The Democratic Party is having a reckoning around what it actually means to be a “big tent,” and Zohran Mamdani’s candidacy for New York City mayor is at the center of the debate.
The party’s big tent approach is “one of our greatest strengths. But, if we allow extremist views—like those of democratic socialists—into the tent, it will blow right over,” Rep. Josh Gottheimer wrote last week in an opinion piece referencing Mamdani by name.
That position has frustrated some of Gottheimer’s Democratic colleagues, who say that attempting to police what types of views the tent comprises will imperil the party’s future.
“There is space in the big tent. There’s always been space in the big tent,” New York Rep. Yvette Clarke told NOTUS. “At the end of the day, he’s the Democratic nominee.”
This tension comes as some have grown frustrated with how Democrats’ two congressional leaders — both New Yorkers — have responded to Mamdani’s campaign. It is also the latest sign that the Democratic Party remains far from figuring out its identity going into the 2026 midterms and the next presidential election.
Mamdani’s candidacy is testing Democrats’ willingness to be a home for a wide array of ideologies, as major factions of the party remain divided on how to approach major issue areas like immigration, abortion rights, the rights of transgender people and the U.S. policy toward Israel.
Sen. Chuck Schumer and Rep. Hakeem Jeffries have both evaded questions about whether they will endorse Mamdani, telling reporters only that they are having conversations with the state assemblymember. Their approach has prompted a slew of criticism, including from Maryland Democratic Sen. Chris Van Hollen, who called Schumer’s and Jeffries’ failure to back Mamdani a show of “spineless politics” earlier this month.
Rep. Tom Suozzi declined to endorse the New York state assemblymember on the grounds that his policy platform isn’t compatible with the Democratic Party, writing in a statement last week that “socialism has consistently failed to deliver real, sustainable progress.”
And Rep. Laura Gillen, another moderate Democrat who represents New York, said on PIX11 News last week that “the path forward for the Democratic party is to lead from the middle.”
“I think the people in the United States are sick of the hyperpartisan fighting. They’re sick of the extremists,” Gillen said.
New York State Democratic Party Chair Jay Jacobs said last week that he will not endorse Mamdani and that he believes Mamdani’s views don’t represent “the principles, values or policies of the Democratic Party.”
That line of messaging has prompted backlash from more progressive Democrats, who have argued that even the most extreme members of the party do have a place in the party’s big tent.
“If we are going to be a big tent, it can’t just be a big tent for the conservative part of the party,” Rep. Pramila Jayapal, the only House lawmaker from outside New York to endorse Mamdani, told NOTUS. “It also has to be a big tent for the liberal part of the party.”
“He’s a socialist, and while I don’t agree with everything he does, it’s a big tent,” California Democratic Rep. Scott Peters told NOTUS of Mamdani.
Their comments in support of Mamdani come as Democrats are grappling with potential strategies to gain back the voters they lost to a national rightward shift in 2024.
Mamdani’s success spurred a wave of young, progressive candidates who have since emerged in a bid to leverage left-leaning policy positions they believe are key to engaging voters. But on the other side of the coin, many proposals for expanding the Democrats’ chances of success have involved accommodations for centrists.
Sen. Chris Murphy, a longtime advocate for gun control legislation, said at a conference last week that the party should make room for a wider range of opinions about gun rights. Liberal columnist Ezra Klein said last week that Democrats should consider embracing anti-abortion candidates to “make it more likely to win Senate seats in Kansas and Ohio and Missouri.”
Jayapal told NOTUS that the best path forward involves listening to the will of voters. In the mayoral race, that means backing Mamdani despite any personal disagreements, she said.
And Clarke went so far as to suggest that those averse to creating more room for the party’s left wing to grow should reconsider their ties to Democrats.
“I can’t say that the Democratic Party of today was the Democratic Party of yesterday,” Clarke said. “It will evolve. It will change over time. And either you’re going to be part of that change and uniting people, or you’re going to choose to become independent.”
But where Mamdani’s candidacy has caused intraparty rifts in some areas, it’s bridged others, particularly among national party leadership. The Democratic National Committee has been rocked by infighting this year — much of it over the body’s policy of backing incumbents, with former committee Vice Chair David Hogg breaking from other party leadership to spend in support of Democratic primary challengers, many of whom are younger and more progressive than their counterparts.
On Mamdani’s run, however, Democratic National Party Chair Ken Martin is in line with most fellow party leaders. Martin said during an appearance on PBS in July that he supports Mamdani and brushed off intraparty disagreements over the assemblymember’s policy stances.
“We are a big tent party,” Martin said during that interview. “Yes, it leads to dissent and debate, and there’s differences of opinions on a whole host of issues. But we should celebrate that as a party and recognize, at the end of the day, we’re better because of it.”
Still, even some Mamdani supporters are wary about the implications of the big tent becoming bigger.
New York Rep. Adriano Espaillat, who has endorsed Mamdani, told NOTUS he believes most people who do not want to support Mamdani right now will “come around.” But that could pose its own challenges for the party, he added.
“The tent cannot be bigger than it is right now,” he said. “It’s pretty big. It’s so big that it’s a real challenge to get everybody on the same page.”
—
This story was produced as part of a partnership between NOTUS and The City.