A veteran Democratic campaign strategist is turning his super PAC against the surging Democratic Socialists of America in New York, the New York Post reports.
"They're not Democrats," said Hank Sheinkopf, founder of the pro-law enforcement PAC Protect the Protectors. "They want to take apart the American system."
Sheinkopf, who worked on Bill Clinton's re-election campaign and calls himself a moderate Democrat, accused the DSA of antisemitism, pointing in part to its support for the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel. "It always starts with the Jews but it doesn't end with the Jews," he said. New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, a DSA member, and the DSA deny that their positions are antisemitic.
He said the group will build an operation to knock on doors and challenge DSA candidates for the state Legislature, City Council, Congress and citywide and statewide offices.
The PAC spent about $200,000 in the final stretch of last year's mayoral race and failed to stop Mamdani. The DSA now holds the mayor's office, four City Council seats, and will have 14 members in the state Legislature and eight in the House come January. DSA candidate Nithya Raman also won the Los Angeles mayoralty last week, and socialists are already pressing Gov. Kathy Hochul to "tax the rich."
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