AMY GOODMAN: We turn now to John Tarleton, editor-in-chief of The Indypendent. The new issue of The Indypendent featured Claire Valdez, Darializa Avila Chevalier on the cover with the headline “Look Who’s Next.” And you didn’t do that this morning.

JOHN TARLETON: No, this was weeks ago.

AMY GOODMAN: John, we were together one year ago — 

JOHN TARLETON: Yes.

AMY GOODMAN: — with the primary election of Mayor Zohran Mamdani, but he wasn’t mayor yet. Talk about what this means, as he said, no, that wasn’t the end, this is clearly just the beginning. All his candidates won.

JOHN TARLETON: Yes, this definitely shows that Zohran Mamdani’s victory last year was not a fluke or a one-hit wonder. There is deep support across much of New York City for what he’s doing. He’s become, I think, a more popular mayor as he’s went along. His goal to really show that government can serve the people and be an active force for good in the lives of people is succeeding. His endorsements were very powerful, and also the endorsements and the incredible energy that DSA gave this slate of candidates. Zohran endorsed most of the DSA slate, but not all, and there were four Assembly races where he didn’t endorse, and DSA won three of those four races, as well. So, really, Zohran Mamdani and New York City DSA are now huge powerhouses in New York politics.

And it’s going to have big national ramifications, when we see a Democratic Socialist, Nithya Raman, in a runoff in Los Angeles with Karen Bass. She finished a close second behind Bass, but you got to really feel the wind is at her sails, kind of another case of a much older politician who’s maybe lost support in Los Angeles, and Raman, you know, offering something fresh and new. And there’s more primaries to come across the country.

AMY GOODMAN: I want to turn — I want to turn to a clip of former New York City Comptroller Brad Lander, who beat Congressmember Dan Goldman in New York’s 10th Congressional District, representing neighborhoods in Manhattan and Brooklyn.

BRAD LANDER: What a glorious time to be a New Yorker. These past few weeks, there has been a powerful energy moving through our city, a generosity of spirit, a refusal to give up even against very long odds, and a feeling of joy out in the streets, shared by every kind of New Yorker there is. Give it up for the New York Knicks, all right, and for the mayor who brought the first championship to New York City in 53 years. Our win tonight, it belongs to those streets, as well, to the people who organize there, to the people who never give up on their neighbors. It was my name on the ballot today, but tonight’s victory belongs to all of you. …

I will be one of the Jewish members of Congress most willing to stand up loud for Palestinian human rights, freedom and dignity. I will stand firmly against bigotry aimed at Jews, as well. That’s not two different jobs. That’s the same job.

AMY GOODMAN: That’s now the victorious congressional candidate, Brad Lander. John Tarleton, your final comments?

JOHN TARLETON: I covered protests a couple years ago outside of Dan Goldman’s office, the incumbent congressman, where Palestine activists were protesting. He did not meet with them once. He gave them — just like happened with Espaillat and Mahmoud Khalil, Dan Goldman was completely supportive of the war and the genocide in Gaza. He would not meet with his constituents, would not hear them. Well, his constituents had the final word last night, a 32-point defeat for an incumbent congressman with —

AMY GOODMAN: Brad Lander almost got double the amount of votes as Goldman.

JOHN TARLETON: Yeah, Lander is a longtime elected out in Brooklyn, very popular in the Brooklyn part of that district. So, a great night for Brad Lander, but also just showing the Democratic Party, if you ignore the cause of Palestinian liberation, you do so at your own peril.

And that’s going to have big ramifications for 2028. And this, I think, is going to put more wind at the sails of a potential Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez presidential campaign. You can only imagine if she hits the campaign trail, and Zohran Mamdani, you know, is one of her leading supporters — they both come from DSA — you know, it just makes her candidacy look more promising, after what happened last night.

AMY GOODMAN: John Tarleton, thanks so much for being with us, editor-in-chief of The Indypendent.

This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org. Coming up, we’ll be joined by the actor and author Elliot Page about the new film Second Nature: Gender and Sexuality in the Animal World. Stay with us.

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AMY GOODMAN: “Natural Phenomenon” by Roberto Vallicelli.