The Coalitions That Elected DSA Candidates Across the City

**Brian Lehrer** (0:10)
Brian Lehrer on WNYC. So, we've been talking about Democratic primaries nationally here in New York City. As almost all of you probably know, the left swept three contested congressional races in Democratic primaries last month. Claire Valdez won Brooklyn seventh by 20 points. Darializa Avila Chevalier napped off 10-year incumbent Adriano Espeyad in Harlem and parts of the Bronx, Washington Heights, Inwood, and Brad Lander easily beat Dan Goldman in Brownstone, Brooklyn.
New York City DSA, the mayor's self-described political home, won nine out of 10 state legislative races on the same night. Now, narrative. There are those who say these results signal a realignment, that the Democratic machine in New York, as it has been, is dying and something new is replacing it. There are others who say the wins were narrow, the districts were unrepresentative, and the party's establishment still knows what it's doing in terms of winning elections in a larger context.
There were really in a way two contests in New York, like this during the primary, and then the narrative war over what it proved. Our next guest covers both. With me now is Michael Lange, New York City political analyst and author of the Substack Newsletter, The Narrative Wars. He has spent the week since the election going block by block through the precinct data to find out what actually happened. If you know Michael Lange's work, back in 2025, last year, he predicted the outcome of an aero race block by block and then analyzed it that way afterwards. He did the same thing, predicting, sometimes accurately, sometimes not. He openly acknowledges the block by block results in these contested primaries just before primary day this year, and now he's back with his weeks later deep dive and comparing the results to the narrative. Michael, always good to have you. Welcome back to WNYC.

**Michael Lange** (2:19)
Such a pleasure, Brian. Thanks. Great to be here with you.

**Brian Lehrer** (2:22)
The title of your piece is When Narratives Meet Facts. Where do you want to start with that comparison?

**Michael Lange** (2:33)
I think, again, the political establishment on Tuesday, June 23rd had a rough night. I think afterwards, there was an attempt to explain away that rough night with, I think, a narrative or as I would put it, to discredit some of the democratic socialist challengers, the types of coalition they built, things like that. You saw Hakeem Jeffries resorted to this on MS Now. He said, oh, it was a bunch of higher income districts, things like that. You had the Attorney General of New York, Tisha James, also tell CNN that, well, these candidates, they're basically new and they don't really understand the issues of their district, things like that.

**Brian Lehrer** (3:18)
Let me just jump in for a sec to say I have two clips that are over a minute each of Jeffries, whose of course leadership is now in question with some of these populist victories after November, whether or not Democrats win the majority in the House. If they win the majority, it's will he be the speaker? If they don't win the majority, it's still will he remain as democratic leader?
When you're done with this answer, I'm going to play a clip of Jeffries from just before primary day and then the explanation that you're referring to after the results were in. But go ahead and finish the thought.

**Michael Lange** (3:56)
Right. I think they were basically trying to wave away some of these results and discredit them. Right. And I think after going through the precinct data, analyzing it top down, front to back, things like that, a lot of what they were saying was not really rooted in the reality of how these races went. Darializa Avila Chevalier won black voters in the 13th Congressional District. Claire Valdez won Hispanic voters. It wasn't just that they did well with voters under 50 or college educated voters or white voters or renters.
These were two candidates that built very broad coalitions. Also, this type of coalition building extended to the progressive and the democratic socialist state legislative campaigns and candidates that won their races as well. We're talking about the decline of political institutions. It wasn't just even in New York City. You had insurgents in Syracuse and in Buffalo win their races against well-established incumbents and local machines as well. This was a broad anti-incumbent sentiment, but it was also the candidates who won were not building these narrow coalitions that could only be indexed to a handful of constituencies.

**Brian Lehrer** (5:21)
Here's a clip of Jeffries from just before New York primary day seeming to back all the strong horses.
And note the shot he takes at the end of this clip, at the electorate in the Brooklyn and Queens district that nominated Claire Valdez, the DSA candidate there. That very specific shot is going to come at the end of this clip. Listen.