As House Democratic leaders prepare to take the reins of power in Congress, they are also poised to reckon with far-left rebels who could make their lives difficult over the next two years.
Democrats are projected to win back the House majority after Tuesday night’s midterm elections.
It comes after a far-left insurgency roiled Democrats’ primary elections, and some of those socialist candidates are now expected to be heading to Capitol Hill next year.
Darializa Avila Chevalier is projected to be the next House representative from New York’s 13th congressional district, which covers Upper Manhattan and parts of the Bronx.
Chevalier’s victory comes after she scored an upset victory over Congressional Hispanic Caucus Chairman Rep. Adriano Espaillat, D-N.Y., amid an anti-incumbent wave that swept Empire State elections.
Born in Florida to immigrant parents from the Dominican Republic, she moved to New York City to attend Columbia University for her undergraduate degree.
Chevalier has already earned criticism from her future Republican colleagues for past comments, including a now-deleted post on X, then Twitter, where she purportedly wrote, “I forgot to get napkins so I just wiped my hand on the American flag behind me.”
She’s notably withheld support from Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., to be the next speaker of the House, telling Vanity Fair she would need certain “commitments” on progressive issues like Medicare for All.
Claire Valdez is another member of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) who scored an upset victory during New York’s primaries, defeating a Democrat backed by retiring Rep. Nydia Velázquez, D-N.Y., for the party’s nomination.
Valdez is now projected to take over Velázquez’s seat in New York’s 7th congressional district, which includes parts of Brooklyn and Queens.
Valdez is currently a member of the New York State Assembly. On her campaign website, she touts herself as a “dual citizen of the Ysleta del Sur Pueblo Nation and the United States.”
She also has not confirmed whether she will support Jeffries for speaker, telling New York Magazine she would not “negotiate in public” but that she would “see how the midterms shake out.”
Donavan McKinney in Michigan’s 13th congressional district is another beneficiary of the anti-incumbency backlash during the 2026 election cycle. He’s now projected to come to Congress after earlier defeating Rep. Shri Thanedar, D-Mich., in the primaries.
McKinney is a DSA member and was backed by other prominent socialists like Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich.
The district he is poised to represent includes part of Detroit and its suburbs.
He recently told Jacobin Magazine that his biggest policy goals include Medicare for All, universal childcare and getting corporate money out of elections.
Also in the interview, he accused his primary opponent of having taken campaign cash from Immigration and Customs Enforcement contractors, the pro-Israel lobby and other corporate interests.
Israel had been the defining issue in his primary campaign. Thanedar was a former DSA member who left the organization over members’ celebrations of the Oct. 7 terror attack by Hamas.
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Melat Kiros is a DSA member and former attorney whose upset victory in Colorado’s 1st congressional district is forcing an end to longtime Rep. Diana DeGette’s political career.
DeGette, D-Colo., a progressive who has been in Congress since 1997, lost her Denver-area seat in a shocking primary loss to Kiros, a 29-year-old political newcomer.
Kiros was born in Ethiopia “just weeks before her father was selected by the United States’ Diversity Visa Lottery,” according to her campaign website.
She’s drawn controversy for her fierce anti-Israel stance, which includes calling the Oct. 7 terror attack by Hamas an “inevitable” result of the Jewish country’s own actions, according to multiple reports. She has also opposed its existence as a Jewish state.
Kiros is also among those who will not commit to supporting Jeffries for speaker.
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Pennsylvania state lawmaker Chris Rabb is poised to enter the House of Representatives to represent the state’s 3rd congressional district next year.
The Democratic socialist has called for the U.S. to “immediately dismantle the military industrial complex, cease all imperialist foreign policy, and end all U.S.-led efforts for regime-change,” according to his campaign website.
Rabb has also called for a universal basic income for Americans as well as guaranteed housing, high-speed internet, free transit and “national grocery stores.”
He previously took aim at establishment Democrats in an interview with CBS’ “Face the Nation” in August, saying, “I think listening to folks who have been institutionalists and corporate Dems is probably the wrong thing to do when what your own poll shows is that there is an exhaustion.”
Former New York City comptroller Brad Lander is no longer a DSA member, having left the organization over its response to the Oct. 7 attack on Israel by Hamas.
But his campaign was backed by some of the DSA’s biggest stars, including New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani.
Lander’s campaign for New York’s 10th congressional district, which includes downtown Manhattan and parts of Brooklyn, served as a proxy battle between the Empire State’s establishment left and socialist factions.
While Lander was backed by Mamdani, his primary opponent, Rep. Dan Goldman, D-N.Y., was backed by Jeffries. Lander also campaigned alongside Chevalier and Valdez.
While he left the DSA over Israel, Lander has still been a fierce critic of the Jewish state. He was recently detained by Israeli law enforcement during a trip to the occupied West Bank to join Palestinian olive farmers harvesting their crop. Israeli authorities released him upon learning his identity.
Unlike his far-left New York cohorts, however, Lander has said he is inclined to support Jeffries for speaker.
