Three congressional seats flipped to democratic socialists in New York City five days ago. By Thursday morning, Colorado’s own socialist candidates were pointing to the results as proof their moment had arrived. They have two days to find out if they are right.
The New York sweep was not subtle. Brad Lander defeated incumbent Rep. Dan Goldman in the 10th District. Darializa Avila Chevalier beat five-term Rep. Adriano Espaillat — chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus — in the 13th District. Claire Valdez won the open 7th District seat. All three carried endorsements from New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, himself a democratic socialist elected last year. The Democratic Socialists of America backed Chevalier and Valdez directly.
The machine behind those wins is the same machine operating in Colorado right now.
In Colorado’s U.S. Senate primary, Julie Gonzales ran as a DSA member until 2024 and carries the same platform — abolish ICE, eliminate private health insurance, remove Senate Democratic leadership. In the governor’s race, Phil Weiser is the progressive machine’s chosen candidate, running on TABOR overhaul and a progressive income tax. At the state legislative level, the Denver DSA has published endorsements in contested primaries across House and Senate districts, targeting Opportunity Caucus moderates with candidates running on single-payer healthcare, Green New Deal policy, and ICE abolition.
What New York demonstrated last Tuesday is what happens when that machine runs unopposed inside a Democratic primary. Mamdani’s three endorsed candidates crossed high-powered Democrats including Gov. Kathy Hochul, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, and retiring Rep. Nydia Velázquez. Endorsements from the party’s most powerful figures did not save Goldman or Espaillat. Organization, money, and an activated base did the work.
Colorado is not New York. The state has 1.4 million unaffiliated voters who can pull either party’s primary ballot. New York does not have that valve. An unaffiliated electorate voting the Democratic primary on June 30 dilutes the DSA’s activated base in ways the New York results did not have to contend with.
The Gonzales campaign carries the same funding infrastructure that powered the New York sweep — out-of-state ActBlue money, Indivisible, Working Families Party, and Sanders’ national operation. HCA’s own campaign finance reporting documented that Colorado Democrats outraised Republicans 12-to-1 this cycle and spent nearly $10 million of it fighting each other in primaries.
What a Gonzales Senate win means for Colorado is not abstract. In New York, the victories will bring three new allies at the federal level for Mamdani — a democratic socialist mayor now operating with a congressional delegation aligned to his agenda. A Gonzales win produces the same dynamic in Colorado’s Senate seat: a vote in Washington aligned not with Colorado’s moderate electorate but with the DSA’s national platform. Medicare for All. Abolish ICE. End private health insurance. Remove Schumer.
At the state level the stakes are more immediate. Democrats currently hold a 43-22 majority in the Colorado House and a 23-12 advantage in the Senate. One more vote in each chamber produces a two-thirds supermajority in both houses. DSA legislative wins in HD-6, HD-9, SD-21, and SD-34 do not just change those seats — they potentially hand the socialist wing of the Democratic Party the margin it needs to refer constitutional amendments to voters, overhaul TABOR without Republican input, and pass legislation with no check from the minority.
In New York, progressive candidates performed well in safe seats but struggled to gain traction in statewide contests. That pattern is the one variable working against the Colorado DSA operation on June 30. Colorado is a statewide contest in ways New York’s congressional primaries were not.
Colorado’s primary is Tuesday. For one perspective on how to vote, the Old Man has published a voter guide at highcountryadvocate.org/?p=14176 — the views expressed there are his own and do not represent an HCA endorsement.
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