As we gear up for the 2025 DSA National Political Committee (NPC) elections, we want to thank all candidates who stepped forward to serve — and all of you, the delegates and members, who are engaging in this democratic process.

Besides the candidates’ answers to the questionnaires in this Compendium, you will have an additional opportunity to get to know the NPC and Co-Chair candidates through the following events:

NPC Video Forum

NPC Candidate video statements, which constitute the official NPC Forum, will be posted on the National DSA Discussion Forum on July 10, 2025.

Each video statement allows candidates up to five minutes to introduce themselves, share their priorities, and explain why they’re running. They will be posted here on the National DSA Forums: https://discussion.dsausa.org/c/convention-2025/

Co-Chair Live Forum

We’re excited to be hosting the first-ever NPC Co-Chair Candidate Forum, taking place Thursday, July 17th at 8 PM ET / 7 PM CT / 6 PM MT / 5 PM PT!

This forum is an important opportunity for DSA members to get to know the candidates running for our most pivotal role — our full-time, paid leaders and spokespeople. It’s a chance to hear directly from them about their vision, leadership style, and how they plan to guide DSA in the next two years.

The forum will be moderated by Faye W., Editor-in-Chief of Democratic Left, and Gary Z. from Metro DC DSA Publications. The event will be recorded and posted to the National DSA Discussion Forum afterward for those who can’t attend live.

Co-Chair Forum Format:

Segment 1: Candidates will answer pre-prepared questions. These questions will be shared with candidates in advance to allow for thoughtful responses.
Segment 2: A roundtable-style discussion featuring questions submitted by DSA members! Submit your question(s) here!: https://form.jotform.com/251766393312055

Don’t miss this chance to engage directly with the people hoping to lead our national organization — see you there!

About the Democracy Commission (CB1) Reform Package

The Democracy Commission (CB1) Reform Package, which includes recommendations related to governance and democratic structure, will be voted on before the NPC elections take place. Among the proposed changes is a potential expansion of the NPC .

Should the reform package pass and include a provision to expand the size of the NPC, the newly elected NPC will have the authority to implement that expansion immediately , in accordance with Convention Rules II.D.16:

"Constitutional and Bylaws changes and resolutions will take effect only after the Convention Minutes have been approved by the NPC, with the exception of constitutional and bylaw changes pertaining to the number of seats on the NPC, to allow the 2025 NPC election to immediately fill any expanded seats."

This provision means that if more seats are created by Convention, they can be filled through the current election cycle, rather than waiting for the next election. Candidates will be given the opportunity to confirm their continued interest in running for the NPC between the vote on the DemComm proposals and the NPC election.

As we move into the final stretch of the election season, we’re excited about the opportunity to deepen democratic engagement and strengthen our movement together through this election process.

In Solidarity,

The DSA Convention Rules & Elections Committee

NPC Candidates

Questions -

Are you running for an At-Large NPC seat or for one of the two Co-Chair seats?
Why are you running for NPC?
Please describe your experience in DSA so far: when you joined/how long you’ve been a member, what kind of organizing and campaigns you’ve worked on, any leadership positions you’ve held, and any highlights or challenges you’ve encountered.
What is your diagnosis of the broader political scenario DSA will face during your term? What will be the most urgent challenges, and what policies and internal projects or reforms should we champion during that time?
In order to have a viable socialist movement, we need our organization to be rooted in the broader working class. How can we make DSA’s membership more reflective of the multiracial working class? What specific things do you propose?
What should the relationship between the national organization and local chapters look like—how should they engage each other and what role should NPC members take in shaping that relationship?
Have you ever held a position within or on behalf of law enforcement (such as a police union organizer)?
If you would like to share any links to articles you’ve written, a portfolio, or similar resources you feel will be useful for members to get to know you, do so here.

Sumter Alton

Atlanta, Georgia (They/Them, He/Him)

Are you running for an At-Large NPC seat or for one of the two Co-Chair seats (or both)? At-Large

Why are you running for NPC?

