Elaine Kamarck and Jordan Muchnick reported results from Brookings' Primaries Project, which coded 300 primary candidates in 33 competitive House districts and 10 Senate races. The authors found that more mainstream candidates in both parties outperformed their flanks — MAGA/Trump conservatives won 26.7 percent of their races and progressive Democrats 17.8 percent — and that of five DSA candidates in the sample, only William Lawrence of Michigan won his primary, after letting his DSA membership lapse in July 2026. The authors wrote that "the hype surrounding the Democratic Party's purported resurgence of left-wing strength may be greater than the underlying evidence suggests."
This is the sixth iteration of the Brookings Primaries Project, drawing its competitive-race universe from Cook Political Report Partisan Voting Index ratings between D+2 and R+2.
Rhode Island Current · on Providence mayoral primary won by DSA member David Morales
State Rep. David Morales, a 27-year-old member of the Democratic Socialists of America endorsed by Bernie Sanders and Ro Khanna, defeated incumbent Providence Mayor Brett Smiley in Wednesday's Democratic primary, 57% to 43%, with 31% turnout. Smiley's campaign spent $652,537 from August 12 through September 1, about 7.6 times the $85,789 Morales's campaign spent. Morales faces Republican Dave Talan in the November 3 general election; three Working Families Party-backed council candidates also won their primaries.
The Providence City Council's 4% rent-cap ordinance, vetoed by Smiley in April, fell one vote short of a veto override in May.
Incumbent state Rep. Marjorie Decker defeated Boston DSA-endorsed labor organizer Evan MacKay in the Democratic primary for the Cambridge-based 25th Middlesex District, 4,104 votes to 3,599; the AP called the race Wednesday morning and MacKay conceded. MacKay lost the same race by 41 votes in 2024. Outside groups put more than $100,000 into the district, including more than $140,000 spent by Progressive Cambridge, an independent expenditure committee formed in July to back Decker.
Boston DSA said its field program knocked almost 50,000 doors and made over 100,000 phone calls for MacKay.
WBUR · on Sen. Ed Markey's primary win over Rep. Seth Moulton
Sen. Ed Markey, 80, defeated Rep. Seth Moulton in the Massachusetts Democratic Senate primary, taking 65% of the vote to Moulton's 35% with 95% of ballots counted; Moulton had centered his campaign on Markey's age. It is the second consecutive primary in which Markey defeated a younger challenger, after his win over Joe Kennedy III. Markey has pledged that this will be his final term if he wins in November.
Markey faces Republican nominee John Deaton, who lost to Sen. Elizabeth Warren in 2024, in the November 3 general election.
State Rep. Erika Uyterhoeven won the Democratic primary for the open 2nd Middlesex state Senate seat covering Somerville and Medford after all three active opponents conceded on election night; she had 38% of the vote with 81% of ballots counted. She led second-place state Rep. Christine Barber by 2,050 votes per the Associated Press, with Burhan Azeem at 15% and Matthew McLaughlin at 14%.
No Republican is on the general-election ballot for the seat; incumbent Sen. Pat Jehlen is retiring.
Democratic Left · on Michael Lachenmeyer's primary loss to Rep. Angelo Puppolo in the 12th Hampden District
River Valley DSA endorsee Michael Lachenmeyer lost the Democratic primary for the Springfield-area 12th Hampden state House district to incumbent Angelo Puppolo, trailing 1,878 to 3,544 when the Associated Press called the race. Lachenmeyer's statement called it the chapter's first endorsement in a state-level race and said members organized seven canvasses and knocked on 2,806 doors between August 5 and August 31. Puppolo had not faced a primary opponent since first winning the seat in 2006.
The chapter's co-chair said it endorsed after the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court removed a rent control question from the 2026 ballot in July.
Nurse N'Kiyla Jasmine Thomas, 31, won the Democratic Senate primary runoff in Oklahoma, defeating attorney and minister Jim Priest, 70, after neither won a majority in the June primary; Priest's campaign spent $315,000 to Thomas's $57,000. Thomas told NBC News she is "a self-proclaimed democratic socialist" but "not yet" a DSA member. She faces Rep. Kevin Hern for the open seat with $456 in her account as of August 5 against Hern's $2.6 million as of June 30.
Trump carried Oklahoma by 34 points in 2024; the seat is open because Sen. Markwayne Mullin became secretary of homeland security.
State Rep. Angie Nixon, a Democratic Socialists of America member, defeated former National Security Council aide Alex Vindman in Florida's August 18 Democratic primary for the U.S. Senate special election, 55.7% to 44.3% with 88% of votes counted, per the Associated Press. Vindman, recruited by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, raised more than $16 million to Nixon's roughly $975,000 through July 29 and issued an election-night statement supporting Nixon. Nixon faces Republican Sen. Ashley Moody, who won her primary with nearly 80% of the vote, in the November special election.
The seat is a special election for the final two years of the term Marco Rubio won in 2022; Moody holds it as Gov. DeSantis's appointee.
Elaine Kamarck, Riana Mahtani, and Gabriel Kraemer built a dataset of 282 DSA-chapter-endorsed candidates in the 2026 cycle and reported that more than half sought local or state legislative office, that statewide and congressional candidates won fewer than half of their primaries, and that only 10 DSA-backed candidates won in districts with a Cook PVI of less than D+10. The authors wrote that "from one perspective" the story of DSA candidates' influence "is overblown," given the scarcity of candidates and their success rates, while concluding that the high-profile wins "represent a warning to the rest of the party."
