Former Gov. David Paterson is warning that New York Democrats risk political collapse unless they stop what he described as a socialist surge that is sidelining the party’s moderates.
Paterson, who previously led the state Democratic Party, issued the warning just days after candidates backed by Mayor Zohran Mamdani and the Democratic Socialists of America won major congressional Democratic primaries and captured nearly every contested state legislative race.
“It’s definitely a message to the Democratic Party. We’d better get that message and turn it around before we become extinct,” Paterson said Sunday during an appearance on 77 WABC radio’s “Cats Roundtable.”
He pointed to the 32,790 Democrats who voted for Darializa Avila Chevalier, a controversial socialist candidate who defeated five-term incumbent Rep. Adriano Espaillat in the 13th Congressional District, which includes Harlem, Washington Heights, Inwood and sections of the Bronx.
Paterson argued that the figure represents only a small fraction of the district’s overall population.
“There are 700,000 people who live in that district, which means that she got 5% of the people that live there to vote for her,” Paterson said. “I would suggest that within two years a real organized campaign gets put together and she can take her 5% and go back to wherever she was before she ran the first time.”
Before becoming lieutenant governor and later governor, Paterson represented Harlem in the state Senate, in a district that overlaps with the current congressional seat.
He also served as chairman of the New York State Democratic Party from 2014 to 2015 under former Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
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Since becoming a radio analyst, Paterson has not been shy in criticizing his party’s left-leaning policies.
He slammed Democrats in Albany for going too far when approving the controversial soft-on-crime cashless bail law and ripped into former President Joe Biden for letting the migrant crisis spiral out of control by failing to police the border.
Current state Democratic Party chairman Jay Jacobs said Paterson and other critics are overreacting to last week’s Democratic primary results.
“Everybody is overreacting,” Jacobs said, who called Paterson “a friend.”
He said the DSA won races in very progressive districts in New York City and “that doesn’t speak for the entire Democratic Party.”
Jacobs noted that state Democratic Comptroller Tom DiNapoli easily won his Democratic primary against two progressive rivals by a 2-to-1 margin.
“Why do we ignore that?” he asked.
He also noted Rep. Tom Suozzi staved off a primary challenge in New York’s 3rd Congressional District, which includes part of Queens and Long Island. Suozzi has distanced himself from socialist policies and calls himself a moderate.
“Congressman Tom Suozzi hasn’t suddenly become a socialist,” Jacobs said.
