The Democratic Tea Party Is Here

On the Neon Liberalism podcast in March (available now wherever fine audio products are downloaded), declaring the rise of a “Democratic Tea Party” appeared far too premature. We didn’t have enough evidence, with so much being in flux, to expect a political movement comparable to the upheaval within the Republican Party during President Obama’s first term.

When asked about the matter, the appropriately cautious prediction was that Democratic incumbents would probably adjust to primary voters’ mood and stave off most challenges. Indeed, this has happened in a couple of cases, like Rep. Valerie Foushee’s nailbiter primary victory in North Carolina. And in Massachusetts’ Senate primary, it is probably going to happen again: Rep. Seth Moulton’s primary challenge to longtime Sen. Ed Markey is falling remarkably flat despite Markey’s now advanced age.

But Tuesday showed no hedging of bets was necessary. The Democratic Tea Party is here.

To a first approximation, the Democratic Tea Party just is DSA, the Democratic Socialists of America. In New York, freshly minted Democratic nominees for Congress Claire Valdez and Darializa Avila Chevalier are both NYC-DSA cadre.

On Tuesday, Valdez handily beat Brooklyn Borough President and Working Families Party favorite Antonio Reynoso. Avila Chevalier managed the even more impressive feat of ousting five-term incumbent Adriano Espaillat, albeit in a much closer race.

And while the new NY-10 nominee Brad Lander has distanced himself from DSA, he was a member for years and only became the obvious frontrunner in NY-10 after NYC-DSA candidate Alexa Avilés dropped out of the race. (Mayor Mamdani endorsed Lander very quickly, likely as repayment for Lander’s key support during the mayoral race).

Melat Kiros, a Congressional hopeful in Colorado outpolling an incumbent first elected alongside Bill Clinton, and Francesca Hong, the state representative leading most polls in Wisconsin’s Democratic gubernatorial primary, are both backed by their local DSA chapters. And Janeese Lewis George, who won the Democratic mayoral primary in D.C. by well over 15 points? You guessed it. Also a DSA candidate.

Tuesday’s results and polling across the country certainly show Democratic voters are A-OK with socialism. But so did Mamdani’s underdog victory last year, and Bernie Sanders’ two presidential campaigns. The more important thing to focus on now is that Democratic voters are transparently mad as hell at their party’s leadership and they’re not going to take it anymore.

The chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, a five-term incumbent, doesn’t get ousted if voters are fine with the status quo, especially not by a candidate like Avila Chevalier. A grad student activist before running for office, Avila Chevalier participated in and was arrested at the pro-Palestine encampments at Columbia University, a university whose district she will begin representing in Congress in January. On Tuesday, she swept the Columbia University area, beating Espaillat on the main campus precinct by nearly 54 points with over 76% of votes cast.

Avila Chevalier also participated in the highly controversial October 8th pro-Palestine rally back in 2023, and was spreading conspiracy theories about COVID-19 and blaming the U.S. for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on Twitter just a few years ago. Her comments attacking Joe Biden and other Democratic politicos—to wit, “Fuck Kamala Harris”—ended up on countless flyers and attack ads. Yet evidently all of that just isn’t disqualifying anymore, unless Espaillat’s cooptation of anti-Haitian sentiment understandably seemed even worse to NY-13 voters. 

But while DSA candidates have been the most successful at capitalizing on voters’ discontent, the rise of Democratic (capital-D) socialism only partially explains the coalition of the discontented now rapidly emerging. After all, while almost every national media operation is based in New York City, there are millions of angry Democratic voters who don’t happen to live in one of the five boroughs. And outsider candidates in Democratic primaries are polling very well with young voters and highly educated voters across the country.

Take MT-01, for example, where AOC-endorsed union firefighter Sam Forstag was able to use his base in progressive Missoula County, home to the University of Montana, to win nearly 47% of the vote in the county and beat out former gubernatorial nominee Ryan Busse and Indivisible-endorsed cattle rancher Russell Cleveland for the party’s nomination. Or even NY-06, where longshot former diplomat Chuck Park won diverse communities in Woodside, Elmhurst, and parts of Flushing (especially in the neighborhood’s more Korean areas) en route to an impressive near 43% showing against electorally proven moderate incumbent Grace Meng.

Abdul El-Sayed, the candidate surging recently in Michigan’s Senate primary, isn’t a DSA member or endorsed by any local chapters. He is backed by Sen. Bernie Sanders and campaigning on Medicare-for-All though. In Maine, the statewide DSA chapter decided against endorsing vaguely left-wing Senate candidate Graham Platner: their primary voting guide did suggest voting for him but also called write-in candidate Andrea LaFlamme “exceptional.” 

Platner offers an especially neat parallel to Avila Chevalier. Both outsiders plagued by old social media posts they sought to disavow, Platner and Avila Chevalier each wrested their party’s nomination away from established, ‘safe’ candidates through energetic campaigning and promising voters radical change. Platner’s troubling past, of course, extends beyond his regrettable Reddit comments.

Yet as documented here in March, Platner proved able to win more than 70 percent of the vote in Maine’s Democratic Senate primary because Mainers wanted a young candidate who would fight back against the Trump administration. His relative youth and rousing rhetoric convinced most Maine Democrats to look past the drumbeat of scandals that have followed the candidate since the early months of his campaign.

As another datapoint from Maine, the state’s second Congressional district has voted for Trump three times but has been represented by Democrat Jared Golden since 2019. Thanks to his conservative bent, Golden successfully held onto a red district for four terms by the skin of his teeth. And then late last year Golden dropped out of the race, barely a month after state auditor Matt Dunlap began primarying him over supporting a Republican spending package. On the same day Platner got the party’s nomination for Senate, Dunlap beat the DCCC’s preferred candidate, state senator Joe Baldacci, and secured the nomination in ME-02. 

Shortly after Tuesday’s elections, New York Attorney General Letitia James told CNN that some candidates Mamdani backed were “individuals who do not understand the politics of New York City, the cultural differences from district to district, who have not been part of the history and the struggle of some of these districts, and are relatively new to the body politic.” She added that “you don’t blow [the Democratic Party] up. That’s what MAGA has done.” 

Besides scapegoating immigrants in a city full of them, James is just plainly incorrect. Valdez, Lander, and Avila Chevalier all won because they understood the politics of New York City and because a lot of young, socialist cosmopolitans live in their respective districts now. Platner and Dunlap won because they understood the politics of Maine. And if El-Sayed, Kiros, and Hong win, it will be because they understand the politics of their respective states.

Assuming the current wave of anti-establishment politicians does blow the Democratic Party up, they will only succeed because the establishment they’re railing against is so sclerotic. Leaders like Ritchie Torres and Chuck Schumer, who refuse to endorse Democratic candidates like Mamdani in their own backyards and seem to lack the visceral hatred for the current administration most Democrats possess, have failed to meet the moment. Outsiders with minimal funding and a couple of endorsements but an army of energized volunteers can only win if the folks they’re running against have forgotten how to campaign.

The Democratic Party might very well be about to explode. Results in the upcoming Michigan and Colorado primaries will decide that. But explosive change isn’t always a bad thing.

Over a decade ago, the first Tea Party movement set the stage for first the collapse of traditional conservatism within the Republican Party and then the election of Donald Trump to the presidency. We will have to wait to see whether this new one augurs well or ill.

Featured image is Abdul El-Sayed meets voters at Michigan Technological University, by Conlan Houston