Every two years, we hear that we have entered a new era in history, the upcoming election is a pivotal moment, and that DSA is at a crossroads. And every time we pass that moment, the dramatic change we all expected fails to materialize. The reality is that change, victory, new structures, and better practices don’t snap into being, they arise through daily activity and consistent effort. I am running for NPC because we deserve responsive leadership with a proven record of achieving socialist successes. I know that crises are not solved by rigid adherence to “correct” ideas, but they can be avoided through strategic thinking and a disciplined approach. If we want our dream for DSA to become a reality, it will take consistent work by tens of thousands of socialists, members, volunteers, allies, and champions to lay the groundwork for tomorrow's success. Lenin said history happens in the millions, Marx said history is made by humans, but not entirely as they please. I think we have a chance to make history - through a national, unified Labor movement, where our members shape a safe, free, socialist society in their vision, as they please. If we want to make history, we need to engage our whole mass of members where they are today. Groundwork has plans to do that.

Please describe your experience in DSA so far: when you joined/how long you’ve been a member, what kind of organizing and campaigns you’ve worked on, any leadership positions you’ve held, and any highlights or challenges you’ve encountered.

I have been a member of DSA since 2017. Until 2020, I worked through YDSA, building my chapter into the largest in the country while co-chair. We won material investment in student mental health during a stress crisis, and helped organize the first wall-to-wall union in our campus’ history. I also served on the National Labor Committee, developing the organization’s orientation towards labor and strategic campaigns.

During COVID, I graduated and became active in Atlanta DSA. We immediately faced the issue of no in-person gatherings – a key activity for any organization. Our members felt isolated, so I helped organize the first “block” program, which later became Branches, to keep members in touch. I took a leadership role in my chapter’s Labor Committee, teaching members and recruited workers how to organize their workplace and engage in strike support.

I was also elected to the chapter Steering Committee. As Recording Secretary, I established the Operations Committee to support all chapter-wide organizing through tech tools and member outreach. As Membership Secretary and Co-Chair, I reestablished political education programs and regular chapter socials to engage and develop members.

I participated in National Labor Commission K-12 Education organizing, and served on the Democracy Commission for two years. I am proud of the patient research and thoughtful proposals we drafted. In short, I have experience working at every level of DSA, understanding the strengths and challenges at each and learning how to work with diverse nation-wide tendencies and perspectives constructively, both in person and digitally.

What is your diagnosis of the broader political scenario DSA will face during your term? What will be the most urgent challenges, and what policies and internal projects or reforms should we champion during that time?

So far, we have seen historic resistance and ridicule by millions of people against a wannabe-fascist Trump regime. The No Kings and 50-50-1 Movement protests have brought millions of people into the streets and tens of millions more into alignment against the vicious, heartless Republican government.

While the path to Trump’s presidency was paved by the negligence of top Democratic leadership, the right wing has explicitly ramped up attacks on unions, immigrants, trans people, and women. DSA needs to lead the fight against fascism, but we need to do it by acting as teachers to new activists and decentralized groups. Every movement is transient and “of its time”, and if we don’t act now, we will lose the opportunity to teach millions of people about why we fight and how to win in the long run – the socialist movement.

To achieve this, we need to act as a party, a counterbalance to spontaneous and short-lived energy, to make the movement for a better world more complete. There are plenty of apolitical “liberal resistance” groups, and there are plenty of cadre-sect “Trotskyist” organizations. DSA is and must act like the center of the American left, a principled socialist group that is welcoming to anyone interested in the long, hard fight against capitalism and the rule of billionaires.

We need robust member development programs, unified political education curricula that prioritize organizing tactics and political analysis, strong fundraising and recruitment organs, and the ability to win and replicate those wins repeatedly.

In order to have a viable socialist movement, we need our organization to be rooted in the broader working class. How can we make DSA’s membership more reflective of the multiracial working class? What specific things do you propose?

Three simple things:

Work to support labor unions and teach our members how to organize their workplaces, form and strengthen unions, and develop strong political analysis of how to win campaigns in and through their unions. The working class has its greatest leverage at the site of production, and the workplace forces us to be organized and in contact with one another. It remains the most consistent and clear site of struggle under capitalism.

Establish and scale up electoral campaigns that have proven to engage hundreds, thousands, or more people in each race. DSA has grown because of our willingness to engage with the contradictions of electoral work. It is still the best way to identify and develop leaders everywhere outside the workplace to hold the state accountable to working class needs.

