Democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani’s stunning win in New York’s mayoral race blew up the internal fight that threatens to break apart the Democratic Party ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.
The battle lines were drawn on Tuesday in New York, where Mr. Mamdani’s socialist agenda — one that promises free bus rides, free day care and government-run grocery stores funded by tax hikes — prevailed decisively over the mainstream Democratic platform offered by former Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
Mr. Mamdani’s victory celebration was barely underway in Brooklyn when Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, a leader of the Democrats’ far-left wing, issued a stark warning to “old guard” leaders of her party.
The message Mr. Mamdani’s win sends, she said, “is that the Democratic Party cannot last much longer by denying the future, by trying to undercut our young, by trying to undercut a next generation of diverse and upcoming Democrats that have the actual party, the actual electorate and voter support.”
Her threat was lobbed directly at the top Democratic leaders, who either refused to endorse Mr. Mamdani or did so reluctantly, at the last minute, and with public assurances that his socialist-inspired agenda did not represent the future of the party.
“It puts those folk on notice and I think it also puts folks on notice that we have a future to plan for, we have a future to fight for, and we are either going to do that together or you’re going to be left behind,” Ms. Ocasio-Cortez said.
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Senate Democratic leader Charles E. Schumer of New York, celebrating the party’s big wins in the off-year elections, among them the governor’s races in New Jersey and Virginia, brushed off her threat and questions about division in the party. He told reporters at the Capitol, “I’m moving forward.”
Mr. Schumer said he congratulated Mr. Mamdani on his victory and praised his campaign, which he said was completely aligned with the rest of the Democratic Party. He did not address Mr. Mamdani’s agenda of freebies and tax hikes for the city.
“The issue that he has stressed is being stressed by Democrats across the country, from one end of America to the other — the high cost that the Trump administration is imposing on us and their failure to do anything about it,” Mr. Schumer said.
The party’s deeper divisions on policy and politics are already playing out ahead of the 2026 elections, in which Democrats are vying to seize control of the House and Senate.
Sen. Bernard Sanders, a self-declared socialist from Vermont who began challenging the Democratic establishment when he ran in the party’s presidential primary in 2016, told reporters the party’s internal divide was no secret, and it’s about to intensify in primary races across the U.S.
“What we are seeing in Maine, what you see in New York City, what are you going to see all over this country? You’re going to see progressives running, protecting the needs of the working class, taking on big money interests, fighting for an agenda that works for all, not just the few,” he said.
The split could threaten their chances of winning.
In Maine, far-left candidates are seeking to dethrone “old guard” Democrats in critical House and Senate races.
Rep. Jared Golden, a moderate Democrat who managed to win reelection last year in a district Mr. Trump carried by 9 points, announced a day after Mr. Mamdani’s victory that he would not be seeking another term in 2026.
Mr. Golden dropped out after a challenge from his left.
State auditor Matt Dunlap announced in October that he would run against Mr. Golden in a Democratic primary, criticizing his moderate positions and for siding with Republicans on some key votes.
Mr. Dunlap pledges to never “cave” to Mr. Trump.
Internal polling provided to the media showed Mr. Dunlap trailing his likely GOP opponent in the general election, former Gov. Paul LePage, by 10 points.
Democrats are also battling internally over who should run against Sen. Susan Collins, a moderate Republican incumbent and one of the party’s top targets in the midterm elections.
Far-left candidate Graham Platner, a 40-year-old oyster farmer from rural Sullivan in Maine, said he’s “running against the billionaire class,” and will face off in a primary against Gov. Janet Mills, 77.
Ms. Mills, a veteran Democrat who previously served as Maine’s attorney general, is endorsed by the top party establishment, including Mr. Schumer.
Mr. Sanders is backing Mr. Platner.
“Party leadership did not support Mamdani in New York, and he won. Party leadership is not supporting Platner in Maine, and I think he’s going to win,” Mr. Sanders said. “There is a growing understanding that leadership and defending the status quo, and the inequalities that exist in America, is not where the American people are at.”
• Lindsey McPherson contributed to this report.
