Three socialist candidates backed by New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani swept their Democratic congressional primaries on Tuesday, and the Republican running to unseat Governor Kathy Hochul says the results prove the Democratic establishment has lost its grip on the party. Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, who ran uncontested in his own primary and holds President Trump's endorsement, is now making a direct pitch to traditional Democratic voters: come with us, or watch your party disappear.
Blakeman sat down with Fox News Digital just hours after the results came in. He did not hold back about what the socialist victories mean for the state's political future, or for his own campaign.
The winners, Darializa Avila Chevalier, Claire Valdez, and Brad Lander, all carried Mamdani's backing. Their victories over establishment-aligned Democrats mark a sharp leftward lurch in a state already dominated by one-party rule. And Blakeman argues the shift is exactly what will push working-class and moderate Democrats into Republican arms this November.
In his interview, Blakeman framed the primary results as proof of a structural takeover, not a one-night fluke. He told Fox News Digital:
"The lunatic left has taken over the Democratic Party. They've lost control of their party."
He went further, dismissing the policy promises of the socialist slate as fantasy. "They've offered everybody free stuff," Blakeman said. "They're never going to do what they say they're going to." He singled out one proposal in particular: "Free grocery stores, I mean, that's complete nonsense. Government should not be competing with the private sector."
The pattern Blakeman describes is not unique to New York. Democratic socialists have won major primaries in other cities, including Washington, D.C., where the movement's growth has created friction with both local establishments and the federal government.
Blakeman reserved some of his sharpest criticism for Hochul herself. Rather than positioning the governor as a moderate counterweight to Mamdani's socialist wing, he argued the two are aligned. "They're in league together," Blakeman said of Hochul and the New York City mayor. "I now call her Comrade Kathy."
That characterization, treating Hochul not as a victim of her party's left flank but as a willing participant, is central to Blakeman's campaign message. If the Democratic establishment in New York were genuinely fighting the socialist takeover, the argument would be harder to make. But Tuesday's results suggest the establishment couldn't stop it even if it wanted to.
Blakeman's strategy hinges on the idea that rank-and-file Democrats in New York are not socialists, and that they know it. He told Fox News Digital that he expects defections in November.
"Traditional Democrats see their party going off the deep end. They don't like it. They're going to come on board with us because it's the only way to stop their party from becoming an extinct party."
He put it even more bluntly: "The traditional Democrats are going to vote for Republicans this year. They know their party has gone off the deep end."
The New York Post reported that Blakeman is actively courting disaffected moderate Democrats, claiming many have privately told him that backing his candidacy is the only way to reclaim their party. He called on "common sense Democrats to join our cause to save New York from the socialist, anti-American Communists and restore normalcy to our state."
Whether that pitch works in a deep-blue state remains an open question. New York has not elected a Republican governor since George Pataki won his final term in 2002. But Blakeman is betting that the socialist surge changes the math, that voters who have pulled the Democratic lever out of habit will look at Mamdani's slate and decide the party no longer represents them.
The three primary victories underscore just how much power Mamdani now wields within New York's Democratic machinery. As mayor, he has used his platform to elevate candidates aligned with the Democratic Socialists of America. Chevalier, Valdez, and Lander all ran with his explicit support, and all won.
Mamdani's office did not respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment on the primary results or Blakeman's remarks. The silence itself is notable. A mayor whose endorsed candidates just swept three congressional primaries might be expected to take a victory lap. Instead, Mamdani let the results speak for themselves.
The mayor's trajectory has been building for months. He rallied publicly with his socialist slate earlier this cycle, framing the effort as an open challenge to Democratic Party leadership. Tuesday's results suggest that challenge is succeeding.
And the candidates Mamdani has backed have not been without controversy. One socialist candidate who carried his endorsement walked out of a live radio interview when pressed about past anti-America social media posts, the kind of incident that reinforces Blakeman's argument about where the party's energy now sits.
Governor Hochul's campaign did not ignore Blakeman's broadside. Spokesperson Ryan Radulovacki responded with a statement that tried to redirect the conversation away from the socialist primary results and toward Blakeman's ties to Trump and federal policy.
"New Yorkers know Bruce Blakeman is too busy catering to the far-right, embracing January 6 architects, and caving to Donald Trump to fight for them and their families. From enabling ICE's abuses, to raising costs, to fighting to gut Medicaid, Blakeman's proud of being 'MAGA all the way,' just like Trump labeled him."
The statement is telling for what it does not address. Radulovacki made no mention of the socialist primary victories. She offered no defense of the Democratic establishment's ability to hold its moderate center. She did not distance Hochul from Mamdani or his slate. Instead, the campaign pivoted entirely to attacking Blakeman, a move that, intentionally or not, sidesteps the question Blakeman raised: who actually controls the Democratic Party in New York?
The specific allegations in Radulovacki's statement, that Blakeman "enabled ICE's abuses," "raised costs," and "fought to gut Medicaid", were not elaborated on in her remarks. Nor did she identify the "January 6 architects" she alleged Blakeman embraced. Those claims remain unsubstantiated assertions from a campaign spokesperson.
New York's primary results do not exist in isolation. The socialist movement within the Democratic Party has been gaining ground in cities and districts across the country. Even Senator John Fetterman, a Democrat not known for toeing the party line, has warned publicly that Democrats are embracing communism, targeting the mayor of Seattle as an example of the trend.
For New York Republicans, the question is whether the socialist surge creates a genuine opening or whether the state's overwhelming Democratic registration advantage simply absorbs the shock. Blakeman received Trump's endorsement earlier this year, which gives him a clear lane with the Republican base. But winning a gubernatorial race in New York requires crossover appeal, the kind of appeal that only materializes when the other party's voters are deeply unhappy.
Tuesday's primaries may have given Blakeman exactly the evidence he needs to make that case. Three socialist nominees now head toward general elections in New York congressional districts. A mayor who openly champions their cause runs the state's largest city. And the sitting governor's campaign, when given the chance to push back against the socialist wing, chose to talk about something else entirely.
The vote margins and specific districts where Chevalier, Valdez, and Lander won have not been widely detailed, leaving open questions about just how dominant the socialist slate's performance was. But the outcomes themselves are not in dispute. Mamdani's candidates won. The establishment's candidates lost.
Blakeman is betting that New York's moderate Democrats will look at those results and conclude what he already has: the party they grew up in no longer exists. Whether enough of them act on that conclusion in November will determine whether his candidacy is a long-shot protest or a genuine threat to Hochul's hold on Albany.
When a party's own voters can't stop its most radical wing in a primary, it's fair to ask whether the general election is the last guardrail left, and who's willing to pull the lever.
