Let’s keep it 100: the political scene in New York is wilding right now. The recent primaries just wrapped up, and three socialist candidates backed by NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani—Darializa Avila Chevalier, Claire Valdez, and Brad Lander—took home major wins. Now, the Republican candidate for governor, Bruce Blakeman, is stepping up to the mic, claiming the Democratic establishment has completely lost its grip and that regular, old-school Democrats are about to start voting Republican because the party has gone too far left.

Blakeman, who’s trying to take Governor Kathy Hochul’s spot, sat down with Fox News Digital on June 25, 2026, to break down what these wins mean. He didn’t hold back, calling the progressive wing the "lunatic left" and saying, "They've lost control of their party." From where he’s standing, the Democrats are tearing themselves apart from the inside, leaving moderate and working-class voters out in the cold with nowhere to go but toward the GOP.

Now, the policies these socialist candidates are pushing sound real nice on paper, especially to folks in the neighborhood struggling to get by. They’re talking about free bus rides and even government-run grocery stores. For real, anyone living in a food desert knows how hard it is to get fresh, affordable food when corporate supermarkets won't even build on your block. But Blakeman is calling cap on the whole movement, claiming these politicians are just promising "free stuff" they can never actually deliver.

"Free grocery stores, I mean, that's complete nonsense," Blakeman said, arguing that the government has no business trying to compete with the private market. He warns that trying to run these kinds of programs will just cost taxpayers a fortune, hurt local small businesses, and make even more employers pack up and leave New York for good. When taxes get too high, the businesses leave, and the community is the one that ends up losing jobs.

But the drama didn't stop at the ballot box. One of these Mamdani-backed socialist candidates ended up storming out of a live TV interview after getting pressed about some old social media posts they’d put up. It’s a bad look when you can't even stand the heat under some basic questions on live television, and it’s giving critics like Blakeman all the ammo they need to say these progressives aren’t ready for prime time.

Blakeman is betting big that traditional, moderate Democrats—the ones who aren't trying to hear about state-run supermarkets—are going to defect to the Republican side this year. "The traditional Democrats are going to vote for Republicans this year," Blakeman predicted. "They know their party has gone off the deep end." He’s positioning the GOP as the party of common sense for working-class folks who are tired of high bills and political games.

Instead of promising things for free, Blakeman says New York needs to focus on the basics: lowering taxes, cutting down utility costs, and making it easier for businesses to survive and create real jobs. For regular people on the block, high utility bills and rent are the real killers, and tax-cut talk can sound appealing when you're watching your paycheck disappear every month.

At the end of the day, New York voters are caught in the middle of a massive tug-of-war. On one side, you’ve got progressives promising major public investments to help the poor, and on the other, you’ve got Republicans warning that those promises are nothing but a fantasy that will bankrupt the state. Whether working-class voters buy into the socialist vision or decide to jump ship to the GOP is going to decide who runs New York next.

Sources * New York State Board of Elections (elections.ny.gov) * New York State Division of the Budget (budget.ny.gov) * U.S. Census Bureau (census.gov)