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The Hill
5 days ago
- Politics
- The Hill
Progressives make inroads in key mayor's races
Progressives are making inroads in big-city mayoral races, giving the left flank a new shot in the arm as the Democratic Party faces an internal struggle over its future. Seattle community activist Katie Wilson surprised some political observers last week in finishing ahead of incumbent Mayor Bruce Harrell (D) in a nonpartisan blanket primary. Though Harrell, who is more moderate, will have the opportunity to win reelection to a second term in November, Wilson is currently almost 10 points ahead of him in the primary results, as of the latest vote count. Coming in the aftermath of Zohran Mamdani's upset win in the New York City Democratic primary and as a left-wing challenger hopes to oust the current Minneapolis mayor, progressives are hoping it's a sign of the tide turning in their favor. 'Our hope is that there's a real moment for progressives, for folks who want to see change or are upset with the status quo,' said Alex Gallo-Brown, Wilson's campaign manager in an interview. The Democratic Party has spent months reevaluating its future in the aftermath of its losses last November and figuring out its direction ahead of the midterms. The party has experienced a battle for at least the past decade between its progressive and moderate wings for control of the party and the message pitched to voters. Finger-pointing followed former Vice President Harris's loss in 2024, with progressives getting blame from more moderate Democrats for contributing to a perception of the party as too far left. Coupled with some high-profile defeats for progressive candidates in key congressional and local races in 2024, the progressive wing didn't appear to be in a strong position entering this year. But progressives are much more optimistic now following results in some of the mayoral elections taking place this year in large cities. The first and biggest victory yet came with the surprise win from Mamdani, a New York State Assembly member backed by Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), in the primary over former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who touted progressive accomplishments while in office but ran as a moderate. Most public and even Mamdani-aligned polling didn't show him leading ahead of the primary, but he outperformed expectations to win comfortably by double digits in the final round of the city's ranked-choice tabulation. Meanwhile, another DSA-backed candidate is seeking to gain momentum in Minneapolis after winning the city party's endorsement. Minnesota state Sen. Omar Fateh (D) won the endorsement last month over Mayor Jacob Frey (D), who is seeking his third term in office. Though Frey is filing an appeal to the decision over what he argues was a flawed process, after significant technological issues, the development nonetheless underscores the proxy battle taking place in the city's election. 'This endorsement is a message that Minneapolis residents are done with broken promises, vetoes, and politics as usual,' Fateh said in a post on X at the time. 'It's a mandate to build a city that works for all of us.' Most recently, Wilson took observers by surprise by finishing ahead of Harrell in the Seattle mayoral primary with about 51 percent of the vote to 41.4 percent for the incumbent mayor. The candidates will face off again in the November general election. Issues of affordability and public safety are playing key roles in the contest, as is the case for other large cities. Harrell has touted declining violent crime rates during his time as mayor and has pushed for increased hiring for the city's police force. Wilson, who previously expressed sympathy for the 'defund the police' movement but hasn't called for it during her campaign, has criticized Harrell over rising costs of living and housing affordability, while arguing that armed officers aren't needed to respond to mental health and other non-crime calls they receive. Gallo-Brown cast doubt on how much the public cares about 'labels' as opposed to who will find solutions to their problems. 'A lot of people, they kind of look at the Democratic Party or certain parts of it, and it's just business as usual,' he said. 'And so I think people like Katie, like Zohran, like other mayoral candidates around the country are showing people that another world is possible.' Harrell told The Hill in an interview that he wasn't surprised by the results given the 'angst' that voters expressed while his campaign conducted field work. He said he needs to remind voters that he's been a 'change agent' and helped turn the city around from the place it was in when he first took office, a time when the city was still coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic and facing much higher levels of crime. 'You don't want to sacrifice a proven leader, just because there's impressive-sounding rhetoric that seems to excite people,' he said. 