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Democratic Pennsylvania Senator John Fetterman drew his first declared 2028 primary challenger this week, and the candidate is a dues-paying member of the Democratic Socialists of America.
Coming off a midterm cycle in which DSA expanded its House caucus from two members to eight and helped elect Abdul El-Sayed to the Senate from Michigan, the group and its allies are already sizing up other Democratic incumbents for 2028. Potential primary targets range from Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer and House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries to rank-and-file members who have crossed the left on Israel or on El-Sayed.
Left-wing streamer Hasan Piker, a close El-Sayed ally, said on his stream after the midterms: "We should have f***ing ran socialists in every f***ing primary, dude."
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Newsweek reached out to DSA and to the offices of Fetterman, Schumer, Jeffries, Representative Hillary Scholten and Representative Ritchie Torres for comment via email.
Which Democrats Could Face DSA Primaries?
John Fetterman, Pennsylvania
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Ahmed Moor, a 42-year-old Palestinian American writer and businessman from West Philadelphia, announced his Senate campaign on Monday. The Philadelphia Inquirer, which first reported his bid, described him as a dues-paying member of DSA's Philadelphia chapter.
Moor was born in Rafah, in the Gaza Strip, and moved to Pennsylvania as a child. He studied at the University of Pennsylvania and Harvard University and worked in finance before turning to journalism.
"I'm running to end the war in Iran and to promote the dignity agenda: free healthcare, free childcare, and affordable housing," Moor wrote on X. He has cited Mamdani's win and El-Sayed's campaign as inspirations.
His platform puts him at odds with Fetterman on the senator's signature issue. Fetterman has become one of the Senate Democratic Caucus's most outspoken defenders of Israel since the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack, and he has repeatedly been the lone Senate Democrat to vote against war powers resolutions on Iran.
Fetterman has not said whether he will seek a second term. In a Quinnipiac University poll of Pennsylvania voters taken in July, 19 percent of Democrats approved of his job performance, and 69 percent disapproved.
The Pennsylvania Working Families Party said in November 2025 that it would support a primary challenger. Allies of Pittsburgh Representative Summer Lee, a democratic socialist, want her to run. Lee posted on X in June that "2028 can't come fast enough for PA."
Pennsylvania Representative Chris Deluzio, who is not a DSA member, has also kept the door open. "I might, I haven't decided that," he said on NewsNation in September.
Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro said on NBC's Meet the Press on Sunday that he expects "a robust primary challenge" if Fetterman runs. "There's no question that people are lining up to run, and he has to decide if he's going to run," Shapiro said.
Chuck Schumer, New York
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The biggest question mark on the left belongs to New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. When the New York Post asked whether she would run for president or challenge Schumer, she said, "I will be making any of those considerations after the midterms."
The midterms are now over, and Democrats won back the Senate, putting Schumer, 75, in line to become majority leader. He has not said whether he will run for a sixth term in 2028.
Asked by the New York Times whether a Democratic Senate majority would change her calculus, she said, "I don't think that my decisions would come down to deference."
A 2025 Data for Progress survey of likely New York Democratic primary voters put Ocasio-Cortez ahead of Schumer 55 percent to 36 percent in a hypothetical matchup, and a poll from Education Reform Now Advocacy put his statewide net favorability at -13 points, while hers was +8.
Yet prediction markets suggest Ocasio-Cortez could have other plans. On Polymarket, traders put the odds of her announcing a presidential run before 2028 at 56 percent, compared with 31.8 percent for a Senate bid and 7.8 percent for neither.
Jim Kessler, co-founder of the center-left think tank Third Way, doubts Schumer himself will move many primary voters. "On the top 20 list of voter concerns in a Democratic primary, whether a candidate is supportive or not supportive of Schumer doesn't make the chart," he told Newsweek.
Kessler also pointed to the midterms, in which Democrats took back the Senate with Schumer as their leader. "Even Schumer's harshest critics within the party believe he deserves credit for that," he said.
