congressman Adriano Espaillat, chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus in the 13th, and Claire Valdez won in the 7th district seat held by the retiring Nidia Velásquez. All three are in safely blue territory, which means they are likely headed to Congress after the general election this fall. We'll talk about all of this now with Lisa Kashinsky, a national political reporter at Politico, covering the 2026 midterms and the run up to the 2028 presidential race. Lisa, welcome to WNYC.

**Lisa Kashinsky** (2:39)
Happy to be here. Thank you for having me.

**Brian Lehrer** (2:41)
So you have a lot to cover here. So talk about what just happened in New York. From the perspective of the Democratic Party, how is this being viewed in the city, in the state, and nationally?

**Lisa Kashinsky** (2:56)
In New York, it's certainly seismic. And I think from everything that you read off, kind of just now all of these national figures weighing in, especially some who are maybe a little bit more on the moderate end of the Democratic spectrum, it's having some pretty intense ripple effects nationwide. I mean, New York is deep blue territory. It is, you know, in some ways, it's a very clear bellwether for the Democratic Party, but it's also not necessarily representative of where Democrats are playing across the map and the races they need to win to actually flip control of Congress. Like a lot of what's going to happen with Congress is going to be decided by very purple districts in places with very different just kind of socioeconomic and demographic makeups than New York.
But New York City does very much capture kind of the mood of the Democratic base. And you've watched it now from Zeron Mondani's win last year into what we saw on Tuesday, taking a very leftward march. And some of it is in the policies, some of it is in the style where we're seeing across the Democratic Party writ large right now, whether it is someone who is very far left or someone who is a little bit more towards the center. Voters are really kind of glomming on to this new type of fighter, this very kind of like relatable, you know, more kind of down-to-earth anti-establishment, anti-incumbent type of vibe. So it's partly a very kind of leftward hold taking over in New York politics right now, and it's partly just kind of the broader politics of the moment and kind of the broader mood of the Democratic Party, you know, writ large across the country in this moment. The people are looking for a different style and oftentimes a different generation of leadership.

**Brian Lehrer** (4:59)
Lisa, James Carville, we heard from him at the top just now. He said it's time for Democrats to talk about a schism, splitting up.
How seriously is the party taking that kind of talk right now?

**Lisa Kashinsky** (5:12)
There are definitely two camps emerging after Tuesday's results. One is very much that camp, the James Carville camp of maybe, you know, maybe it's time to have the split or not necessarily to have a split, but like to really confront the fact that the left is ascendant in this party right now, you know, both again in policy and in just kind of the style of candidates that they're running. So yes, there was a lot of talk about that on, you know, after Tuesday and just trying to grapple with this and this is something that moderate, you know, more moderate members of the Democratic Party have long kind of looked at with some weariness of, you know, they don't necessarily think that the far left can win elections.