Last November, the Democratic Socialists of America endorsed six candidates for the NYC Council, in what was widely seen as an attempt to take advantage of the changing political winds in the city to capture a significant portion of the 51-member body.
In November 2018, two DSA members, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Rashida Tlaib were elected to the House of Representatives (as Democrats), and 11 DSA members were elected to state legislatures. In November 2020, Ocasio-Cortez and Tlaib were re-elected to the House, where they were joined by two more DSA members, Cori Bush and Jamaal Bowman (also seated as Democrats).
Now, with the primary election results in, it appears that four out of those six DSA-endorsed City Council candidates did not make it.
According to the NY Times, AOC’s six candidates faced strong opposition, especially from the pro-business super PAC Common Sense NYC, which purchased attack ads against four of the DSA candidates.
The big winner on the left was the Working Families Party of New York, which is no big friend of Israel and was part of the 2020 #SkipAIPAC effort. But, thankfully, the WFP appears to be less concerned with solving the Middle East issues and more with healthcare reform, raising the minimum wage, universal paid sick days, addressing student debt, progressive taxation, public education, and energy and environmental reform.
In central Brooklyn, AOC-endorsed candidate Michael Hollingsworth lost to Crystal Hudson by 8 points.
AOC-endorsed Adolfo Abreu came in third place in the Bronx’s 14th district.
In Queens District 23, AOC-endorsed Jaslin Kaur lost.
In District 39 in west Brooklyn, AOC-endorsed Brandon West lost with only 43% of the vote.
AOC-endorsed Tiffany Cabán, who lost narrowly the 2019 race for Queens County District Attorney, won Astoria, Queens, with 62.5% of the vote. Alexa Avilés from Sunset Park, another AOC candidate, also won.
The NY Post quoted an anonymous Democratic political operative from Brooklyn who suggested AOC et al were moving too fast in areas where their chances to win were not great. “They made a decision they were going to build in areas of the city that aren’t terribly friendly to the DSA – like the west Bronx and eastern Queens,” said the operative, and added, “These are just areas where Hillary dominated. This is not turf where Bernie had any votes.”