When the news broke last week that Phara Souffrant Forrest defeated incumbent Walter Mosley in New York’s 57th assembly district primary, the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) proudly announced a full sweep. Five DSA-endorsed candidates, all of them open socialists and members of the organization, set their sights on Albany together. And now, having won their primaries in districts that reliably vote Democrat, all five appeared to be headed there.

Souffrant Forrest, a union nurse and tenant organizer, had criticized her opponent for accepting real-estate money. Mosley responded, “I have to engage with [real estate] to demand what we need and what we want.” This exchange demonstrated the divide between the two: Mosley may not be the worst Democrat in Albany, but he also isn’t willing to break with the wealthy interests driving the housing crisis in his home district.

On election night, Souffrant Forrest was trailing Mosley by 588 votes, but as ballot-counting continued she pulled ahead by about 2,500, ousting the eight-year incumbent. After the dust settled, Mosley voiced fear about what Souffrant Forrest and her fellow democratic socialists might get up to in Albany. Here’s an excerpt from an interview with him published earlier this week: