Dem Disorder: DNC squabbles play out in NYC mayoral race for all to see

Democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani's stunning Democratic Party primary victory in the nation's most populous city appears to be the gift that keeps on giving for Republicans aiming to paint Democrats as extreme radicals.

Republican National Committee chair Michael Whatley told Fox News Digital this week that Mamdani "is the face of the new Democratic Party" and argued that "everybody who wants to lead that party wants to lead it to the left."

But for Democrats, the capturing of the party's nomination by the 33-year-old Ugandan-born state assemblyman from Queens is more complicated.

The victory by Mamdani, who convincingly topped former Gov. Andrew Cuomo and nine other candidates last month to take a big step toward becoming the city's first Muslim and first millennial mayor, has put long-standing divisions within the Democratic Party back in the national spotlight.

TOP REPUBLICAN CLAIMS MAMDANI ‘FACE OF THE NEW DEMOCRATIC PARTY’

New York City Democrat mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani, a 33-year-old democratic socialist, speaks at a campaign event in New York, on Wednesday, July 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Richard Drew) (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

It's reignited ongoing debates within the party between its more moderate and progressive wings, and between outsiders and the establishment, and highlighted the Democrats' generational divide.

And it's inflamed the debate over whether the party's policy or messaging was to blame for last November's election setbacks, when Democrats lost control of the White House and Senate and failed to win back the House majority, and whether the party needs to veer to the left or the center to escape the political wilderness.

POTUS PUNDITRY: TRUMP WEIGHS IN ON MAMDANI-CUOMO NYC MAYORAL FACEOFF 

Many of those fault lines were rocked earlier this year, as then-Democratic National Committee (DNC) vice chair David Hogg sparked a firestorm within over his efforts to back primary challenges against what he called "asleep at the wheel" older, longtime incumbents in safe, blue House districts.

The 25-year-old Hogg, the gun-control crusader who, as a teenager, survived a horrific school shooting in Florida, later stepped down from his vice chair position and left the DNC due to the controversy.

David Hogg, gun control advocate and survivor of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School tragedy, is seen at the 2024 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Illinois. Hogg was elected a Democratic National Committee vice chair in February, but stepped down from the DNC in June amid controversy. (Photo by DOMINIC GWINN/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images) (hoto by DOMINIC GWINN/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images)

"Democrats continue to have a fissure in their own party, which has been made worse by Mamdani's candidacy," Wayne Lesperance, a veteran political scientist and the president of New England College, told Fox News Digital.

Democratic strategist Lauren Hitt, who worked for Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, served on the Biden-Harris 2024 presidential campaign, and this year helped a super PAC boost Mamdani, told Fox News that his primary victory was a "clear rejection of the old guard."

It's a similar take from Stephanie Taylor, co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee.

"Zohran Mamdani's likely victory shows that a new direction for the Democratic Party is possible – a future of dynamic candidates who appeal to young voters and working-class voters with a platform that fights for people, not corporations," Taylor highlighted.

REPUBLICANS RELENTLESSLY USE MAMDANI AS ‘SOCIALIST’ CUDGEL TO BASH VULNERABLE DEMOCRATS

Even Matt Bennett, executive vice president for the moderate Democratic-aligned group the Third Way, acknowledged that Mamdani "focused on affordability," which he said is "great."

Bennett added that Mamdani is "young, charismatic, a great communicator. All that is great. We want to see that."

But Bennett told Fox News "the problem is he has the wrong prescription."

Mamdani's victory over the 67-year-old Cuomo was also a victory for millennial Democrats against the old guard.

Former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, in a speech to supporters, acknowledges that rival Zohran Mamdani 'won' the New York City Democratic Party mayoral primary on June 24, 2025 in New York, N.Y. (Paul Steinhauser - Fox News)

"I think there is a definite transition happening in the Democratic Party, perhaps not as quickly as folks would like see, between the next generation of leaders stepping up," Democratic strategist Lucas Meyer told Fox News.

Meyer, the former longtime president of the New Hampshire Young Democrats, and founder of the advocacy group 603 Forward, spotlighted that "people are looking for that next generation and I think that’s where the energy resides in the party."

And pointing to the next White House race, where the very early moves are underway, he added: "I hope this definitely motivates younger candidates to start looking at the presidential race."

But Mamdani's victory was not repeated in Tuesday's Democratic primary in a special congressional election in Arizona, where the 54-year-old daughter of late Democratic Rep. Raul Grijalva took a big step toward succeeding her father in Congress.

Former Pima County Supervisor Adelita Grijalva convincingly topped four other candidates in the heavily blue district.

Deja Foxx, a 25-year-old social media influencer and progressive activist who was hoping to follow in Mamdani's footsteps by pulling off a stunning, come-from-behind victory, surged in the final weeks of the campaign but came up short. She finished second, ahead of a well-known local lawmaker and two other candidates.

Foxx, who grabbed national attention in part for her social media posts, was backed by Hogg, who campaigned with the candidate this past weekend in southern Arizona.

Former DNC vice chair David Hogg campaigns with Democratic congressional candidate Deja Foxx in Arizona, on July 12, 2025 (David Hogg)

Michael Ceraso, a longtime Democratic strategist and veteran of statewide and presidential campaigns, said Mamdani and Foxx are "two very clear examples of the party moving in a direction that the establishment may feel uncomfortable with because they don’t necessarily know how to navigate that."

And he argued that "the electorate is moving in a very particular direction."

Mamdani, meanwhile, is giving Republicans plenty of fodder.

He's proposed eliminating fares to ride New York City's vast bus system, making CUNY (City University of New York) "tuition-free," freezing rents on municipal housing, offering "free childcare" for children up to age 5 and setting up government-run grocery stores.

Also fueling the Republican attacks are recent news items that have gone viral. They include a 2020 photo Mamdani posted online that shows him flipping off a statue of Christopher Columbus, stories about comments Mamdani made last December when he said as mayor he would arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his recent comments in a cable news interview that "I have many critiques of capitalism."

Republicans have been relentless in trying to anchor Mamdani to Democrats across the country who are running in competitive races in elections this year and in next year's midterms.

"He certainly is going to fit right into that upper echelon of Democrats who are vying for a lead in that party," Whatley said of Mamdani. He claimed that "they’re just unabashedly in that radical woke part of the party."

Pointing to last year's elections, when the Republicans won back the White House and Senate and held onto their razor-thin House majority, Whatley argued that "every single candidate right now on the Democratic side of the aisle is buying into the same failed agenda that they lost with in 2024."

Democrats question the effectiveness of the GOP push.

They argue that there's a world of difference between heavily blue New York City, where Democrats outnumber Republicans by a roughly six-to-one margin, and some key battleground states and swing districts across the country.

Rep. Steve Cohen of Tennessee, a Democrat, told reporters the day after Mamdani's victory that "I love New York, but it's a very liberal place, and I don't know that you can necessarily apply that to the rest of the country."

In the high-profile 2026 race to succeed retiring Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, Republican candidate and former Sen. Scott Brown went up last week with a digital ad that edits a picture of Rep. Chris Pappas, the Democratic candidate in the race, alongside photos of Mamdani and Ocasio-Cortez, the progressive rock star who backed Mamdani.

Pappas, speaking with Fox News Digital last week, said, "Republicans have spent tens of millions of dollars running attack ads against me through the years, trying to paint me as someone that I’m not."

"People know me. They know the work that I’ve been doing. They know that I’m one of the most bipartisan members of the House of Representatives because I believe in solving problems and getting things done," Pappas said. "I’m a New Hampshire Democrat. I’m proud of my track record in Congress."

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Pappas was joined on the campaign trail by longtime Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, who spent plenty of time in New Hampshire ahead of her third-place finish in the state's 2020 Democratic presidential primary.

"It’s about New Hampshire. They’re going to do this in all these races across the country. They try to attach people. People have never even met some of these people. And they keep doing it," Klobuchar told Fox News when asked about the Republican ad anchoring Mamdani to Pappas. "To me this is about what’s going on for the people of this state."