Hakeem Jeffries bounced onto the stage in Washington DC, on Tuesday night with the glow of a freshly-coronated king.
'America is back,' announced the next Speaker of the House; his fellow Brooklynite, rapper Biggie Smalls, blasting out to the crowd. Jeffries called the midterms 'a change election,' and said the country had declared: 'Enough of the extremism.'
Come January 3, he may find members of his party have other ideas.
America has elected a slew of local, state and federal officials more left-wing than ever before.
Jeffries's own caucus now contains at least eight members of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) – an increase from two during the previous term. Among them is a woman who advocated for 'a world without prisons or police' and demanded the US 'literally, abolish the border.'
His colleague in the Senate – fellow Brooklynite Chuck Schumer, the next Senate Majority Leader – will have to contend with Abdul El-Sayed in his ranks, arguably among the most far-left Senators ever elected. And he almost had a fully-fledged member of the DSA by his side: Angie Nixon narrowly lost her Florida Senate race.
It is all music to Ashik Siddique's ears.
Siddique, the co-chair of the DSA's national political committee, told the Daily Mail that Tuesday's vote was just the beginning for his party. He pointed to the triumph of his rainbow-headed comrade Ashley Herrmann, 38, who even flipped a Republican-held state senate seat near Tampa, Florida.
Hakeem Jeffries bounced onto the stage in Washington DC, on Tuesday night with the glow of a freshly-coronated king
Ashik Siddique, the co-chair of the DSA's national political committee, pictured here with Zohran Mamdani told the Daily Mail that Tuesday's vote was just the beginning for his party
Chuck Schumer, the next Senate Majority Leader, will have to contend with Abdul El-Sayed
'These results are not a flash in the pan,' he said, noting that DSA membership has surged from 6,000 in 2016 to 130,000 today. 'Democratic Socialists of America are building an enduring organization that can lead an enduring movement.
'We're now seeing DSA candidates win re-election to second or third terms across the country. We ran more candidates in this cycle than ever before. I think there were at least 200 candidates at many levels of government, from local up to Congress. So we're really leading the conversation and helping to shift public opinion on a wide range of issues.'
Siddique said that the DSA was pushing policies leftwards – noting that on the eve of the election, even Donald Trump was discussing ending military aid to Israel.
'Nobody thought 10 years ago that abolishing ICE was a popular sentiment when we were saying it, but now it has popular support,' he said. 'When we said 'Free Palestine,' that was not a popular sentiment among Americans 10 years ago, but now it is, and majorities of Americans across parties support a full arms embargo against the state of Israel.'
DSA candidates largely ran on affordable housing, Medicare for All, childcare for all, moratoriums on AI data centers and abolishing ICE, Siddique said.
'These are very popular things, and when you look at the range of issues our candidates ran on, it's clear that we've been driving the conversation and the direction of the political left more broadly,' he added.
But what will happen when his candidates walk into the chamber in January and come face to face with the establishment? Is there a civil war brewing?
Siddique chuckled.
Won't the clash between the old guard and the new be complicated?
'It can be, for sure,' he said. 'But we have experience now with DSA members in office. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Rashida Tlaib have developed a good record of agitating when it matters, standing on principle, even if they're in a small minority voting against certain things, or being lonely votes for positive programs that are not supported by party leadership. That bloc is now growing.'
Siddique said that the DSA was pushing policies leftwards - noting that on the eve of the election, even Donald Trump was discussing ending military aid to Israel
Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, pictured with Mayor Zohran Mamdani and New York's Governor Kathy Hochul
Leading the charge of the newcomers on January 3 will be 32-year-old New Yorker Darializa Avila Chevalier – DAC, following in the footsteps of AOC.
Avila Chevalier was as recently as 2020 tweeting that 'the pyromania associated with anarchism is very intriguing to me,' calling for open borders and demanding the closure of prisons. She advocated for 'ending policing full stop. Period. No more police at all ever.'
The old tweets have been deleted, and she declared on the campaign trail, when challenged by her Democrat primary rival: 'My opponent wants to live in the past. He is re-litigating social media posts from half a decade ago, and continuing to champion an outdated politics that fails to serve our people. I have grown considerably in the years since these tweets, and I am focused on our community and our community's future.'
Yet still, when pressed by Vanity Fair's editor-in-chief in an October 30 interview, she wriggled away from the question of whether a murderer should be in prison.
Chevalier further said Jeffries would only get her support as Speaker if he made 'commitments on moving on' Medicare for All, voting rights, investment in public housing, and ending taxpayer dollars going to fund foreign wars.
Schumer may find himself with an arguably tougher task ahead.
Abdul El-Sayed, elected in Michigan as the first Muslim member of the US Senate, will come to Washington in January with even more swagger than usual.
