If you've been paying attention to the politics headlines this summer, then you've probably noticed that far-left candidates are having something of a moment.

You can start in New York City and head west. First up there's the Big Apple's Democratic Socialist Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who's been filling potholes and making national headlines for stewardship of the nation's largest city.

Next stop, Michigan, a crucial battleground state, and that's where you'll find Abdul El-Sayed, who narrowly won a nationally watched U.S. Senate primary, besting moderate Haley Stevens.

Keep going until you hit the Rockies for Melat Kiros, the Democratic Socialists of America-aligned candidate, who defeated long-serving U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette, D-Colo., last month.

And on Tuesday night, Florida state Rep. Angie Nixon, also a DSA candidate, bested former Army intelligence officer Alexander Vindman in the Sunshine State's Democratic U.S. Senate primary.

When Josh Wolfsun looks at all these races, he sees one thing for Massachusetts: A real opportunity for progressive challengers in a state where it's notoriously difficult to defeat incumbent state lawmakers.

Wolfsun is the Massachusetts state director of the Working Families Party, the upstart party that's backing challengers in some key legislative races this year.

Read More: Why some of Beacon Hill's biggest names are on this upstart party's 2026 hit list

"Voters across the country are showing they're tired of Democrats who are failing to stand up for working people," he told MassLive this week. "They're tired of a politics that keeps us fighting for scraps. This is the moment that we're in."

There's no doubt that the appeal of progressive alternatives is growing among Democratic voters who are looking for an alternative to the party's mainstream leadership.

In Western Massachusetts, the River Valley Chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America, which spans Franklin, Hampshire and Hampden counties, now boasts 500 members, New Hampshire Public Radio recently reported.

"I think that people are tired of politicians that make promises they have no intention of keeping, or who say one thing when talking to working-class voters, and a different thing when talking to their wealthy donors," the group's co-chairperson, Sasha Morsmith, told the station. "DSA candidates don't talk to wealthy donors. We don't have them."

In the eastern half of the state, the Boston DSA chapter endorsed Evan MacKay, who's reprising their challenge to state Rep. Marjorie Decker in the Cambridge-based 25th Middlesex District seat.

MacKay, who came within just 41 votes of unseating Decker in the 2024 Democratic primary, firmly believes the second time's the charm.

"The results from 2024 demonstrate a hunger, a desire for more," MacKay told The Boston Globe earlier this year. "The cost of housing is unacceptable. Childcare, unacceptable. (The Legislature) is still stuck in the old ways of the status quo."

Other signs of this progressive surge are showing across the state's political landscape.

At least five members of the state's all-Democrat U.S. House delegation are facing primary challenges this year.

Internal polling in one of those contests, the fight for the South Boston-South Shore-based 8th District, shows challenger Patrick Roath trailing incumbent U.S. Rep. Stephen Lynch by seven points (50%-43%).

A few caveats: The poll of 469 likely Democratic primary voters was conducted by the pro-Roath PAC Leaders We Deserve, co-founded by Parkland survivor David Hogg. And it had a margin of error of 4.53%.

But in a race with zero public polling, it is at least an indication of public sentiment.

And when it isn't about age, the Democratic U.S. Senate primary between incumbent Sen. Ed Markey and U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton, D-6th District, is all about which of the two candidates can out-progressive the other.

At the moment, and after some wild swings, it's advantage Markey.

The UMass Amherst/WCVB-TV poll released Monday showed Markey, 80, with a 60%-32% edge over Moulton, 47, among likely Democratic primary voters.

The poll's 445 likely Democratic primary voter respondents gave Markey the edge when they were asked who would better represent a variety of constituencies, from veterans and immigrants to seniors and women.

Markey, who has raced to claim the progressive mantle, also was viewed as the more liberal of the two candidates, according to the poll, which had a margin of error of 5.8% among likely primary voters.

That progressive messaging might resonate with Democratic primary voters who tend to be the most engaged section of the base in a midterm year that's expected to favor Democrats.

But at least one Massachusetts pol isn't convinced that it's a winning message to take to the rest of the nation as Democrats look to retake the White House in 2028.

He doesn't have to look any further than his own experience to know that.

Back when he was still in the state House, then-Democratic state Rep. John C. Velis planned to cross the aisle and vote with Republicans on a bill — much to the irritation of the chamber's Democratic leadership.

"A member of leadership came up to me and said, 'Hey, you know, don't do this.' And I said, 'I'm doing this. I'm voting this way. I'm voting my district,'" Velis, now a state senator who represents Hampden/Hampshire District on Beacon Hill, said.

"And a further conversation ensued. And I said, mark my words, my House seat is gonna go back to the Republicans, whether I go back and practice law, whether something else comes along. And it did," the Westfield lawmaker said.

Velis' old seat is currently held by Republican state Rep Kelly Pease.

And for Velis, that's a reminder that Democrats need to broaden their appeal beyond liberal enclaves, to remember "that what plays in, say, Somerville or Cambridge might not play in Agawam."

"If the Democratic Party becomes a party, and I've had this happen to me since I got back (from a National Guard deployment), you know, that shuns the flag and shuns patriotism, I believe firmly that will bite us in the ass in 2028," Velis said.

During a stop in Pittsfield over the weekend, U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., brushed aside a suggestion that overtly progressive messaging might alienate some voters.

"I think the economics of what's happening to American families plays everywhere in America," Warren said. " ... Americans have been telling us election after election after election, they want someone who's going to listen to them and bring down costs."

"... And I understand Republicans are going to do their damn level best to make it all about something else, not about economics and not about corruption," she continued.

"But our job is to stick with costs and corruption, costs and corruption. And not only talk about it, but actually deliver real change when we have the power to do it,' Warren said.

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