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When Hakeem Jeffries,<\/span> who\u2019s positioning himself<\/a> to be House speaker if the Democrats retake the chamber come November, was shown on the screen at an election party full of socialists in Brooklyn Tuesday night, the crowd chanted<\/a>, \u201cYou\u2019re next! You\u2019re next!\u201d Before polls closed on the night that would see the Jeffries-endorsed candidates fall and Mayor Zohran Mamdani\u2019s candidates win, the New York congressman told reporters<\/a> that he and the mayor have \u201cagreed to strongly disagree\u201d and that \u201ca handful of primaries that go in one direction or the other in a given state or two aren\u2019t going to reshape who we are as House Democrats.\u201d<\/p>\n He may be right in the short term; it will take many nights like Tuesday to remake the face of the party. But what\u2019s underway is nothing less than an existential threat to the version of the party that has made Jeffries its standard-bearer. If middle-of-the-road Democrats fail to reckon with this escalating reality and shift to the left, they risk making themselves irrelevant forever \u2014 and ceding even more ground to the Republicans as they cut off their nose to spite their face.<\/p>\n After all three congressional candidates that earned Mamdani\u2019s endorsement \u2014 Darializa Avila Chevalier, Brad Lander, and Claire Valdez \u2014 won handily, as did nearly all of the Democratic Socialists of America\u2019s down-ballot slate<\/a> in New York, Jeffries and his ilk were quick to discount Mamdani\u2019s political project as one that could never take root beyond the New York City meeting halls of Williamsburg and Bushwick. But as other primary races this cycle have shown us, that\u2019s simply not true.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n In Maine, Graham Platner delivered a crushing defeat in the Democratic Senate primary to Gov. Janet Mills, whom Chuck Schumer reportedly<\/a> \u201caggressively recruited\u201d to enter the race at all (and as we\u2019ve<\/a> covered<\/a>, her campaign never really got off the ground<\/a> or found anything approximating grassroots support). Platner\u2019s victory<\/a> \u2014 amid a spate of scandals over his online posts and alleged mistreatment of women \u2014 is now exposing the lie of one of his party\u2019s favorite refrains for disciplining the left: that for all our differences, we must \u201cvote blue no matter who<\/a>.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n These candidates stand for actual policy, not just mealy-mouthed \u201cmessaging.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n In the Senate race in Michigan, polling is strong<\/a> for Abdul El-Sayed, a former public health official pushing Medicare for All and centering Israel\u2019s genocide of Palestinians while competing with a both-sides-ing progressive and an outright AIPAC Democrat. Philadelphia nominated Chris Rabb<\/a>, an outspoken anti-genocide democratic socialist, over the party\u2019s political machine-mined candidate in Philadelphia, and Dr. Adam Hamawy<\/a>, a 9\/11 first responder who saved Sen. Tammy Duckworth\u2019s life as an Army medic but was also tarred with Islamophobic attacks that tried to frame him as a supporter of terrorism, won a crowded 12-way primary in New Jersey earlier this month. (The latter three have all appeared on the trail with Hasan Piker, the popular streamer who\u2019s become a potent political force for left-wing Democrats<\/a>, much to the dismay of centrists who condemn him<\/a> as \u201ccontroversial\u201d and worse<\/a>.)<\/p>\n\n