The dataset counts only candidates with a confirmed endorsement from an official DSA chapter — 29 of the 282 carried a national DSA endorsement — and was coded between July 9 and August 12, 2026.
Rep. Jared Moskowitz won the Democratic primary in Florida's redrawn 25th Congressional District over DSA-endorsed challenger Oliver Larkin, taking more than two-thirds of the vote. Moskowitz said in his victory statement, "I faced a challenge from the DSA. They threw everything at me and I didn't change who I am or what I believe…" Larkin conceded Tuesday night and said he committed to helping Democrats win the seat in November; former Boca Raton Mayor Scott Singer won the Republican nomination.
The Cook Political Report rates FL-25 a toss-up; Trump carried the areas that make up the redrawn district by nine points in 2024.
Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz won the Democratic primary in Florida's redrawn 20th District with 50.5% of the vote with 67% counted, over Dale V.C. Holness at 21.1% and self-described democratic socialist Elijah Manley at 12.8%; the AP called the race at 7:24 p.m., minutes after polls closed. Manley had campaigned against her AIPAC support; JTA reported that FEC filings in the race link at least $250,000 to AIPAC.
Newsweek · on Florida's Aug. 18 Democratic primary challenges
Newsweek reported on three candidates it described as insurgents on Florida's Aug. 18 Democratic primary ballot: democratic socialist Oliver Larkin against Rep. Jared Moskowitz in the redrawn 25th District, Elijah Manley against Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz in the 20th, and state Rep. Angie Nixon against Alexander Vindman for the U.S. Senate special election. Vindman has reported raising $16.7 million to Nixon's roughly $625,000, and Manley said he has been outspent by $650,000 from two super PACs. Prediction markets priced Moskowitz at 88 to 90 percent to win his nomination and Vindman near 94 percent.
The Sun Sentinel reported Larkin is endorsed by the Democratic Socialists of America; polls close Tuesday, Aug. 18.
House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries said on NBC's "Meet the Press" that he does not support the Democratic Socialists of America agenda "as has been articulated by the DSA itself." Asked by Kristen Welker whether democratic socialists belong in the Democratic Party, Jeffries said individual members elected in Democratic primaries would be part of the House Democratic caucus.
The remarks followed this month's Democratic Senate primary wins by Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan and Peggy Flanagan in Minnesota.
The "Chomp the Oligarchy" rally in Fort Lauderdale on Aug. 14, sponsored by the Florida Youth Justice Coalition, Gen-Z For Change, and the Broward and Miami-Dade DSA chapters to promote candidates Oliver Larkin, Elijah Manley, and Angie Nixon, drew hundreds of attendees, with Rep. Rashida Tlaib appearing. Two venues canceled after Tlaib was added to the lineup, and the final venue's owner said he received 600 messages opposing his hosting the event. Elected officials and party leaders quoted in the piece said 300 people at a rally "does not portend sweeping change"; Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz said Broward Democrats are not "moving towards embracing the fringe left."
Organizers announced Tlaib's addition to the lineup on Monday, Aug. 10, after which the rally's first two venues canceled.
Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley defeated state Rep. Francesca Hong, a democratic socialist, in Wisconsin's August 11 Democratic primary for governor by a margin AP reported at about half a percentage point; AP declared Crowley the winner after Hong's concession removed the possibility of a recount. AP reported that nearly 40% of primary voters supported Hong, who had led pre-primary polling. Crowley faces Republican Rep. Tom Tiffany, endorsed by President Trump, in November.
Crowley dropped out of the race on July 8 and rejoined it on July 18 with Gov. Tony Evers' endorsement.
In Jacobin, Branko Marcetic argued that Francesca Hong's 0.5-point loss to David Crowley in Wisconsin's Democratic gubernatorial primary should not be read as a rejection of socialist candidates generally, noting that five of eight DSA-chapter-endorsed candidates in Wisconsin and Minnesota won their races the same night, four more advanced to the general unopposed, and five of seven DSA-backed candidates advanced in Connecticut and Vermont. Marcetic wrote that Wisconsin socialists have gone, in the space of a few years, from no state-legislature representation to two assembly members.
The piece links an August 12 Politico article as an example of coverage reading the result as a wholesale rejection of down-ballot socialists.
Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan defeated Rep. Angie Craig for Minnesota's Democratic U.S. Senate nomination; the Jewish Telegraphic Agency reported the result at 60%-40% with 96 percent of votes counted. NPR reported that Flanagan had endorsements from Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, while Craig had a fundraising advantage and endorsements including Pete Buttigieg and Sen. Tammy Baldwin. Flanagan faces Republican Michele Tafoya, who won her primary the same night, in November.
Sanders said in an August 9 post that super PACs and billionaires were spending $20 million in Minnesota to defeat Flanagan.
Sanders sent an open letter Sunday to Chuck Schumer, Hakeem Jeffries, and DNC chair Ken Martin calling on the party to prohibit super PAC spending in its primaries, citing the $32 million AIPAC spent unsuccessfully against Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan's Senate primary and a reported $517 million in corporate PAC spending this cycle. AIPAC responded that Sanders "just wants to blacklist Americans who disagree with him."
Sanders cited reports that the pro-Israel lobby is weighing spending in support of Republican nominee Mike Rogers against El-Sayed in Michigan's November general election.
CBS projected Omar the winner over four challengers, including former U.S. attorney Julie T. Le and Latonya Reeves, with over 80% of the vote. In the Republican primary for the seat, John Nagel was projected to win with 52.1%.
In 2024, Omar won the Democratic primary with 56.2% of the vote and the general election with 74.4%, per Ballotpedia.