///.. . BY. ELIANA JONSHON 26 JUN 2026 ------------------------ https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!h8BB!,w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ff9b44d4b-31f5-48c3-89e0-fc22c95a1420_2048x1365.jpeg NYC Congressional candidate Claire Valdez (Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images) The Zohran Mamdani-backed socialists in New York City didn’t just sweep three high-profile congressional races. Down ballot, members of the Democratic Socialists of America dominated contests for seats in New York’s state legislature, and they could be a part of the next crop of radicals to seek a promotion to Congress, our Jon Levine reports. One of the state-level socialists, the Palestinian “Muslim Civil rights activist” Aber Kawas, was elected to the state’s 12th senate district in Brooklyn and Queens. She has blamed 9/11 on the evils of the West, saying in 2017, “The system of capitalism and racism and white supremacy et cetera—and Islamophobia—have all been used to colonize lands, to take resources from other people, and so this is a long trajectory, and we’re just seeing the manifestations of that continuation with 9/11. … The idea we have to apologize for a terror attack that a couple of people did and then there is no apology or reparations for genocides and for slavery, et cetera—is something I find reprehensible.” Kawas, who moved to the district last year, got Mamdani’s endorsement. So did Illapa Sairitupac, who won a state assembly seat on the Lower East Side after contemplating, then deciding against, pursuing a career as an “openly queer reverend,” as he told the communist magazine Jacobin. “In this world, under capitalism, we’re made to forget that we’re all connected. We’re indoctrinated to believe that it’s every man for himself, pull yourself up by your bootstraps—all those lies that cause division and disharmony,” he said. “My ecosocialist comrades saw me as a potential candidate and broached it with me over a year ago … the idea of fighting together against the capitalist class.” “New York’s state legislature—which produced both Mamdani and newly nominated socialist congressional nominee Claire Valdez—is becoming a farm team for Mamdani’s merry band of Israel-hating socialists,” writes Levine. READ MORE: Meet the Mini-Mamdanis: Budding Crop of Extreme Left-Wing, 9/11-Justifying, Israel-Hating Socialists Win Primary Nods for New York State Legislature Seats Additional reading: “Moderate” Democrats are spending a second day panicking about the Zohran Mamdani-led socialist takeover of the New York City congressional delegation as they “fear they’re on the verge of losing the party’s ideological civil war — and hurting its electoral chances,” Politico reported. “Centrist Democrats, normie Democrats, need to realize we’re the insurgents, and they’re the new establishment,” said the cofounder of the “moderate-aligned” WelcomePAC, Liam Kerr. At the center of that takeover is the radical’s radical Darializa Avila Chevalier, or DAC, as she’s now being called. MS NOW’s Ali Velshi asked her during a Wednesday night interview to respond to those who say she’s a “communist.” Chevalier launched into a lengthy diatribe, telling him, “For far too long, this reactive conversation of what we should be afraid of has prevented us from being able to have a politics of hope and a politics of life that Democrats can actually identify with.” Texas’s James Talarico is campaigning for Senate against “billionaires,” accusing them of “destroying the country.” But some billionaires are more equal than others: Earlier this week, Talarico held a big-ticket Chicago fundraiser with billionaire Hyatt Hotels heir and Illinois governor J.B. Pritzker, who once removed five toilets from his mansion in a fraudulent scheme to save hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxes. Attendees were encouraged to contribute as much as $13,500 each to attend. The Trump administration notched two big immigration wins at the Supreme Court, which ruled Thursday that the U.S. can turn away so-called asylum seekers at the southern border before they enter the country. The Biden administration had rescinded that policy, prompting a surge of migrants who falsely claimed asylum, but you wouldn’t know that from the New York Times, which described the policy as one in which migrants are “physically prevent[ed] from crossing into the United States as they seek protection from persecution.” The High Court also upheld the stripping of temporary immigration protections for Haitian and Syrian migrants. Happy Friday, our full lineup is below. ‘We Need Your Voice’: Abdul El-Sayed Urged Registered Sex Offender Debate Coach To Run for Office, Told Him ‘You Have Something Deep To Offer’ New York Times Marks America’s 250th With Claim Revolutionary Cause was ‘Anti-Native Sentiment,’ Land Grab Meet the Mini-Mamdanis: Budding Crop of Extreme Left-Wing, 9/11-Justifying, Israel-Hating Socialists Win Primary Nods for New York State Legislature Seats James Talarico, Running for Senate as a Crusader Against Billionaires, Holds Big-Ticket Fundraiser With Billionaire Hyatt Heir JB Pritzker Exclusive: FIFA Threatened with Lawsuit for Seizing Jewish Fan’s Israeli Flag at World Cup Match While Permitting Palestinian and Iranian Flags Thanks for reading the Washington Free Beacon! Subscribe for free to receive new posts.