House Democrats’ anxiety rises after wins by Mamdani-backed candidates: ‘Are we going to let them take over the party?’

"Are we going to let them take over the party?"

They fuggen better

Democratic elections happening and selecting candidates that aren't from your carefully prepared inner circle? Unbelievable! It was the their turn?!!

Guards!! GUARDS!!!

They let Trump take over the country...

One Democratic lawmaker sitting in a battleground district told CNN that they are so concerned about the rise of the Democratic Socialists of America that they have recently begun having serious conversations with donors about leaving the party altogether.

The fact that their impulse is to get their donors opinions instead of their constituents is why they need to be primaried.

Let them take over? You must not be familiar with how a republic works.

Status quo democrats right now.

"Let them" ? Excuse me?

Mother fucker in a real democracy YOU don't have any say in the matter. What you're seeing happen is the will of the people. Yes, you will "let us" vote for the candidates that we want to vote for.

Try to take that away, it's about all we (barely) have left. See what happens.

You already did, by refusing to listen to constituents. They’ve taken over, and that’s good.

"Oh my God! What if they take over and start doing things that actually benefit people?"

"them" are the constituents and if they're taking over the party, it's working as intended.

Really just yelling the quiet part to the nosebleeds, aren’t they?

It was never about helping their constituents. The moment someone outside of their inner circle becomes popular, the facade drops and it’s all about voting ‘correctly’ and the popular person ‘stealing’ the vote.

At least they pretended to not be vicious ghouls who don’t care about actual humans when they skipped over Bernie to hand the election to Trump.

Yes

Controlled opposition cries that actual opposition is taking some Ws. Keep them crying. Or just hang them.

Ideally? Yes! This needed to happen when the Tea Party took over the Republicans, it's long overdue!

"Many of us believe, as I do, that if you’re a socialist, you’re not a Democrat.”

Why thank you, no I am not.

Let's hope they don't get a say.

If there was ever any doubt that the DNC was bought and paid for this ought to remedy that, when faced with a popular platform they fear how their opposition’s adherents

This what you get got not listening. Cry some more. I look forward to the downfall. Socialists will rise because the DNC fell deep into greed.

“Obviously, the socialists had a big win last night. The question is, are we going to let them take over the party? Or are we going to stand up and fight back?” said Rep. Josh Gottheimer of New Jersey, a moderate Democrat who has criticized Mamdani’s politics and how he’s addressed allies of Israel. “Many of us believe, as I do, that if you’re a socialist, you’re not a Democrat.”

Get fucked Josh, also...

A democrat (lowercase "d") is broadly defined as a person who advocates for democracy and believes in the principles of political or social equality.

The name of your party, would disagree with your assessment. Also, the fact that your party used to represent the Jim Crow south and opposed civil liberties for non-whites, while, thankfully, it is now the one championing (at least comparatively against the Republicans) racial civil liberties and equality, means that your party has changed before and changed for the better. It changed to more closely align to the definition of the word. It can and will continue to change becuase, famously, change is the only thing that is permanent. And hopefully it changes to align even closer still to that definition. If you think you are representing equality while championing capitalism, corporatocracy, military dominance, and supporting apartheid and genocide states, well you need to either get a reality check or lose your job. And if your party is full of asshats like you, it might need an overhaul.

Maybe all Dem centrists can finally move to the Republican Party where they belong

“If you ask me, it was not a good night for New York,” Rep. Greg Meeks, a powerful New York Democrat who is close with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, told CNN..

... Meeks added: “Instead of us making sure we put all of our resources to fight Republicans and to fight Donald Trump, we’re using it to fight each other. It just doesn’t make common sense to me.”

So close to a revelation...

Rather than meeting voters where they are, leadership dems plot to suppress would-be future leaders. Same playbook they used on Bernie in 2020.

Keep going. This is the only way you're going to get any change short of all-out civil war.

Not your choice. Sucks to suck

Lmao no you stupid idiots, you killed the party through years of hard work.

