New York’s Socialist Victories Can't Be So Easily Dismissed
Centrist Democrats are writing off New York City socialist wins as a fluke reducible to gentrification and low turnout. But it was the Democratic Party machine itself that spent decades cultivating a depoliticized electorate.
Illapa Sairitupac, Zohran Mamdani, and Brad Lander campaign during the recent primary elections in New York. (Adam Gray / Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Over the last few weeks, centrist Democrats have attempted mightily to discount the Democratic Socialists of America’s (DSA) and other recent progressive victories in New York City. The victories don’t bear real political significance, they argue, because they were propelled by gentrification and the turnout was low. Unfortunately for them, this is mostly cope.
Consider a specific case: Assembly District 54, covering Bushwick and Cypress Hills in Brooklyn. The district is home to 130,000 people, including 53,000 registered Democrats. It is currently represented by Erik Dilan, a machine politician of the old vintage who has held the seat since winning it in 2014, and who served on the city council for more than a decade before that, beginning in 2002.
DSA has run a candidate against Dilan twice: Samy Nemir Olivares in 2022, who lost, and Christian Celeste Tate in 2026, who won. In 2022, Nemir Olivares took 2,313 votes to Dilan’s 2,524; in 2026, Tate won 4,054 votes to Dilan’s 2,479. Before those two races, the last primary challenge Dilan faced was in 2014, when he defeated Kim Council, 1,955 votes to 1,305.
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