Reestablish and properly invest in multiracial, antiracist, queer-safe recruitment and organizing practices in DSA. Our society is deeply divided and our institutions and government replicate and exacerbate divisions on racial, gender, ethnic, and national lines. We need to prioritize recruitment work and have millions of members from every segment of society, especially by asking organic leaders to join DSA and learn about democratic socialism.

What should the relationship between the national organization and local chapters look like--how should they engage each other and what role should NPC members take in shaping that relationship?

There is a political and an administrative function to the NPC and DSA’s leaders. Administratively, the role of the national organization should be to collect, study, propagate, and replicate best practices in our chapters. Politically, the NPC and our national leaders should be the most effective organizers capable of casting the longest, most strategic view of our work in the organization.

This means chapters must respect decisions of the national organization. However, for this to happen, rank-and-file members must have greater say in the dominant political questions of the day. Jane Macalevey says a leader is a leader because people choose to follow them – the NPC can only forge a path forward if members trust it to adopt the constructive concrete decisions of the majority and enact them across the entire organization.

In August 2027, I want every DSA member to understand exactly what the national organization means to them, how they can engage their leaders, and what they can collectively do to shape the direction of our organization. The successes and struggles of one chapter should not be irrelevant to the members of another. The Democracy Commission proposal is a key way to begin establishing the routine standards of a mass political party. We should build on that work to make DSA into the well-oiled machine of an organization we know it needs to be.

Have you ever held a position within or on behalf of law enforcement (such as a police union organizer)? No

If you would like to share any links to articles you’ve written, a portfolio, or similar resources you feel will be useful for members to get to know you, do so here.

I have written in multiple places, most commonly in my chapter publication.

https://redclaycomrade.org/2022/08/socialists-can-build-something-great-in-the-labor-movement

https://redclaycomrade.org/2021/10/how-the-left-can-make-change/

https://redclaycomrade.org/2023/10/building-a-socialist-labor-movement-in-the-south/

https://redclaycomrade.org/2022/10/georgia-voters-face-a-high-stakes-test/

Christian Araos

Long Island, New York (He/Him)

Are you running for an At-Large NPC seat or for one of the two Co-Chair seats (or both)? At-Large

Why are you running for NPC?

I am running for NPC because I believe in the potential of DSA to inspire the masses in both the US and abroad to build popular struggles to win socialism. This is a singular opportunity for DSA to take advantage of popular discontent with both the Trump Administration and the Democratic Party leadership to become a powerful political force in national politics. As one of its thousands of volunteers, I am seeing how positive a first step the Zohran campaign has been. I also believe that we can replicate the success of that campaign nationwide. We are seeing that it is both possible and necessary for current and hopeful electeds to not back down to the Israel lobby and their allies; that our rank-and-file union members can organize their locals into supporting those officials; and, just as importantly, mobilize a multiracial, multigeneration core of volunteers, staffers, and organizers. In my five years on the IC, I’ve focused on building institutional relationships with PT and MORENA. In creating these connections, we’ve been able to share organizing experiences and trade perspectives on internal and external organizing. As a result, we've strengthened our understanding of how to build successful movements to gain working-class power, as we’re seeing with Zohran’s campaign. We need a DSA that opposes Trump by engaging the multigenerational, multiracial working class and pulling them into our movement. I want to spend the next two years on NPC serving DSA by making this a reality.

I joined DSA in 2017 in the immediate aftermath of the Unite the Right Rally at Charlottesville.

My first campaign involvement was in 2020 as a member of Suffolk County DSA as its representative to the Public Power Campaign and passed the Build Public Renewables Act. BPRA directed New York’s state energy authority to build, using union labor, publicly funded and owned renewable energy projects for low and middle-income New Yorkers. I also served as Suffolk County's electoral working group chair and won my first delegate election in 2021.

I joined the International Committee in 2020, where I organized panels on the Constitutional Reform process and the election of Gabriel Boric as president. I also wrote an internal analysis of what went wrong to lead to the draft constitution’s rejection.

In 2023, I collaborated with IC leaders to draft our consensus resolution and introduced it on the Convention Floor. That year, I began the first of my two terms as IC Americas Co-Chair, and I organized a sold-out viewing of The Battle of Chile at the Brooklyn Academy of Music to commemorate the 50th Anniversary of the CIA-backed coup against Salvador Allende. Later that month, I traveled to Brazil to represent DSA at the PSOL Party Congress and establish institutional ties with them.

