Democrats spent two presidential primaries working around the clock to stop Bernie Sanders from taking the nomination.
They stopped Bernie and told themselves the socialist threat was over.
The socialists did not need Bernie – and the Democrat establishment is only now figuring out what that means.
Zohran Mamdani Is Now the Democrat Party's Kingmaker
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani confirmed that he and Vice President Kamala Harris have been in contact for months.
"Yes. That is true," Mamdani said during an appearance on SiriusXM's The Clay Cane Show. "The vice president reached out to have a conversation, and we've had a brief conversation. We've been in touch over the last few months, and I really do appreciate her outreach."
The timing tells the story.
Harris reached out two days after Mamdani's endorsed slate of socialist candidates swept three New York congressional primaries, taking down two sitting members of Congress.
Darializa Avila Chevalier – a 32-year-old community organizer and Democrat Socialist who helped organize anti-Israel protests at Columbia University – defeated five-term incumbent Adriano Espaillat, chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.
Former city comptroller Brad Lander, another Mamdani-backed candidate, knocked out two-term incumbent Dan Goldman.
State Assembly Member Claire Valdez won the third race.
Three for three.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries campaigned personally against every one of them.
He lost all three.
Jeffries tried to minimize the damage. "A handful of primaries that go in one direction or the other, in a given state or two, aren't going to reshape who we are as House Democrats," he said.
That argument is getting harder to make.
Tuesday in Denver, a 29-year-old Democrat Socialist named Melat Kiros ended Rep. Diana DeGette's 30-year career in Congress – without any help from Mamdani.
This is not a New York story.
A socialist wave wave is sweeping over the Democrat Party across the country.
Kamala Harris Is Auditioning for the 2028 Socialist Primary
The Mamdani call is not the only signal Harris has sent in recent weeks.
Harris met privately with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on the sidelines of the Power Rising conference in Chicago, a gathering of black women political leaders.
Harris's team has been building back channels to anti-Israel activists who tried to tank her 2024 campaign.
That includes at least one organizer from the Uncommitted Movement – the group whose pressure helped cost her Michigan.
Among those meetings: Abbas Alawieh, a co-founder of the Uncommitted Movement now running for a Michigan state Senate seat, who told reporters Harris initiated the outreach herself after months of private contact.
In 2024, Harris ran an exhausting balancing act – keeping the hard left close enough to show up for her while staying far enough away to avoid scaring off suburban moderates.
That strategy collapsed in November.
In April, Harris told Rev. Al Sharpton she is considering another presidential run in 2028.
"I might. I am thinking about it," she told him.
Since that April admission, she has called New York's socialist mayor, met privately with AOC, and gone back to the anti-Israel networks that publicly humiliated her campaign at the Democrat National Convention.
The pattern is not subtle.
Harris is not chasing suburban moderates who walked last November – she is locking up the socialist primary vote before any other 2028 candidate figures out they should be doing the same thing.
Mamdani proved that vote is now more powerful than the establishment's.
Jeffries backed the losers. So did Pelosi and Schumer.
Harris noticed.
Every Democrat considering 2028 noticed.
The party's Left flank will demand its candidate in 2028. That was settled last Tuesday. The only remaining question is which contender earns that endorsement first – and Harris made her opening move two days after Mamdani proved his blessing is worth more than the entire Democrat establishment's combined.
Do not mistake what Harris is doing for desperation.
This is cold political calculation from someone who can read a scoreboard.
The energy in the Democrat Party does not belong to Hakeem Jeffries, Chuck Schumer, or any Democrat who built a career trying to hold back the socialist Left.
Mamdani's candidates beat all of them on the same night. Melat Kiros beat a 30-year incumbent in Denver the following week without Mamdani's help. The people who just proved they run this party are 29 and 34 years old, and they are socialists.
Harris is not being dragged toward the socialist Left – she is paddling toward it, early and deliberately, before the rest of the 2028 field understands who actually runs this primary.
Bernie Sanders spent a decade trying to build this movement and the establishment stopped him twice. Mamdani and Kiros did it in a single primary season. Harris tracked where the power was moving and got there first. The rest of Washington is still working out the math.
Sources:
- Barnini Chakraborty, "Mamdani confirms Harris has been 'in touch' as queries swirl over 2028 run," Washington Examiner, July 2, 2026.
- "Mamdani-backed socialist wins in New York expose growing rift between Democratic establishment, insurgent left," Fox News, June 25, 2026.
- Evan McMorris-Santoro, "Colorado's Diana DeGette Loses Primary to Democratic Socialist," NOTUS, July 1, 2026.