By Nayaba Arinde
Editor at Large
“If we just come out to vote, like we come out to party, we could never lose,” community activist, Daniel Goodine, told Our Time Press, days after digesting the June 23rd primary results, a low voter turnout, which saw Central Brooklyn losing one incumbent, keeping one, and gaining a new Democratic Socialist Candidate.

Saying that they are “capitalists, not socialists,” some Democrats are responding to Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s new perceived kingmaker status, as three of his anti-ICE, ‘tax the rich’ picks for Congress won their primaries.
Mamdani asked Queens DSA Assemblywoman Claire Valdez to challenge Rep. Nydia Velazquez-endorsed Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso in his run for Congress; she did and won by 20 percentage points.

Progressive activist Darializa Avia Cheveliar is set to oust Harlem’s Congressman Adriano Espaillat come November. His other pick for Congress, former City Comptroller Brad Lander beat incumbent Dan Goldman.
On primary election day Mamdani said, “It’s not just a question of electing more Democrats. It’s a question of electing better Democrats.
“When I look at these candidacies, I see in them a willingness to also put working people back at the heart of our politics.”

A week after the primary elections, as Mamdani and the City Council shook hands on the $125 billion budget, navigating the new post-primary political landscape is also on the agenda. Central Brooklyn got a wakeup call, now the analysis begins.

State Senator Jabari Brisport took almost 79% of the vote, against Marlon Rice in the Bed-Stuy/Fort Greene 25th District. Eon Huntley garnered 58% of the vote, against incumbent Assemblywoman Stefani Zinerman in the Bed-Stuy/Crown Heights 56th District.

Activist Goodine, the co-founder of Brownsville’s Men Elevating Leadership continued, “We don’t know what we are about to experience with this new shift with the DSA, but we know that whatever is happening, we have to protect all the advancements and resources that established residents have worked for decades to attain in communities like Bed Stuy.”

Goodine noted, “Some people got up at 2 in the morning just to have a front row to see the Knicks parade. They could have woken up and done the same for those elected officials they wanted. We don’t have 53 years to get this right.”

Cautioning the Tuesday primary election results as “the political seismic shockwaves that went across New York City and New York State, and across the nation because of the victory of the Democratic Socialists of America – DSA, and Mayor Zohran Mamadani,” former Assemblyman and City Councilmember Charles Barron told Our Time Press that DSA “politics are rooted in rugged individualism, and not in the liberation of the people.

They are controlled by developers and Wall Street. The Democrats and DSA complained about gentrification, but they are responsible for gentrification coming to their neighborhood. So, we’re stuck between a rock and a hard place.”

These wins in November will have DSA with four out of the 63 state Senate seats, and 10 of the 150 Assembly seats. Already catapulted to the national watercooler conversations after President Donald Trump’s variety of comments over the last few months, last week’s wins certainly has the Democratic Party paying attention.

With the progressive candidates poised for some Democratic seats, the result is seen as worrisome for House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, who is reported to be poised to become the speaker should his fellow Democrats take over the chamber in November.

Through his Operation P.O.W.E.R., Barron said, “The DSA victories do not mean victories for the nearly 2 million Black people in New York City. We do not want to change political plantation masters from the Democratic Party to the Democratic Socialists of America.”

He slammed Mamdani’s city budget and current policies as “not socialist, but are similar to the capitalist Democratic Party’s bad budget and policies. Just as the Franklin Delano Roosevelt New Deal was no real deal for Black people in the 1930s, neither are DSA victories real victories for Black people here in New York in the 21st century.”

Political strategist Jeff Leb told NY Focus that “Zohran is the catalyst…His win woke people up.”
Speaking on ABC ‘This Week,’ on Sunday, Mamdani declared, “I think democratic socialism at the heart is pragmatic, because if we cannot deliver for working people, then what is this for?”
Self-titled “Democratic socialist retail worker and three-term PTA president,”
Eon Huntley said, “We’ve been told socialists don’t represent the Black community, that socialism couldn’t win here, and what we’ve proven instead is that the Black socialists are the future. Democratic socialism is about the Good Life for all, and that is what has won tonight, and that is what is going to win in November, in 2028 and on.”

Huntley’s running mate, Senator Brisport, said, “We did this for Bed-Stuy and each other. “We assembled an unprecedented working-class coalition to fight against the over half a million dollars in billionaire spending that poured into Bed-Stuy. This is just the beginning of a Democratic Socialist
political revolution sweeping not just Brooklyn, but the nation.”

As she “congratulated all of the winners,” Attorney General Tish James told Our Time Press that “Creative tension… is a catalyst for a movement. A movement focusing on affordability, a movement focusing on 2028, focusing on November, a movement which recognizes that we should not have masked agents running around in New York state, a movement which focuses on the need to address poverty, to address income disparity, to focus on the cost of housing in the state of New York.

All throughout the history of the Democratic Party, there has been tension. But it resulted in a table that includes women, people of color, immigrants, and others who, unfortunately, feel that their lives are not being addressed. And so, as we continue to sit down and talk with those who won, it’s going to do nothing but broaden our tent. And it will do nothing but result in a victory in 2028 and in November.”

Meanwhile, Assemblywoman Stefani L. Zinerman-Tokponwe was reflective as the count came in, “My heart is full…I am a daughter of Bedford-Stuyvesant…Serving as your Assemblymember—together, we secured millions of dollars in investments for our community, protected homeowners from deed theft, supported small businesses, expanded opportunities for young people, advanced healthcare initiatives, strengthened nonprofit organizations, and helped ensure that Bedford-Stuyvesant and Crown Heights continued to have a strong voice in Albany…

To the next generation of leaders—especially the young Black women watching and men—know that your voice matters, your service matters, and your leadership is needed. Never allow anyone else to define your worth or limit your vision for what is possible.”