Frontline Voices-NYS Primary Voting Guide
"The Left Has Entered The Building"
Guest: John Tarleton — Co-founder & Editor-in-Chief, The Indypendent | Co-host, The Indypendent News Hour, WBAI 99.5 FM
Tuesday, June 23, 2026 | PRIMARY DAY — NYC | 12:00 PM – 12:50 PM EST |
TODAY IS PRIMARY DAY IN NEW YORK CITY: Polls opened this morning. In the June 23, 2026 Democratic primary, NYC-DSA-backed candidates are running in congressional races across the five boroughs, testing whether the Mamdani coalition can be channeled into federal seats. The Indypendent — which had Zohran Mamdani on its radar when almost no major outlet would cover him, and featured AOC on its cover before she won — has been the indispensable press for this movement. John Tarleton is in this room today because nobody in New York journalism has watched this shift more closely, or for longer, than he has.
TODAY'S GUEST
John Tarleton
Co-Founder & Editor-in-Chief, The Indypendent | Co-Host, The Indypendent News Hour, WBAI 99.5 FM | indypendent.org
John Tarleton is the co-founder and editor-in-chief of The Indypendent — New York City's leading progressive news outlet, published since 2000, with more than 100,000 readers, distributed free across the city and online. He also co-hosts The Indypendent News Hour, a weekly public affairs radio program on WBAI 99.5 FM, broadcasting Tuesdays from 5 to 6 PM. John was there at the beginning.
He attended the Battle of Seattle in 1999 — the WTO protests that galvanized a generation of organizers — and has spent the quarter-century since building the publication that has become the indispensable record of New York's left-wing political evolution. He has led The Indypendent's local political coverage since 2017, watching and documenting the left's steady gain of a foothold in New York electoral politics for the first time in decades.
The Indypendent was the first major outlet to cover Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez seriously before her 2018 upset — featuring her on their cover when, as John has said, 'hardly anyone knew or cared who she was.' They did the same for Zohran Mamdani: The Indy covered him years before he became a serious mayoral contender, documented the army of door-knockers that built his campaign from the ground up, and reported from inside the Mamdani movement as a 33-year-old democratic socialist went on to beat an incumbent mayor — Andrew Cuomo — and a former governor, in one of the most stunning electoral upsets in New York City history. Within thirty minutes of Cuomo conceding, billionaires were texting Kathryn Wylde of the Partnership for New York City, 'terrified.'
The Indypendent had seen it coming. Today, with the NYC June 23 Democratic primary underway and the national democratic socialist movement expanding from New York to Seattle, Washington DC, and Los Angeles, John Tarleton is exactly the voice Frontline Voices needs in this room.
THE LANDSCAPE — WHAT WE ARE WORKING WITH TODAY
THE MAMDANI STORY — WHAT ACTUALLY HAPPENED
In June 2025, Zohran Mamdani — a 34-year-old democratic socialist and New York State Assemblymember — defeated Andrew Cuomo, the former Governor of New York, in the Democratic primary for New York City Mayor. Cuomo's campaign was backed by tens of millions of dollars from billionaires and the city's business establishment. More than 400,000 New Yorkers voted early. Mamdani led by 9 points going into Election Day. The surge of support that Cuomo's backers predicted never materialized. By night's end Mamdani led 43-36 with nearly a million votes cast. He won on affordability, worker protections, tenant organizing, and the energy of a massive grassroots canvassing operation. The Indypendent covered it from the beginning.
THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC SOCIALIST SURGE
NEW YORK CITY: Mamdani wins mayoralty 2025. NYC-DSA now attempting to put two candidates into Congress in today's June 23 primary.
WASHINGTON DC: Lewis George's recent victory ended decades of centrist governance, positioning democratic socialists at the forefront of local politics in the nation's capital.
SEATTLE: Katie Wilson won an upset election to lead Seattle — signaling major traction for socialist candidates on the West Coast.
LOS ANGELES: Nithya Raman advanced to a major runoff in the Los Angeles mayor's race.
53%: Of voters under 30 view a shift toward socialism as a positive development.
66%: Of Democrats now view socialism favorably.
100,000+: DSA national membership, following years of grassroots organizing.
