'New day in the Dem party' as progressive sweep stuns: 'The Democratic Tea Party is here'

Analysts were left stunned Wednesday morning after a trio of progressive congressional candidates backed by New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani swept Tuesday’s Democratic primary elections in New York, many of whom drew comparisons to the late 2000s Tea Party movement that reshaped the Republican Party.

“CLEAN SWEEP FOR ZOHRAN!!!” wrote progressive political commentator and former congressional candidate Krystal Ball in a social media post on X to her more than 625,000 followers. “It's a new day in the Dem party.”

Democratic congressional candidates Claire Valdez, Brad Lander and Darializa Avila Chevalier all won their respective primary elections Tuesday, with two of them ousting their establishment Democratic opponents, and by significant margins. Their victory comes in spite of House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) having “campaigned aggressively against Mamdani’s candidates.”

“The Democratic Tea Party is here,” wrote Zachary Donnini, the head of data science at the news outlet VoteHub. “Tonight is shaping up to be one of the more consequential nights in recent Democratic politics, with Mamdani- and DSA-endorsed candidates reforming the party.”

The Tea Party movement began in the late 2000s but fundamentally transformed the Republican Party during the 2010 midterms when a wave of far-right fiscal conservatives transformed the party and ousted multiple incumbents. Progressive Democrats have long hoped for their own party to undergo a similar transformation, and according to several journalists, that moment may have arrived on Tuesday.

“The primary season is not over yet. And already, the number of Democratic socialists in Congress is set to double,” wrote Prem Thakker, a journalist with Zeteo. “Claire Valdez, Darializa Avila Chevalier, and Chris Rabb will join Bernie Sanders, Rashida Tlaib, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. And there may yet be more to come.”

And MS NOW columnist Eric Michael Garcia, using a tongue-in-cheek reference to the “Star Wars” character “Yoda,” made the following quip: “Begun the Democratic Tea Party has.”