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Zohran Mamdani declares a “woke” civil war?

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“On the Holmes Front” with Frank Holmes

Sometimes the most important moment in politics isn’t the keynote speech or the carefully edited soundbite. It’s the stray moment that most people overlook.

American politics had a seismic event this week, which most of the nation missed—but not The Horn.

Just a short, momentary outburst defined the political landscape and sent shivers down the spine of every elected Democratic leader in America, as a radical leftist group plans to take over the Democratic Party, then the United States.

It’s a “woke” civil war, and the fight is on to be the loudest, most politically correct, blue-haired libreal possible.

The five-second-long event signaled the beginning of a protracted civil war inside the Democratic Party between its current leadership and the radical left-wing insurgents they call the “dirtbag Left,” whose “commie” ideas make them “unfit for office.”

It all happened Tuesday night at a victory party for New York Democrat Claire Valdez, who won her party’s nomination and is all-but-certain to succeed the retiring Nydia Velazquez in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Valdez is a member of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) and endorsed by New York City’s radical mayor, Zohran Mamdani. Her opponent, Antonio Reynoso, was endorsed by the DNC establishment.

Her supporters got rowdier throughout the evening as it became obvious she would win. Then it happened: A TV screen at Valdez’s victory party showed House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries for a flash second.

Suddenly, the crowd hissed out a hateful two-word chant that will haunt the entire Democratic Party for the next several elections.

“You’re next! You’re next!” they chanted over and over.

Valdez isn’t the first to declare her intention to take over the Democratic Party, and she isn’t fighting alone.

Three Democratic socialists endorsed by Mamdani won their primaries in New York City against DNC Democrats on Tuesday. There’s also Darializa Avila Chevalier, a 32-year-old college student and convert to Islam who has called Joe Biden a “rapist” and a “war criminal,” called for open borders, and joked about wiping her dirty hands on the American flag.

Chevalier, a DSA member, defeated Rep. Adriano Espaillat, a 10-year incumbent who led the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. Espaillat called Chevalier “unfit for office.”

Then there’s Brad Lander, who trounced incumbent congressman and Trump impeachment leader Rep. Dan Goldman. He has said the America way is nothing more than “the system of white supremacy and systemic racism.”

Mamdani also endorsed five winning candidates for New York state legislature. It was a clean sweep for the DSA in NYC—and the socialists aren’t just making a big splash in the Big Apple.

Although she won fewer headlines, Democratic socialist Katie Wilson became mayor of Seattle shortly after Mamdani’s victory. Wilson admitted, “I’m a socialist…I would even say that I’m a Marxist.” In Wilson’s view, the United States is so evil that every single American “requires a really fundamental restructuring of life.”

Another DSA-endorsed candidate, Janeese Lewis George, won the Democratic primary to become mayor of Washington, D.C., and the Democratic candidate is a shoo-in to win in November.

In Los Angeles, DSA member Nithya Raman advanced to the general election against Mayor Karen Bass after a controversial surge of ballots knocked Republican Spencer Pratt out of the race.

Experts say they’re following a pattern laid down by socialist billionaire George Soros. “The increasingly radical Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) has adopted the Soros strategy. Rather than supporting candidates at the national level, the organization increasingly focuses on small, local elections,” wrote Josh Appel at City Journal.

It’s working—and Mamdani’s fellow Marxists say it’s just the beginning.

Socialists like Mamdani are just “seeing that opportunity – that we can radically change the Democratic Party,” said Faiz Shakir, an advisor to Senator Bernie Sanders.

Their next targets are Democratic Party leaders like Jeffries and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, both of whom are from New York.

The Horn told you months ago that Valdez has not committed to voting for Jeffries as Speaker of the House or to remain in charge, citing his weak opposition to President Trump’s Iran war.

Chuck Schumer, who said the DSA’s surge showed “a great united party,” will likely face a challenge from a DSA-backed candidate, possibly Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

The DNC shouldn’t be surprised: Mamadani has always planned to take over the Democratic Party, then the country. Mamdani told in a 2021 speech for the Young Democratic Socialists of America, “We have to continue to elect more socialists. And we have to ensure that we are unapologetic about our socialism.”