I most recently helped revitalize DSA’s immigrant rights organization by co-drafting the charter for and being responsible for the successful launch of the International Migrants Rights Working Group.

DSA will confront a government that wants to destroy it. While the second Trump Administration has been characterized by its cartoonishness, we should not dare to take our continued existence for granted. We must stymie the Trump Administration domestically and abroad through coherent, inclusive organizing across all sectors of American life. We must be electorally direct and aggressive by primarying incumbent Democrats looking to cut deals with Trump or Musk; we must orient the labor movement away from supporting Trump’s nationalism; and we must use our diplomatic relationships to thwart imperialism and genocide. I believe that passing the Democracy Commission package along with 1M1V, where DSA would adopt democratic structures and practices shared by some of our strongest international Left party allies, will modernize and catapult us forward to be the popular force against fascism that we believe we can become. Both the PT and Frente Amplio of Chile instituted 1M1V for their party elections and it has successfully fostered greater member participation in their party’s activities and created a better atmosphere of camaraderie within their membership. We can have the same outcomes by passing this reform package which will produce the institutional consistency across chapters and national bodies needed to achieve successful nationwide campaigns.

When I helped launch the Mexico Working Group, I included as a goal the direct recruitment of members of MORENA (and its allies) living in the US into DSA. The group now has 60 members and holds standalone political education events on US-Mexico issues, such as arms trafficking, and MORENA’s US-based committees are organizing side-by-side with local chapters against ICE. Our immigrant rights organizing is placing both the national organization and local chapters side-by-side with the organizers most connected with the minority communities that we seek to grow our presence within. Through this multipronged approach, we are both educating ourselves on the issues most salient to minority communities while in active solidarity with them. Our migrants rights organizing is the best example of this approach coming to fruition. Not only have we identified it as a priority issue for our international relations but we modeled our toolkit on a strategy that is predicated on building local coalitions to protect communities. As a result, we are hosting mass organizing calls that have ranged between 200-500 attendees and seen over four dozen chapters implement our strategic plans to respond to Trump’s fascist attacks.

What should the relationship between the national organization and local chapters look like--how should they engage each other and what role should NPC members take in shaping that relationship?

The relationship between the national organization and the local chapter has to be rooted in a mutual respect that enables and supports the member. The national organization can provide support and connective tissue necessary for local chapters to plug themselves into broader campaigns and for members to develop the tools and skills necessary to be effective contributors to the work. Through this development approach, local chapters can grow membership and capacity, which enables the national organization to take greater leadership within the broader Left. With that said, there needs to be organizational consistency because we are ultimately one organization. We need to ensure that the member enjoys consistency should they change their chapter or join a new national body, especially if it's for the first time. This will help them be effective contributors and lead to more successful and positive experiences.

Have you ever held a position within or on behalf of law enforcement (such as a police union organizer)? No. Never.

Eleanor Babaev

New York City, New York (She/Her)

Are you running for an At-Large NPC seat or for one of the two Co-Chair seats (or both)? At-Large

Why are you running for NPC?

I am running for NPC because I believe I have the experience and perspective needed to take DSA from a patchwork of chapters into a mass, unified national organization. I was asked to run by comrades with whom I have organized with and respect their confidence in me. I would like to be more involved with DSA on the national level and bring the NYC perspective to chapters that might want to run similar campaigns to the ones we run in New York while learning from other chapters about what has been successful elsewhere. At a moment when the right is surging nationally we have a responsibility to be the answer. That requires building a strong national organization with a presence in all 50 states, at the ballot box and in our unions.

