Gaza emerges as a defining issue for Gen Z voters in New York Democratic primaries
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MEE correspondent
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Tue, 06/30/2026 - 15:30
Progressive victories across New York suggest opposition to Israel has become a powerful electoral issue for a new generation of Democratic voters
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Congressional candidate Claire Valdez embrace during a primary-night watch party on 23 June 2026 in Brooklyn, New York City (Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images via AFP)
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For many young New Yorkers, the Democratic primaries were about far more than housing, affordability or public safety.
Across the city, Gen Z voters rallied behind candidates who condemned Israel's genocidal war on Gaza, helping propel three progressive Democrats endorsed by Mayor Zohran Mamdani to primary victories.
New York City Comptroller Brad Lander and community activist Darializa Avila Chevalier respectively unseated Dan Goldman, and five-term incumbent Adriano Espaillat, while state assemblywoman Claire Valdez beat an opponent who had the backing of much of New York City's Democratic establishment.
All three belong to the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) and campaigned on platforms that would have been considered well outside the Democratic Party's mainstream only a decade ago.
Several young Democratic voters told Middle East Eye that the horrors Israel continues to unleash in Gaza meant New Yorkers couldn't back candidates who took a soft position on Israel.
They primarily singled out candidates who failed to describe Israel's actions in Gaza as a genocide, backed US funding for Israel and its military, or embraced the more cautious language that has largely defined the Democratic Party's response.
"The genocide in Gaza is the biggest moral issue of my lifetime," Eleanor Babaev, a 28-year-old event planner from Sunnyside, Queens, told MEE.
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"I have been to protests against the genocide in Gaza with her [Claire Valdez], so I really knew I could trust her. That was the central reason for my vote to her," added Babaev, whose mother is an Ashkenazi Jew from the former Soviet Union.
Adnan Bukhari, a political organiser and DSA member, told MEE that what united the campaigns was not simply a progressive agenda but a willingness to speak out openly against Israel.
"If the campaign is dissected throughout, from day one, all these candidates stood fast and called it a 'genocide'," Bukhari said.
"They did not change their statement about what is happening there and, throughout the campaign, in the rallies, phone banking, they called it a genocide. I would say Gaza was 100 percent the main factor."
Bukhari, who has spent more than a decade organising for Democratic candidates and campaigned for both Chevalier (known as DAC) and Valdez, said the conclusion came directly from conversations with voters.
"If we had made 10,000 calls, in 7,000 calls this was the main discussion point," he said.
'Socialism is not a dirty word'
Progressive organisers argued Gaza became a political tipping point for younger Democrats by linking opposition to US military intervention abroad with concerns over inequality and public spending at home.
"I think the left has done a very good job of connecting issues between what's happening in their neighbourhoods to foreign policy," Bilal Tahir, the field director of DAC's campaign and a senior Democratic Party organiser, told MEE.
"If we are attacking Iran at the behest of Israel, that is connected to Gaza too, because we are giving these people weapons, money and resources, and they are destroying societies, while we don't have healthcare, education, or housing."
Tahir said many younger voters increasingly viewed Gaza through the wider legacy of the US-led wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
"It's an anti-war movement and it's across the board and that's how the left has positioned itself."
The themes that defined the congressional races were also central to Mamdani's own mayoral campaign, where opposition to Israel's war on Gaza was woven into a broader critique of corporate power, inequality and the Democratic establishment.
"What is most remarkable is that even midway through his first year in office, Mamdani retains an enormous amount of political capital and is still experiencing a honeymoon with his supporters," Gabriel Tennen, an assistant professor of history at Baruch College, told MEE.
"This also reveals that 'socialism' isn't as much of a dirty word in American politics, particularly among younger Democratic voters, and that former Speaker Tip O'Neil's old adage - 'all politics is local' - is no longer entirely true."
Tennen argued that the results reflected a generational political realignment rather than one rooted in ethnicity or religion, noting that Lander won in one of New York's largest Jewish districts despite his outspoken criticism of Israel's actions in Gaza.
Changing political landscape
Tuesday's results underscored shifting attitudes among some of New York's Jewish voters, long regarded as a key constituency in one of the US' most influential pro-Israel political centres.
New York is home to an estimated 1.3 million Jews, the largest Jewish population outside Israel. Yet both Valdez and Lander prevailed in districts with large Jewish electorates despite their outspoken criticism of Israel's war in Gaza.
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"The genocide is the most important issue of our time," said Sam Leviton, a 23-year-old Harlem resident and recent Columbia University public health graduate who voted for DAC.
"I have been a Jewish New Yorker my entire life, and the lessons I have learned as a Jewish New Yorker is that everybody, no matter their race, religion, creed, colour, deserves a life of dignity," he said.
"The notion that my tax dollars are going to destroy homes and lives overseas is absolutely contrary to everything that I have taught and been brought up by," he added.
Recent polling points to broader shifts.
A March 2026 survey by The Mellman Group found that while most Jewish voters continue to identify as Democrats, a majority opposed recent US strikes on Iran and said the president should have sought congressional approval before authorising military action.
The poll also found that only 39 percent of respondents viewed Aipac favourably, suggesting the influential pro-Israel lobbying group no longer commands overwhelming support among Jewish voters.
Aipac becomes a flashpoint
Aipac became a flashpoint throughout the campaigns with Mamdani repeatedly accusing the organisation of spending "millions in dark money" to protect establishment Democrats.
The issue resonated with supporters on election night as supporters at Valdez's watch party chanted against Aipac as Goldman's concession speech played on television screens.
Goldman later acknowledged that the war on Gaza had played an "outsized role" in his defeat.
"Aipac is clearly on the side of whoever holds power, and it uses money and front groups to shape elections that doesn't give the people a fair shot at electing true representation," Michael Kranz, an Ashkenazi Jew and software engineer from Park Slope, told MEE.
He pointed to Goldman's vote with "far-right Republicans to censure the International Criminal Court as an example" of that influence.
"An interest group acting in the interests of a foreign government has no place shaping the politics of New York's 10th Congressional District," he added.
For many younger progressives, the primaries represented more than a series of local victories. They offered evidence that the anti-war movement, which mobilised hundreds of thousands of people over Gaza, is beginning to find lasting political expression through elections.
"America needed an anti-war movement the entire time I have been alive," said Joe Whitcomb, a 24-year-old law student who voted for Valdez, referring to the US-led war on terror.
"You can get millions in the streets, and it doesn't change anything, so we have started to look for ways to make political interventions that produce results."
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For Gen Z voters, Gaza was a defining issue in the New York Democratic primaries
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