'They told us that the establishment was too strong, that DC was going to dictate who won and who lost, that Washington and its special interests didn't want us,' thundered El-Sayed on Tuesday night. 'They want an America that is too small for some of us. We know that America is big enough for all of us.'
And, even before setting foot in Congress, he couldn't resist taunting his Republican rivals.
'Together, fighting for something bigger, we won,' he crowed. 'So Mike, enjoy your retirement. I know you got a house in Florida and two yachts. See, you chose hate and Michigan chose hope. May we never have to see the likes of you in this state again.
'JD, habibi, there is this delicious irony in the fact that you're constitutionally obligated to swear me in January. So you know what that means? Wolverine one, Buckeye zero.
'Donald, look, I know you struggled with my name. So after JD swears me in January, you could just go on and call me Senator.'
How will Schumer and Jeffries rein them in? And are they even up to the task?
Sam Seder, actor and progressive political commentator, excoriated Schumer on Tuesday night for his victory speech, which Seder mocked as lackluster and out of touch.
How will Schumer and Jeffries rein in the newly elected? And are they even up to the task?
Sam Seder, actor and progressive political commentator, excoriated Schumer on Tuesday night for his victory speech, which Seder mocked as lackluster and out of touch
'Jesus f***ing Christ! Are you f***ing kidding me?' Seder ranted. 'You just had an election where the Democrats ran the board in a way that has not happened in maybe 50 years. Do you not have a script f***ing writer?! Dude, are you serious?!'
He added: 'Like, I don't like his politics, but how do you not just do the basic f***ing fundamentals?!'
So, is that a civil war brewing?
'It's possible, and Democrats are certainly capable of that,' said Grant Reeher, professor of political science at Syracuse University.
He told the Daily Mail: 'The old joke about Democrats is that when they need a firing squad, they form into a circle.
'But they will certainly need to figure out what their central message is, and the left wing of the party will demand a seat at the table.'
Reeher advised the party to 'remain focused on economic issues.'
'But part of the left wing wants to lean hard on cultural issues as well. Will they be able to let that go, to some extent?'
Lincoln Mitchell, professor of political science at Columbia University, disagreed, saying talk of a Democrat civil war was 'being too dramatic.'
He pointed out that both Jeffries and Schumer have comfortable margins, to avoid being held to ransom by any fringe groups.
'The example I give is AOC,' Mitchell told the Daily Mail. 'AOC came in with heated rhetoric, and then after a few months she realized: I can either fight with Nancy Pelosi or I can become relevant.
'My representative in Congress as of January is Darializa Avila Chevalier. She's maybe, of the newer people, the most extreme left. My district, which includes some very low-income communities, is a mixed economic district.
'Is she going to not be able to bring things back to the district because she picked a fight with Hakeem Jeffries? If so, I can point to a few candidates who are licking their chops to run against her in 2028.'
Indeed, many see the strengthening of moderates in the melee, pointing to the election of pastor and farmer Adam Hamilton in Kansas, middle school teacher James Talarico in Texas, physician Annie Andrews in South Carolina and the re-election of centrist Jon Ossoff in Georgia.
'AOC came in with heated rhetoric, and then after a few months she realized: I can either fight with Nancy Pelosi or I can become relevant,' said Lincoln Mitchell, political science professor
Darializa Avila Chevalier, US Representative-elect for New York's 13th congressional district, is one of the most extreme left elected in the midterms
Jon Ossoff's win in Georgia is seen as a sign by some that moderate Democrats are rising
Ossoff's team noted in campaign material that he was 'the only Democratic US Senator up for reelection in a state Trump won.'
Johanna Maska, a political strategist who worked in the Obama White House, said there was power in the diversity of the Blue Wave.
'The future lies in Democrats. Period,' she told the Daily Mail, adding that each state elected candidates who speak to them. And their records will begin to speak for themselves.
'Here's the thing about someone like New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani. Trump tried to say he was a jihadist and all these things before the election, and in the aftermath, all the guy's been doing is governing, and it got so popular that he's like filling potholes.
'People here in LA are saying, 'Mamdani, can you help us?''
Many see the strengthening of moderates in the melee, pointing to the election of pastor and farmer Adam Hamilton in Kansas
That list of moderates included middle school teacher James Talarico in Texas
The question, of course, is whether the party members will play ball.
'Today begins the great American comeback,' promised Jeffries, singing – for now – a song of unity.
'This is not a partisan moment; this is a patriot one,' he concluded.
'This is not a blue moment, or a red moment - it is a red, white and blue moment because America has won tonight.'
The DSA, of course, saw it differently.
The election, they wrote on X, proved that 'socialism can win in the US.'
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