What's crazy is the Democrats in power could have protected their seats with just a modicum of spine when it comes to trump. Something just slightly more than a strongly worded letter would have kept many casual "I-don't-follow-politics" voters blinded. But they are so incompetent that they couldn't even do that. And now they are surprised when they get challenged on it?????

If you want to win the next election, I'd advise you to seriously consider it.

If that's what the people want, yes.

They'd better

AIPAC and fascist Israeli interests are not welcome. Bye Felicia

No, they won’t let us.

Step out of the way.

"Top Democrats" looking more like "Bottom Democrats" every day now. 🤣

"Let"

Who is the party? The constituents or the blowhards at the top and the army of consultants suckling off the teet of their donors? Great litmus test to admit Democratic voters don't matter. Let's see how many wanna commit to that.

Let them..... lol.

House Democrats’ anxiety rises after wins by Mamdani-backed candidates: ‘Are we going to let them take over the party?’ | CNN Politics Sarah Ferris, Ellis Kim, Annie Grayer 9 - 11 minutes

Top Democrats insist that they’re unfazed by the party’s forming a “Zohran Mamdani wing,” after the New York City mayor’s stunningly successful primary night.

But there is growing angst among many sitting congressional Democrats after Mamdani allies won three primaries, including defeats of incumbent Reps. Adriano Espaillat and Dan Goldman. And, most immediately, they worry it will make it tougher to flip the House this year, with Republicans eager to tee up the Mamdani slate’s most controversial positions for attack ads in battlegrounds across the country.

“Obviously, the socialists had a big win last night. The question is, are we going to let them take over the party? Or are we going to stand up and fight back?” said Rep. Josh Gottheimer of New Jersey, a moderate Democrat who has criticized Mamdani’s politics and how he’s addressed allies of Israel. “Many of us believe, as I do, that if you’re a socialist, you’re not a Democrat.”

Gottheimer and others worry that Republicans will try to yoke their most vulnerable members to what they see as far-left ultra-progressives — and they worry that it will only highlight Democratic divisions in a must-win election year.

“If you ask me, it was not a good night for New York,” Rep. Greg Meeks, a powerful New York Democrat who is close with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, told CNN when asked about deleted posts from Darializa Avila Chevalier, who defeated Espaillat, expressing support for abolishing police, prisons and borders.

Asked about the fraught relationship between the Democratic Socialists of America and the Democratic Party, Meeks added: “Instead of us making sure we put all of our resources to fight Republicans and to fight Donald Trump, we’re using it to fight each other. It just doesn’t make common sense to me.”

One Democratic lawmaker sitting in a battleground district told CNN that they are so concerned about the rise of the Democratic Socialists of America that they have recently begun having serious conversations with donors about leaving the party altogether.

If Democrats do flip the House, the number of democratic socialists in their ranks is still likely to be a small minority of the caucus. And Democrats remain confident they can still win the House in November.

The House Democratic caucus gathered for a private briefing by their party arm on Wednesday morning, where party leaders presented internal polling showing Trump underwater in key battlegrounds, according to two people familiar with the briefing. No one brought up the Mamdani-backed candidate wins. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries talks with reporters in the Capitol Visitor Center on Wednesday.

The Mamdani-backed candidates who won on Tuesday ran on the same affordability message that the party has embraced nationally, but their victories highlight broader friction over Democrats’ status-quo tactics in Washington — as well as deep divides on Israel.

“Our party nationally will need to reckon with this fact given that what you witnessed yesterday was not an anti-affordability or anti-economic policy strategy that won; it was an anti-establishment strategy beyond messaging that trumped,” a senior House Democratic aide told CNN.

Speaking Wednesday morning in New York City, Mamdani made the opposite argument, though he also connected cost-of-living issues to his longstanding critiques of US military support for Israel, a key issue in all three primaries.

“What we saw last night was a hunger for leaders who will be there on the front lines looking to make it easier for working people to afford life in the greatest city in the world,” he said.

Jeffries on Wednesday downplayed fears within his party that the wins could reverberate in battleground districts this November.

“No, Donald Trump has a working relationship with the mayor of the city of New York, and he’s made that publicly and explicitly clear to America, not once but twice in the Oval Office,” Jeffries said.

