here are some of our takeaways from tuesdays primaries creditdavid dee delgado for the new york timesjune 27 2018it was a night of rebellion among democrats and loyalty for republicans liberal activists upended the democratic establishment in multiple primary races on tuesday while republican voters backed candidates anointed by president trump the night broke the pattern of the last few years when republicans often challenged their leaders and democrats usually fell in linehere are some of our takeawaysa landmark political moment in new yorkimagecrediterin schaff for the new york timesa political revolution or something like it just rippled through new york citythe defeat of representative joseph crowley in a democratic primary qualifies as an unheardof event a powerful lawmaker who controlled the queens democratic party and was seen as a potential speaker of the house crumbled against a challenge from alexandria ocasiocortez a 28yearold liberal activist and firsttime candidate who was backed by a few national progressive groupsher victory is a stunning illustration of the energy on the left this year and an echo of the republican primaries in 2014 that saw another aspiring speaker of the house eric cantor of virginia felled by an upstart on the rightbut ms ocasiocortez was not the only liberal insurgent or the only young candidate of color to rattle the entrenched democrats in the city in brooklyn adem bunkeddeko nearly unseated representative yvette clarke a veteran incumbent from a local dynasty he lost by barely 1000 votes and representative carolyn maloney drew less than threefifths of the vote against another firsttime candidate suraj patelestablishmentbacked democrats fared better elsewhere including a contentious house primary in colorado but the unrest in new york city is a landmark moment for all its cultural liberalism the city is usually a politically rigid place a tough arena for newcomers given the party machines and election laws that discourage competition on tuesday night the ossified democratic institutions got a new kind of scareand one of the very methods new yorks democratic establishment uses to maintain its grip separating federal and state primaries to better control the electorate could now come back to haunt them ms ocasiocortezs triumph will deliver an injection of money and energy into cynthia nixons challenge to gov andrew cuomo offering her the sort of momentum going into the september primary that she might not have had were it not for the states bifurcated nominating processimagecredittom brennerthe new york timesthe threat to nancy pelosifor congressional democrats who are eager to replace representative nancy pelosi and the rest of the septuagenarian house leadership team mr crowley at 56 had offered the promise of a generational transitionthat hope vanished with his defeat and now the race to replace ms pelosi whether this year or in the future is wide openon the surface mr crowleys exit means ms pelosi has one less potential rival looming in the wings but the vacuum he has created could also present new challenges to the california democrats grip on the house caucus which