The Democratic Party’s coalition may be getting bigger. Whether it’s also getting harder to govern may be another question.

After progressive insurgents backed by New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani won three congressional nominations Tuesday night, Democrats on Capitol Hill were already debating what a larger left flank could mean for the party’s legislative agenda — and its ability to hold a majority together.

The victories are poised to give the Democratic Socialists of America a new, larger foothold on Capitol Hill come next Congress — a reality that progressives say will give them new leverage in legislative fights in the year ahead.

 Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., former chairwoman of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, told MS NOW that the new crop of progressives “strengthens our hand.”

Jayapal invoked the intraparty debates from several years ago over the size and scope of former President Joe Biden’s “Build Back Better” initiative.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., told MS NOW that Democrats, boosted by these new progressive voices, have a responsibility to ensure that the “majority stands for a real change for working families.” 

“We all share very fierce values on things like guaranteed healthcare, raising wages, expanding union rights,” she added. “So I think you know our hope is that we use our ability in the majority to change people’s lives and make their lives better.”

However, the new nominees are also inspiring fear from some Democrats that they could be witnessing the rise of the left’s version of the House Freedom Caucus — a far-right faction that routinely made it harder for GOP leaders to govern.

Rep. George Latimer, D-N.Y., told MS NOW that he has questions about how this new cohort plans to “function” within the Democratic coalition.  

“How will that portion of the majority act? What’s their priorities?” he asked. “Will they take issue A and tie it to issue B?”

Rep. Gregory Meeks, D-N.Y. — a top ally of Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y. — was even blunter.

“I would hope that we don’t be like the MAGA Republicans, who basically just want to shut the thing down and not get anything done,” he said. 

Current progressive leaders on Capitol Hill are trying to assuage those concerns.

Congressional Progressive Caucus Chairman Greg Casar, D-Texas, said that while there will “of course” be some differences, “I’m really focused on actually what brings us all together, which is restoring voting rights, which is bringing down costs, taking on billionaire interests that are screwing over workers and also now screwing over voters.”

Beyond the legislative implications, Tuesday’s results are also causing new political concerns, particularly among those running in competitive swing districts.

Already, Republicans are trying to tie the DSA candidates — and some of their past comments — to the Democrats in these races.

(One of the candidates — Darializa Avila Chevalier — reportedly made comments in the past that are prime for GOP pickup, including voicing support for abolishing the police, prisons and borders.)

In the immediate aftermath of Tuesday’s results, Ed Cox, chairman of the New York GOP, asserted in a statement that the DSA “isn’t just a faction within the Democratic Party anymore — it IS the Democratic Party in New York, and [New York Gov.] Kathy Hochul, [Sen.] Chuck Schumer, and Hakeem Jeffries are too weak to stop them.” 

Democrats in these races are already trying to clearly separate themselves. 

Rep. Laura Gillen, D-N.Y., who is running for re-election in a suburban Long Island district, told MS NOW, “I’m a capitalist, not a socialist.” 

“My brand is very clear that I’m a moderate Democrat who works across the aisle to get things done,” she said. 

And Rep. Tom Suozzi, D-N.Y., who represents a district just north of Gillen’s, told MS NOW that he disagrees with the “far left.” 

But he suggested that those who are “left of center” like him could learn something from the “far left” — namely, that they could do a “better job organizing.” 

“The far left, much like MAGA, has tapped into people’s economic anxiety. They’re talking about how they don’t like what’s happening in their lives,” Suozzi said. “We have to do a better job of promoting alternative solutions to the problems that people are facing.”

One of the starker moments Tuesday night came at a watch party for one of the DSA congressional candidates, when a reporter observed the attendees chanting “you’re next” as Jeffries appeared on the TV screen.

On Wednesday, Jeffries dismissed the comments, saying that he could “care less.” He also shrugged off a question about whether he was concerned about a potential primary challenger backed by Mamdani, telling a reporter, “When you ask me a serious question, I’ll give you a serious answer.” 

Jayapal said the chants were not “particularly helpful,” but added that the watch party attendees appeared to be “sending a message.” 

“You have to think about your voters, you have to think about your base, you have to deliver for people, and you have to be bold,” she said. “That’s probably a message that could apply to any of us, right?”

Meeks took the chants as more of a direct electoral threat, saying that those chanting were not “wanting to help the city of New York — and that is a problem.” 

“You have an opportunity to have a man from New York to be speaker of the United States Congress, who happened to be also African American, which is history-creating,” Meeks told MS NOW.

“We’re just going to let that all go away?” Meeks said. 

The chance of a future primary challenge aside, the chants do speak to what could be a more complicated leadership challenge ahead for Jeffries, who so far has only led House Democrats as minority leader. Having something to oppose — namely, Trump and GOP policies — has been useful for uniting the Democratic coalition. 

In a majority, though, where the party gets to set the governing agenda, history has shown holding the cohort together can be more complicated.

Ocasio-Cortez admitted that having a big tent can be “messy work.”

“It doesn’t mean that we all get along 100% of the time, but what it means is that we all acknowledge that we need each other,” she said.

“The challenges of a rising fascist regime require us all to be in coalition with one another,” she said. 

Syedah Asghar contributed to this report.

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