Jeffries was asked by reporters if Mamdani had made enemies on Capitol Hill.

“Listen, the mayor and I agreed to strongly disagree about some of his endorsements, and he’s got work to do in terms of the conversations that he’s going to have with members of Congress moving forward,” Jeffries, who backed Espaillat and Goldman, told reporters.

Asked if Democratic voters want their members in Congress to be more progressive, Jeffries responded: “I think we’ve got to look at the totality of all 215 members of the House Democratic caucus, and that answer speaks for itself.”

The Brooklyn representative told reporters his relationship with Madmani[sic] is “a very good one” and that the pair speak regularly.

Jeffries, who famously took months to decide whether to endorse Mamdani in the mayoral primary in his home city, eventually did back the mayor. But not all of his Democratic members from New York did.

Rep. Tom Suozzi, a centrist from Long Island, has been vocal in his critiques of democratic socialists, including Mamdani.

After Tuesday night’s primaries, Suozzi said the victories by the far left have sent a message to mainstream Democrats that they need to do better. But he doesn’t think it calls for a push toward far-left policies.

“It’s a warning that people have got to do a better job. They’ve got to work harder” to prove to voters they have solutions to make life more affordable, Suozzi said. He compared the rise of democratic socialists to the MAGA surge in the GOP.

“I think the bottom line is that the DSA and the far left — as well as the MAGA movement and the far right — are organized, and they’re doing a good job organizing, and they’re tapping into people’s concerns about their economic insecurity. I think Trump did that in his campaigns. I think Mamdani did that in his campaign for mayor. They tapped into people’s real concerns about economic insecurity. I just happen to disagree with their solutions,” he said.

But Morris Katz, a campaign strategist who is a key Mamdani ally, argued that Democrats can have a “big-tent populist party” that focuses on affordability and “invests in domestic priorities, in schools and in hospitals rather than in wars abroad.”

“I think that we spend a lot more time talking about labels than the average swing voter thinks about that,” Katz told CNN’s Dana Bash. “You see people interact with policies, campaigns, and ideas not predicated on the label they’re applying to themselves, but how are they going to make their lives better?”

And on Capitol Hill, progressives like Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna celebrated Tuesday night’s results.

“It’s a big win for the progressive wing of the party. We are a new party that will call out the genocide, tax the billionaires, and stand up for single payer healthcare” Khanna told CNN. “Our party wants a new generation leaders willing to challenge the status quo and call out the establishment.”

But one longtime Democrat, Rep. Vicente Gonzalez of Texas, firmly disagrees that the results reflect the mood of the country.

Instead, he said it’s a small minority of Democrats who have run extremely effective campaigns.

“I think we have a lot of more organizing to do on the ground, especially in places like New York and California, places where DSA is is is being more influential, and we need to educate young people, we need to get more people, young people, involved on more moderate policies, just the way the other side has, and run strong campaigns,” Gonzalez said.

“I don’t think it should be a concern for people in South Texas, but I think nationally it’s a huge concern, and how they push the policies within the Democratic caucus that we’re going to have to defend,” Gonzalez added. “A lot of these policies that obviously I don’t agree with and would be very difficult for me to sell to people in South Texas, and I don’t intend to sell them, because I don’t believe in most of them myself.”

As for his own reelection, Gonzalez was confident he could still win despite any GOP attacks linking him to the DSA: “I’ve been around long enough that people don’t see me as a socialist. In fact, I get beat up by socialists.”

This story has been updated with additional details.

CNN’s Manu Raju and Alison Main contributed to this report.

You sure should.

Democrat Socialists should just form a new party on their own.

I think the younger folk taking over the democratic party is a good idea. We all turn more conservative when we get older (especially if we now have more "money" to protect) and the democratic party skews on "dotard". Just to be clear though, fuck trump.

Watch there be a record low voter turn out this year as moderates don't want to vote for communists and left-wings are upset because the progressive candidate in general isn't the exact flavor of manic socialist dream politician that they wanted.

I'll vote MAGA before I vote for this.