Fetterman warns of rise of ‘dirtbag left’ amid victories by democratic socialists in New York

Senate Fetterman warns of rise of ‘dirtbag left’ amid victories by democratic socialists in New York Comments: by Ryan Mancini - 06/24/26 9:06 AM ET Comments: Link copied by Ryan Mancini - 06/24/26 9:06 AM ET Comments: Link copied

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Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) is offering a warning about the rise of a “dirtbag left” within the Democratic Party, a reference to candidates on the left who have run and won primaries while identifying themselves as democratic socialists.

Two such candidates community activist Darializa Avila Chevalier and New York Assembly member Claire Valdez emerged victorius on Tuesday night in New York Democratic House primaries. Both are democratic socialists who were backed by New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani.

Chevalier defeated Rep. Adriano Espaillat (D-N.Y.), the chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, while Valdez beat progressive candiate and Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso, who was backed by retiring Rep. Nydia Velázquez (D-N.Y.).

“Yeah, no, I mean, these — the kind of people they are trying to run out of office, they are just good, traditional kinds of Democrats you would expect in New York City now,” Fetterman told Fox News’s Sean Hannity.

“And now this has just become — really, it’s just been the dancing days of the dirtbag left. You know, some of these candidates are outrageous. You have candidates, they’re ‘abolish ICE,’ ‘abolish the police,’ ‘abolish the border.'”

The term “dirtbag left” refers to left-wing political critics generally supportive of progressive and democratic socialist causes and openly critical of mainstream Democrats. Writer Amber A’Lee Frost, one of the co-hosts of the so-called “dirtbag left” podcast “Chapo Trap House,” is credited with coining the term.

Fetterman, who rode on a wave of similar popular support to defeat former Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) in 2022, has become a vocal critic of the growing left-wing movement within the Democratic Party in recent years. He accused these candidates of being a “pro-Hamas wing… just declaring a war on just regular Democrats.”

Fetterman blasted Chevalier for previously posting on the social platform X “f— Kamala Harris.”

The senator then accused Mamdani, after mispronouncing his name, of “grieving a Hamas sniper,” referring to Al Jazeera cameraman Ahmed Wishah. The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) accused Wishah of being a Hamas militant after he was recently killed in an IDF strike in the Gaza Strip. Al Jazeera has called the IDF’s claim a “smear campaign.”

Asked by CNN’s Kaitlan Collins about Fetterman’s “dirtbag left” remarks, Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) chuckled, adding that “if you want to heal a country, you can’t be picking fights.”

“I think we need to understand that our party is not homogeneous,” he said. “One of the things that make the Democratic Party great is it’s a big tent party. We need to stay that way. The focus has got to be the November elections.”

Former New York City Comptroller Brad Lander (D), who defeated Rep. Dan Goldman (D-N.Y.) in the Democratic primary for New York’s 10th Congressional District, told Collins that he was “not sure if Fetterman is in our party anymore, to be honest.”

“Democrats are having primaries to determine what kind of candidates we want to put on the field, and they‘ll be a diverse array of candidates because they reflect and represent a diverse array of districts,” Lander, another Mamdani-endorsed candidate, said. “Primaries are a time to have those fights out. And then, as we head toward the fall, it‘s a time of unity. I will try to be a force of unity.”

He urged Fetterman to “stop attacking other Democrats and decide to rejoin the fold,” but noted that if the senator chooses “to leave the party, we’ve got a lot of great fighters who can show up and fight for working families.”