“We have won a city where… the Mayor will use their power… to govern our city as a model for the Democratic Party.”—Zohran Mamdani, June 24, 2025
Zohran Mamdani’s spectacular victory in Tuesday’s Democratic Mayoral Primary in New York City taught us two essential truths about the contemporary American political landscape. Two truths that add up to one unmistakable message for the Democratic Party.
Truth #1: The Democratic Socialist-Social Democratic-New Deal politics that Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) reintroduced to the country in 2016, and which Zohran Mamdani articulated so brilliantly in his campaign, speak to the needs and desires of the American people, and they resonate with voters.
Truth #2: The campaign operations of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA)—in New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles, and elsewhere—are exemplary and victorious! They are defined by youthful inspiration and disciplined commitment. They represent the polar opposite of the cynical big-money-driven campaigns that have done so much to corrupt our democracy.
Message for the Democratic Party: Recognize that America once again has a vibrant and visionary left and welcome a new generation of progressives, and yes, socialists into the party.
Now is an excellent time to discuss the formation of a caucus of socialists committed to creating a truly vibrant and democratic Democratic Party.
Sadly, the party’s recent record is not promising on this front. The overwhelming experience of the tens of thousands of Bernie Sanders supporters, from across the entire country, who organized to enter into the Democratic Party after 2016 was that they were rebuffed, made to feel unwelcome.
Now, in 2025, the stakes are even higher. We need to defeat fascism. And victory by the Democratic Party remains the clearest route to defeat Trumpism and save our open democratic society.
Given this, we can’t simply hope that the Democratic Party establishment will cease to be recalcitrant. We have to organize to open the party up, so that it can embrace 1) policies that address the needs of the country’s majority and 2) the most-inspired group of (predominantly young) political organizers in the country.
Now is an excellent time to discuss the formation of a caucus of socialists committed to creating a truly vibrant and democratic Democratic Party.
As a longtime member of DSA and the executive director of Progressive Democrats of America (PDA) (the organization that led the successful effort to draft Bernie Sanders to run for President in 2016), I look forward to working together with all progressives and democratic socialists to transform the Democratic Party into the peoples’ party that the country needs at this perilous—and, yet, also promising—moment in our history.
Read PDA’s proposal for an Outside-Inside-Outside strategy to transform the Democratic Party here.
Read PDA’s endorsement of Zohran Mamdani here.