But they don’t have any intention of stopping once they control the House and the Senate. Democratic Socialist leaders are already talking about fielding their own candidate to run for and win the Democratic Party presidential nomination in 2028.

“We want people to be talking proactively about what they would want to see in a presidential campaign,” DSA Co-chair Ashik Siddique told The Hill after the Tuesday primary victories. “The types of wins that we’ve had is raising our ambitions that somebody who represents these politics could be really viable.”

“The best possible thing that could happen is having a string of victories in the midterms and forcibly reshaping the way the national Democratic Party approaches some of these issues, and having a much larger presence in the Democratic primary, and hopefully the presidential candidacy,” said Hasan Piker.

American Marxists are already mobilizing two-and-a-half years ahead of the presidential election. “We want to get in on the ground floor. It would be really great to be a day-one part of a campaign,” DSA national co-chair Megan Romer told Politico.

The DSA plans to send a survey to all its 250 chapters about their preferred candidate for 2028 Democratic presidential primaries—and they’re convinced they can roll the Democratic Party nationally just as they did in the Empire State.

“The old institutional left is hollowed out,” said Bhaskar Sunkara, former DSA vice-chair and president of The Nation. “DSA has proven to be the only real mobilizational force left on the ground.”

Crazy as it may sound, some Democrats are trying to blame…President Donald Trump.

“Energy on the far right ignites energy on the far left. Politics is reactive,” said former Democratic congressman Steve Israel of New York.

But this is clearly a problem the Democrats created on their own. Two out of three Democrats has a positive view of socialism—24 points higher than their support for capitalism, according to a 2025 Gallup poll. And they hate Donald Trump with the blazing heat of 1,000 suns. The only thing they hate more than President Trump is America for electing him.

The only thing “normie” Democrats and Democratic socialists disagree about is whether to abolish America fast or slow.

“Party leadership isn’t afraid of yet more communists getting elected. They’re just mad that they and their friends are losing their own seats to them,” wrote Eddie Scarry at The Federalist.

A perfect example is New York Attorney General Tish James, who endorsed Mamdani when he ran for mayor but accused him of trying to “blow up” the Democratic Party this week.

What made James mad? “Some of the candidates that he has supported are 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,” James told CNN.

She’s not worried Mamdani is stacking the Democratic Party with wide-eyed, America-hating socialists. She’s just worried they’re too open about their views to win.

“Most of the competitive districts for Democrats are red and pink districts that you can only win as a Democrat in … where more moderate stances resonate ​in races against incumbent Republicans,” Israel told Reuters. And the 2028 presidential election will be “won in seven moderate battleground states.”

But winning is all Democrats care about, so the Democratic Party establishment has launched a counter-offensive to the Marxists’ guerrilla warfare.

Non-DSA Democrats have begun calling this part of New York City the “commie corridor.”

“It was a huge night for the dirtbag left in New York City, without a doubt,” Senator John Fetterman, D-Penn., told Fox News host Will Cain, speaking of the Democratic primary wins on Tuesday.

A fellow Democrat came up with a radical plan to keep his enemies from unseating him just two days later.

Democrats should refuse to let Democratic socialists take their seats in Congress, even if they win, said Democratic strategist James Carville.

“This Chevalier lady, I don’t — they should not seat her in the caucus. Her views are totally against anything that any Democrats have,” Carville, a Clinton family adviser, told NewsNation on Thursday. “She doesn’t even believe in interracial dating.”

And he had a blunt message for the DSA: “Do do something else! Form your own party!”

But the socialists have a message for party hacks like Carville: We are the Democratic Party now.

“Democratic voters elected Darializa to be their Democratic nominee for Congress because they believed in her vision to deliver an affordability agenda — the emotions of the pundit class don’t change that,” said a statement from Justice Democrats, a far-Left group that endorsed Chevalier and has long ties to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

The socialists are not worried if they lose this election; they have a long-term plan for a Soviet America.

Mamdani said his election “was not an anomaly. It was not the end. It was the beginning.”And that may spell the beginning of the end for the Democratic Party’s leadership.

Unfortunately, if either wing of the Democratic Party wins in the coming years, it means the end of the United States.

About the Author

Frank Holmes is a veteran journalist and an outspoken conservative that talks about the news that was in his weekly article, “On The Holmes Front.”