'The rhetoric will not get change done. It's people who are capable and have done the work.' Some Democrats tempered expectations for the progressive challengers and argued that Minneapolis and Seattle's races aren't as directly comparable to New York City's. Corey Day, a former executive director of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, pointed to the controversy surrounding the process that resulted in Fateh's endorsement and Frey's appeal, which could change the city party's decision. He also said he doesn't believe the endorsement will be as critical to determining the winner as it would be for some city council races. Day called Fateh's candidacy a 'significant challenge' to Frey but said he expects the incumbent to make clear their differences ahead of November. The election will be conducted by a ranked-choice process in which all candidates for the office compete on the same ballot. The race doesn't have a primary, so no results on where voters stand will be available until the election happens. Frey also doesn't have the controversies that Mamdani's chief opponent, Cuomo, had to overcome in the New York race. 'Once both of these candidates are spotlighted, and I think when they start talking about their policies and their records, it's going to be pretty clear for voters that Jacob Frey is their choice,' Day said, arguing that Frey has also established his progressive bona fides. Ashik Siddique, a DSA co-chair, said voters are excited from candidates who show they're willing to fight for working class voters, and these types of candidates can win even outside these cities if they hone their message and have discipline. 'People are very motivated to see people like Zohran and Omar and others all over the country really standing up for clear economic demands that will address the ways people feel their day to day lives are getting worse, but also being able to confront the [Trump] administration when it's scapegoating people,' he said. DSA enthusiasm was on full display at its national convention this month following Mamdani's win. DSA isn't involved in the Seattle mayor's race, and Wilson hasn't run as a democratic socialist, but the race is still another example of progressives feeling bullish. Washington state Democratic strategist Ron Dotzauer said he expects the general election turnout to be much higher than that of the primary was, changing the electorate. He said the low turnout favored Wilson's constituency and other more liberal candidates. Dotzauer said Wilson's constituency is 'ironclad,' so the onus will be on Harrell to capitalize on the increased voter turnout. 2024 Election Coverage 'There's a scenario for each of them to win, and I think it's going to be very, very close,' he said. Harrell also argued that he has shown his progressive values in fighting to raise the minimum wage, setting an 'aggressive' climate policy and raising taxes on the largest businesses. He also pointed to a key endorsement he received from Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), a former chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus. 'When people start calling people names or labeling them, they're not really looking at the hard work that's been achieved,' he said. 'And again, I'll that story during the general, but I think that should resonate in the minds of most voters.'
Los Angeles Times
28-06-2025
- Politics
- Los Angeles Times
How does NYC primary win reverberate in Los Angeles politics?
Good morning, and welcome to L.A. on the Record — our City Hall newsletter. It's Noah Goldberg, giving you the latest on city and county government. Zohran Mamdani's resounding victory in the New York City Democratic mayoral primary has turned the heads of progressive elected officials in Los Angeles. Councilmember Hugo Soto-Martínez called it the 'biggest victory for a socialist candidate probably in America.' Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez said Angelenos should take note. 'What it shows is that we can win. We can win in major cities,' she said. Councilmember Ysabel Jurado was bursting with excitement about the results from a city 3,000 miles away. 'Having a DSA-backed mayor is freaking amazing,' she said about the prospect of Mamdani, who was backed by the Democratic Socialists of America, winning the general election in November. While Mamdani's primary upset over former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo injected new excitement into the left flank of the Los Angeles political scene — one DSA member called it a 'we're so back moment' — it also highlighted vastly different political terrains in the two coastal cities, starting with executive leadership. Mamdani is a 33-year-old democratic socialist who was elected to the New York state assembly in 2020. He ran in the Democratic mayoral primary on a far-left agenda, promising to freeze the rent in rent-stabilized apartments and to make city buses free. New York's current mayor, Eric Adams, ran as a Democrat in 2021 but will be an independent candidate in the general election, after Trump's Department of Justice dropped bribery charges against him. In line with his offer to assist in enforcing federal immigration laws if the charges were dropped, Adams has since attempted to allow Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents into the city jails (a judge blocked that plan after the City Council sued). Southern California, on the other hand, has emerged as the epicenter of the president's crackdown on undocumented immigrants, and Mayor Karen Bass has been an outspoken critic of the president's immigration agenda. Trump's ramping up of immigration enforcement and subsequent deployment of the California National Guard and U.S. Marines to Los Angeles has prompted the city's progressive and moderate Democratic politicians to band together and set aside their differences. Councilmembers on the left flank cited the different political realities in the two cities when speaking about the 2026 Los Angeles mayoral election, with the field of candidates still taking shape. 