Communist Party Member Elected To Local Council

While the buzz has focused on New York City’s election of a self-described democratic socialist as mayor, the upstate New York town of Ithaca went a step further and elected a full-blown Communist to its council.

20-year-old Hannah Shvets, a member of the Communist Party USA, was elected to the Ithaca Common Council in the Fifth Ward.

Shvets, a Cornell University sophomore, defeated independent candidate and former Democratic primary hopeful G.P. Zurenda.

BREAKING — New York Communist Hannah Shvets Wins Ward 5. pic.twitter.com/NvpwTkh6u2

— Pamphlets (@PamphletsY) November 8, 2025

Daily Mail shared:

Cornell Young Democratic Socialists of America celebrated her win on Instagram by sharing a picture of Shvets posing alongside a cardboard cutout of newly elected New York City mayor Mamdani.

Mamdani enjoyed a resounding victory in New York City running against former Governor Andrew Cuomo, who was endorsed by President Donald Trump.

‘Our candidate Hannah Shvets has become the youngest socialist elected in US history and will be one of Ithaca’s newest Common Council members,’ the group wrote on Instagram.

‘Thank you to everyone who made calls, knocked doors, told your friends, and voted. This is all of our win and part of a new socialist future in America.’

Shvets is a proponent of rent stabilization, like Mamdani, and increasing housing supply in the area.

“I just think it’s really important now to bring together issues of affordability and issues of justice. We need to find ways to make Ithaca a place in which both locals and students can live and afford to live and thrive,” Shvets said, according to the New York Post.

Hannah Shvets ran as a Democrat and was endorsed by local left-wing groups including Ithaca DSA, Cornell YDSA and the Ithaca Tenants Union, her campaign site says.

She has been described as a member of the Communist Party USA by People’s World, a CPUSA-aligned outlet pic.twitter.com/P52g7QQtrw

— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) November 11, 2025

More from the New York Post:

Four out of 10 seats on the Ithaca Common Council were occupied by Cornell students ahead of Nov. 4’s election.

ADVERTISEMENT

Among her ambitious pledges were raising the minimum wage to $25 an hour — just under the $30-an-hour figure promised by Mamdani — and adopting a just-cause employment policy that would make it far harder for employers to fire workers without good reason.

Similar to Mamdani, she campaigned on protecting rent-stabilized tenants from eviction except on grounds allowed by law.