For years, a group of Democrats in the New York State Senate were thorns in the sides of progressives around the state. But that changed with the Democratic Primary: six of the Independent Democratic Conference's eight members were toppled by challengers.

It was an overwhelming loss for the breakaway group, which for years had a deal with Senate Republicans that allowed them to hold control despite having a slight minority in seats.

One of the people behind the campaign to defeat the IDC is Heather Stewart, an activist who founded the group Empire State Indivisible in 2016. She told WNYC host Jami Floyd that she thinks one of the only reasons that the IDC members held on to their seats for so long, was because voters didn't understand what the group was. So, her group hit the streets to educate their neighbors on the IDC's role in Albany.

"Pretty quickly, you started to see people...were enraged by the IDC," Stewart said.