'We don't have a candidate on the left … as a progressive. We have Mayor Karen Bass, who is running again,' Hernandez said. 'She's moving how she needs to move and has been doing a good job at least in handling this crisis that we're in right now.' Hernandez said she is focused on winning her own reelection bid in a crowded field. Soto-Martínez said the city is 'under siege' by the federal government. 'We are trying to show unity against the federal takeover of our city, and so that's how I feel about it right now, and that might change a year from now, but that's how I feel,' he said. 'I support the mayor and her reelect, and I think her roots from community organizing is something we need right now.' No progressive candidate has emerged to run against Bass. Before the immigration raids, Bass' performance in the wake of January's devastating wildfires led to speculation that she would be challenged from the right again by businessman Rick Caruso, whom she beat handily in 2022. Caruso is also weighing a bid for governor. Lefty Angelenos shouldn't hold their breath for a DSA candidate. While the process is member-driven, DSA-LA does not plan at the moment to run anyone for mayor, said Marc Krause, a co-chair of DSA-LA. Krause said the group's focus is legislative change, starting with representation on the City Council. 'I think for DSA-LA, our big goal and recent strategy is to try to win a majority on the L.A. City Council,' he said. DSA-LA's Mamdani moment came when Hernandez and Soto-Martínez won in 2022, joining Nithya Raman, who had DSA support in her 2020 election. 'It proved to us that what we were aiming to do had some viability to it,' Krause said. Jurado, also backed by DSA-LA, joined the bloc in 2024. Those four have helped push the council further to the left in recent years, from passing a $30 minimum wage for tourism industry workers to voting for a budget that sought to slow down police hiring — though those hires may return. Krause cited a stronger rent stabilization ordinance, higher pay for workers in the city and improved transit infrastructure as some of DSA-LA's top legislative goals. To secure those wins, Krause hopes to elect eight DSA-backed city councilmembers or to build a coalition with other elected officials who agree with the policies DSA-LA champions. And Krause said the movement is growing. The night Mamdani won the primary, DSA-LA gained 50 new members — without even trying. 'We'll likely be doing more intentional recruitment,' Krause said. — INNOCENT IMMIGRANTS: Most of the undocumented immigrants arrested between June 1 and June 10 by Immigration and Customs Enforcement in the Los Angeles region had no criminal convictions, according to a Times analysis. The review of data from the Deportation Data Project, a repository of enforcement data at UC Berkeley Law, found that 69% of those arrested had no criminal convictions and 58% had never been charged with a crime. — RECEIVERSHIP HAS SAILED: A federal judge decided not to put L.A.'s homelessness programs into receivership Tuesday, though he found that the city failed to adhere to the terms of a legal settlement focused on handling the humanitarian crisis on the streets. — TRUMP SUIT: The city took steps to sue the Trump administration to stop immigration agents from making unconstitutional stops or arrests. The seven councilmembers who signed the letter asking City Atty. Hydee Feldstein Soto to prioritize 'immediate legal action' against the administration argued that the litigation is necessary to prevent racial profiling and unlawful detention of Angelenos. —UNION DOOZY: L.A. County's agreement with its biggest labor union will cost more than $2 billion over three years, according to the county chief executive office. The deal with SEIU 721, which represents 55,000 county workers, includes a $5,000 bonus in the first year. Union members still need to ratify the agreement. —CALIFORNIA VS. TRUMP: The Trump administration may soon be forced to turn over documents related to the activities of the military in Southern California, a federal judge said Tuesday. The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals had previously allowed Trump to maintain control over the California National Guard. —SCHOOLS BUDGET: The Los Angeles Board of Education approved an $18.8-billion budget that allows the district to avoid layoffs this year, in part by reducing proposed contributions to a trust fund for retiree health benefits. That's it for this week! Send your questions, comments and gossip to LAontheRecord@ Did a friend forward you this email? Sign up here to get it in your inbox every Saturday morning.
