In the spring of 2024, many members of Congress were practically tripping over themselves to condemn and silence antiwar student protesters who were building encampments on their college campuses, calling for their schools to divest from Israel and its genocide of Palestinians. On Columbia University’s campus, the heart of the encampment movement, was alumna Darializa Avila Chevalier. She wore a kuffiyeh, was arrested alongside the students, and supported them as they faced eviction and expulsion — and derision from the highest lawmakers in the country. Now, Darializa is about to become a member of Congress.

On Tuesday night, New York City experienced a political earthquake — and Palestine was at the center. In addition to Darializa’s upset of an American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC)–backed establishment candidate, congressional candidate Claire Valdez surged to victory on a platform that embraced calls for Palestinian freedom. Like Darializa, Claire’s face was already familiar to many in the Palestinian rights movement in New York. She regularly joined protests demanding an arms embargo, she was an early and vocal backer of the Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) NYC Break the Bonds campaign to prevent the reinvestment of city money into Israel bonds, and she was a champion of the Not On Our Dime Act to stop New York tax dollars from subsidizing Israeli war crimes.

Pro-Palestine candidates won up and down the ballot. This election showed us three things. First, Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s victory was not a fluke — it was a harbinger of a new political era. Second, the grassroots organizing of membership and base-building progressive groups can overcome big money. And finally, unapologetic support for Palestinian freedom can be a popular core pillar of the progressive movement and a winning campaign message.