While the rest of the country is trying to figure out just how to feel about the Democratic Socialists of America, the party itself knows exactly what it is – and it’s coming to a city near you.
Are progressive Democrats dooming the party for the midterms?
Democratic leaders are concerned that the momentum from Democratic socialists will be used by the GOP to paint the entire party as liberal activists.
NEW YORK CITY – There’s a red wave hitting the Big Apple, and it’s not the kind you’re thinking of. This one has a socialist tint.
I was recently at a club in industrial Ridgewood, Queens, called Nowadays – the same spot that Mayor Zohran Mamdani visited on the campaign trail – and I was one of the only people not wearing red.
Surrounding me were members of the Democratic Socialists of America’s New York City chapter, and nearly everyone donned the group’s signature crimson. Several people wore shirts that said, “I <3 DSA,” a play on the classic New York City souvenir. A jersey featured the phrase “socialism in our lifetime.” I even spotted a T-shirt with Calvin of “Calvin and Hobbes” urinating on the word “capitalism.” For those who forgot to wear a shirt or carry a tote bag for the political party, merch was set up on a picnic table.
Democratic socialists are taking a victory lap in NYC. It’s too soon.
On July 24, more than 200 people gathered in this corner of the city’s so-called Commie Corridor for DSA’s victory party, a celebration of all their wins in the state’s recent midterm primary elections.
Picnic tables lined the perimeter, where the DSA’s many working groups had set up shop: the Socialist Feminist Working Group, the Tech Action committee, Young DSA, a group for Palestinian liberation, even a socialist choir and a committee offering self-defense courses. The attendees – mostly young people, diverse in race and gender – were excited and eager to talk about their movement.
The movement has been around since the 1980s but has gained momentum – and notoriety – following Mamdani’s election in 2025. Now, everyone in media and politics is trying to pin down exactly what the democratic socialists believe and what their next steps are. After amassing power in the city and state, they have their sights set on the rest of the country – if they can only convince other people their ideas aren’t that radical.
“Socialism” is the right’s new favorite buzzword for any progressive, left-leaning policy they despise – and they are wielding it any chance they get. To conservatives, anything left of the GOP is “communism.” But the Democrats don’t seem particularly fond of the DSA, either.
Back in June, former Democratic National Committee Chair Jaime Harrison criticized DSA on social media without addressing it by name: “If you hate the Democratic Party, then please don’t run for our nomination. … Political parties aren’t perfect, but they’re built by millions of people who knock doors, make calls, organize meetings, and fight for the values they believe in. If you don’t believe in the party, then don’t ask its members to carry you across the finish line.”
The general public also seems skeptical of this newly energized political party. A June poll from the left-leaning Data for Progress found that 42% of New York state residents have an unfavorable view of DSA – even if they generally seem to like democratic socialist candidates, like Mamdani and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
Then there’s the media’s newfound fascination with the DSA. Fox News has dedicated countless headlines to the encroachment of leftist values on the Democratic Party. The Wall Street Journal’s Editorial Board decried the national DSA’s new party platform, which, to be fair, includes ideas like abolishing the Senate and having Congress select the president.
All of this attention on the DSA and democratic socialists more broadly seems to be a combination of intrigue and anxiety. What do you mean you believe in free health care?
But while the rest of the country is trying to figure out just how to feel about the DSA, the party itself knows exactly what it is – and it’s coming to a city near you.
The DSA won big in New York. Will that translate across the country?
In New York City, DSA has about 15,000 members across the five boroughs, with more than 7,000 of these members joining since Mamdani won the mayoral primary last summer.
Aside from the mayor and Ocasio-Cortez, there are two DSA members – Claire Valdez and Darializa Avila Chevalier – who recently won their Democratic congressional primaries and are almost certain to join the U.S. House of Representatives in 2027.
Their wins aren’t limited to the city, though.
I spoke with Daniel Atonna, a member of the Poughkeepsie Common Council and the Mid-Hudson Valley DSA, about why he chose to run as a democratic socialist. He explained that he was previously a volunteer on the presidential campaign of Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vermont.
Growing up in a working-class immigrant household, Atonna saw his mother work multiple jobs throughout his childhood. He got a job at 15 years old. Yet the family still struggled and experienced homelessness at one point.
“It wasn’t because my mom or I weren’t working hard enough, but it was actually because of this broader social, political and economic system called capitalism that is oppressing everyone,” Atonna told me as reggae music blared over the loudspeakers.
As a first-year councilmember, Atonna said, he and the Mid-Hudson Valley DSA have been working to replace lead pipes and pass tenant protections, like “good cause” eviction.
Another person I spoke with was state Sen. Kristen Gonzalez, who helped draft the data center moratorium that passed in the New York Assembly prior to Gov. Kathy Hochul’s executive order on the issue.
Both Gonzalez and Atonna are tackling policies that affect everyday New Yorkers. That’s part of why people like DSA – they see the change that its elected officials are implementing, and how it is improving their lives.
Democratic socialists have to convince voters – and Democrats
Despite the jubilation I saw in the Nowadays backyard, I’m not entirely sure I buy what DSA is selling. Everyone I spoke with kept telling me what the party does differently – how the Democratic Socialists of America actually care about the people they represent, how they are committed to field organizing, how the organization is a net positive in the lives of its members.
These are nice sentiments, but they’re also the same platitudes I hear from both mainstream political parties.
I’d go so far as to say that DSA has taken pages out of other teams’ playbooks. After all, former President Barack Obama’s wins in 2008 and 2012 were the product of a robust field organizing program. Medicare for all has been a rallying cry among the most left members of the Democratic Party for years.
One of the issues Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Massachusetts, has championed is removing corporate dollars from elections. Even the Green New Deal, one of the biggest campaign issues for the party, originated with the Green Party.
DSA will also have to fight an uphill battle in middle America. For generations, this nation has been wary of anything that could be considered communism, even if democratic socialism is not the same thing. This can be solved through education, of course, but I don’t think reading theory is for everyone.
The Democratic Socialists of America will also have to fight the perception as being a working-class party that does not include the working class. Everyone I spoke with that Friday afternoon had a college degree, and while they argued that their definition of “working class” includes anyone who does not own a business, I think a lot of people where I grew up would struggle to find solidarity with people who don’t work blue-collar jobs. Doesn’t mean it’s a lost cause, but it would be more difficult than I think some members of DSA are willing to believe.
What is left to be seen is whether the Democrats and the DSA can work together to create a better party. It certainly seems like there’s a lot the Democratic Party could learn from DSA’s recent wins, namely how a strong affordability platform, no matter how bold, can win over voters that can’t be bought through corporate lobbying. Yet it doesn’t seem like Democratic leaders are game to even try working with DSA, and it doesn’t seem like the democratic socialists are ready to start calling members of the establishment “comrade.”
While I support many of the ideas espoused by DSA – and have even voiced support for its candidates – I’m still wary of any organization that wants its members to support it unequivocally, and I worry that DSA’s not interested in incremental change.
I left the victory party grateful to still be wearing all black – a color that says I don’t have to pick a side, a party, a movement.
Follow USA TODAY columnist Sara Pequeño on Bluesky: @sarapequeno.bsky.social