Yahoo
13-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Andrew Cuomo, Zohran Mamdani face and fling personal attacks in fiery NYC Democratic mayoral debate
Top Big Apple mayoral contenders Andrew Cuomo and Zohran Mamdani continued flinging jibes at each other Thursday during a bruising debate — with third-place candidate Brad Lander also taking a big bite with a pointed stunt. Attacks on the frontrunner Cuomo — who took the stage with six other Dem primary candidates at John Jay College — landed more forcefully than in the first debate last week. Mamdani, a socialist state Assemblyman from Queens, quickly lobbed several pointed body blows against Cuomo as the messy two-hour food fight kicked off. But it was the city comptroller, Lander, who arguably rattled the ex-governor the most — as he refused to let up on the sexual harassment scandal that led Cuomo to resign in disgrace in 2021. 'Everybody here knows that you sexually harassed women, that you created a toxic work environment,' Lander said to thundering applause. The comptroller noted many in the audience were young women attending CUNY, including a valedictorian soon going to work at the Department of Homeless Services. 'I don't want to have to tell her, 'Don't go work at City Hall because the mayor is a sexual harasser,'' Lander said. 'Those are just bold-faced lies,' Cuomo shot back, arguing the accusations were disproven and politically motivated. The unrepentant Cuomo also came under fire from Mamdani over the sex harass accusations and his record as governor. 'I have never had to resign in disgrace,' Mamdani, 33, snapped when Cuomo tried to him him over his lack of experience. The 67-year-old Cuomo tried to deflect a pointed question about his age by seemingly turning the tables on Mamdani. 'Experience matters, and I think inexperience is dangerous,' Cuomo said. During a back-and-forth on Mamdani's proposal to freeze rents across the city, Cuomo said the lefty pol 'should read' the law in regards to whether doing so was in the mayor's power. 'The law didn't control you,' Mamdani quipped. The mudslinging at times got personal — like when the DSA-backed lawmaker corrected Cuomo's repeated mispronunciation of 'Mamdani,' which the ex-gov rhymed with 'mom.' 'The name is Mamdani, M, A, M, D, A, N, I. You should learn how to say it, because we've got to get it right,' he said. Given the chance to counterattack, Cuomo quickly repeated his pronunciation mistake. 'Mr. Mamdani is right,' Cuomo said, but again butchered his rival's name's first syllable. Lander, meanwhile, also personalized the attacks — when he hammered Cuomo's record on nursing home deaths during the coronavirus pandemic in dramatic fashion. He invited Peter Arbeeny, whose father died from COVID-19 after a rehab stint at a local nursing home, as a guest, and dared Cuomo to apologize to him. Cuomo — who earlier Thursday stunningly admitted to a long-denied claim that he saw a controversial report on nursing home COVID deaths while he was governor — tried to dodge by attacking Brooklynite Lander's New York bona fides. 'Maybe where you come from in St. Louis facts don't matter, but here they do,' Cuomo snapped. He then apologized to Arbeeny — albeit without offering a mea culpa for anything else. 'Mr. Arbeeny lost a father,' he said. 'I am very, very sorry for that.' In another fiery moment, Lander contended that Cuomo 'screwed' hundreds of immigrants who were contracted during the COVID pandemic to clean the subways. Cuomo denied knowing what Lander was talking about — before referencing the MTA hiring 'illegal immigrants.' 'What did you call them?' Lander asked, prompting Cuomo to pivot to the term 'undocumented.' The moderators at one point prompted the candidates to ask each other questions — and Cuomo used the opportunity to outsource an attack on Mamdani's arguably pie-in-the-sky campaign promises via longshot mayoral hopeful Whitney Tilson. 'You're a financial expert: Is it feasible and financially possible that he is telling the truth?' he asked the Wall Street investor. Tilson argued Mamdani's plan would result in crushingly high taxes that would cause an exodus of jobs from New York City. The tag team pointed to a new alliance in the race with Tilson later saying he'd rank Cuomo second on his ballot. Another union also emerged when former city Comptroller Scott Stringer and state Sen. Zellnor Myrie both heaped loads of praise on City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams and teed her up to make her pitch to voters. After the debate, Myrie admitted a cross-endorsement was in the works. But both Lander and Mamdani appeared on their own political islands as the factions started to form with just 12 days until the June 24 primary left for the top horses to make a run at the long-standing frontrunner. Mamdani did receive a veiled dig from Stringer when the former comptroller answered a question about Israel's war against Hamas. 'BDS is antisemitic,' Stringer said — moments after Mamdani had again doubled down on his support of the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement against Israel. Mamdani said his support of BDS was rooted in his belief in 'nonviolence.' The wounded Cuomo took nearly the whole debate to swing back at Mamdani for repeatedly hitting the ex-governor on his massive war chest from his campaign and state PAC stuffed with contributions from Trump donors and big business, such as Doordash. 'I'm not for rent and I'm not for sale,' Cuomo finally spat out. 'So, we wonder who's funding DSA and who's funding his BDS movement,' he added, barely landing the hit. Cuomo again stumbled when pressed by the moderators on how he had seemingly not once visited a mosque anywhere in the state over the past 14 years while in office and on the campaign trial. 'Not off the top of my head. I can't tell you where I went, but I'll check the record,' Cuomo was able to eventually muster. — Additional reporting by Hannah Fierick and Carl Campanile