If Ocasio-Cortez opts for a White House bid, the left may look elsewhere. New York City Council Member Chi Ossé, a DSA member, said he would run to be the socialist pick to take on Schumer.
Hakeem Jeffries, New York's 8th District
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Jeffries, who has clashed with DSA for years as the group grew in Brooklyn, has brushed off the threat.
Ossé filed paperwork with the Federal Election Commission in November 2025 to explore a challenge to Jeffries in Brooklyn. The bid fell apart within weeks.
Then-Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani urged the city's DSA chapter not to endorse, and its electoral working group voted 52 percent to 46 percent against backing Ossé. Ocasio-Cortez kept her distance too, telling Axios, "I certainly don't think a primary challenge to the leader is a good idea right now."
"I have no intention of running this race without the support of NYC-DSA, of which I am proud to be a member," Ossé said in a statement at the time.
Nine of 10 NYC-DSA-backed candidates won their primaries in June. At democratic socialist Claire Valdez's victory party, supporters chanted "You're next!" when Jeffries appeared on screen. "Chi would have won," NYC-DSA co-chair Gustavo Gordillo said on X.
Fellow co-chair Grace Mausser did not rule out a DSA-backed primary against him in 2028 or 2030.
"Hakeem Jeffries only cares about keeping the corporate donations rolling in," Mausser said in a statement to Newsweek this fall.
Hillary Scholten, Michigan's 3rd District
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Scholten, a Grand Rapids Democrat, won a third term on November 3, beating Republican Terri DeBoer 57.3 percent to 41.2 percent in unofficial results.
During the general election, she was among the few Michigan Democrats who withheld an endorsement from El-Sayed, citing his ties to Piker. She called the streamer "a hack who thrives on hate, shock and awe because he lacks substance."
On his election night stream, Piker made clear Scholten is a top target for a 2028 primary challenge, City Journal reported.
Scholten flipped the seat in 2022, becoming the first Democrat to represent Grand Rapids since the 1970s. A primary there would play out on more competitive ground than the deep-blue New York City districts where DSA has notched its biggest wins.
Ritchie Torres, New York's 15th District
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Torres beat former Assembly Member Michael Blake 71.95 percent to 21.81 percent in the Bronx in June, even as two other New York City incumbents lost to Mamdani-backed challengers. Blake had built his campaign around Torres's support for Israel and his ties to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC).
Blake was not a DSA member and did not get the group's institutional backing, and Mamdani stayed out of the race. Torres also outraised him roughly $6.7 million to $412,000, according to federal filings.
"There's clearly a lot of hunger to challenge him," Gordillo told City & State. Likely redistricting makes the group's 2028 strategy hard to predict, he said, though he named one thing Torres could do to avoid a DSA-backed challenge: "Ritchie Torres needs to break ties with AIPAC."
Torres has called DSA "despicable, detestable, disgraceful, and disgraced."
Other New York City House Democrats
After Mamdani's 2025 mayoral primary win, chapter leaders warned they could go after several House incumbents in the city. In June, Mamdani-backed challengers Darializa Avila Chevalier and Brad Lander ousted Representatives Adriano Espaillat and Dan Goldman.
In July 2025, CNN reported that Mamdani allies wanted to unseat Jeffries along with Representatives Jerry Nadler, Dan Goldman, Yvette Clarke and Torres. "If Team Gentrification wants a primary fight, our response will be forceful and unrelenting," a Jeffries adviser told the network. Nadler has since retired, Goldman lost, and the chapter has not publicly named new House targets since the midterms. Mausser has said membership doubled to more than 12,000 people in a year.
Representative Gregory Meeks, whose Queens district borders Valdez's, pushed back after the June chants. Jeffries would likely be the first Black speaker of the House, he said, and "people died to see something like that opportunity."
Democrats won the House majority in November, and Jeffries is expected to be elected speaker when the new Congress convenes in January.
Contact Newsweek editors on this story: Samantha Beech and Gray R. Thomas
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