Inspired by the Bernie campaign, I found my political home in DSA in 2019. Within my first year as a member, I was elected to my YDSA chapter’s OC. During that time, I was a field lead for Bernie canvasses both within my university and across the city. Since graduating into DSA, I’ve been an active rank and file member of NYC DSA, canvassing regularly for Illapa for Assembly in 2022, supporting striking workers at Hunts Point Produce Market and Starbucks, hitting the pavement and fundraising for Jonathan Soto in 2024, leading DSA 101s and onboarding new members during the most recent Trump Bump, and supporting the NYC DSA Fundraising Committee including helping organize Thots and Trots– NYC DSA’s second highest earning fundraiser. Most recently as a regular canvasser in various neighborhoods across Brooklyn, Manhattan, and Queens and as a GOTV field lead, the Zohran campaign has reinvigorated my confidence in what DSA is capable of– a campaign that has rivaled Bernie’s in size and scope, only this time built in house. As a member of City Workers for Zohran, I organized a town hall where members of DC37, UFT, and other city workers were able to hear from their colleagues on Zohran’s platform and ask Zohran questions directly. Our group was also a key player in securing DC37–New York’s largest public sector union’s endorsement of Zohran. The biggest challenge I've encountered in DSA has been the lack of formalized infrastructure for inter/intrachapter communication, something I'd prioritize on the NPC.

In the last few months, we've gotten a taste of the immense amount of repression the left will face from Trump’s fascist regime. The Democrats laid the path to this as they relentlessly suppressed pro-Palestinian speech and activism over the past couple years and as they insisted on taking unpopular positions, running unconvincing candidates, and doubling down on their allegiance to capital. Their incompetence lost them the most consequential presidential election of many Americans' lifetimes and left many angry, looking for somewhere to turn. I believe that DSA, the only truly member-run socialist organization with expertise in running popular campaigns and vision for the kind of world we can build, has a responsibility to fill that vacuum. This means that we must be structured for the long haul, and playing into our strengths. Our robust democracy is what sets us apart from NGOs and top down parties; I would like to see the organization take formal steps to codify and standardize our democratic structures at the national level, including bringing democracy to every single member via 1M1V. Additionally, we must be bold and get creative in how we organize. The Zohran campaign has shown me that we can shoot for bigger targets, and with less than 3 years to build towards the May Day 2028 general strike that UAW has called for, we must ramp up our rank and file union organizing and increase the number of Socialists in Office that will be tribunes of our organization and class.

I would like to see DSA commit to making our membership more diverse by investing in leadership development for people of marginalized identities, and establish best practices from examples across DSA via the mechanisms outlined in the convention resolution Make DSA More Diverse put forward by Groundwork. I also believe that as we make greater inroads within the working class itself, our organization will become more reflective of it. This means we need to continue to strengthen ties with organized labor and continue to prioritize projects like EWOC as we have seen them deliver results when it comes to organizing some of the toughest, lowest paid jobs in the country. Lastly, people of color have more to lose if a project like ours fails and have historical reasons to be wary of participating. If we lose, engaging too much in liberal identity politics will correctly be interpreted as lip-service, if we want to attract more people of color to our organization then we have to keep winning and delivering material gains.

What should the relationship between the national organization and local chapters look like--how should they engage each other and what role should NPC members take in shaping that relationship?

If we are going to be a party-like organization, then the national organization needs to be far more accessible to local chapters and the relationship needs to be easier for new members to understand. In order to scale up and allow chapters to thrive, the national organization should allocate resources to chapters that need them. The NPC must serve as a guide to developing chapters and we should look to replicate the success of chapters that have grown faster than the national rate as a model. At-large members are the second largest grouping of members, after NYC-DSA, and we should find ways to engage them in the priorities we've voted on as a nationwide organization and provide the infrastructure to do so. If we are successful, the national organization via the NPC will be a political compass for the rest of the organization as the highest expression of our democratic processes. However, as the organization currently stands, national cannot be a true representation of the will of the members until it proportionally represents the members. It is essential that as we grow as an organization, our democracy grows with it.

Have you ever held a position within or on behalf of law enforcement (such as a police union organizer)? No

Hayley Banyai-Becker

Portland, Oregon (She/Her)

Are you running for an At-Large NPC seat or for one of the two Co-Chair seats (or both)? At-Large

Why are you running for NPC?

I am ecstatic to be running on the Bread & Roses slate to help build a stronger & more democratic DSA that prioritizes member leadership, development & political action across our organization. From '22-'24, I served as a national DSA organizer, supporting chapters & their campaigns across 12 states. This experience unexpectedly reshaped my perception of DSA: I had assumed that critical decisions were resolved by the members through democratic deliberation & strategic analysis of what would best serve DSA; however, that wasn’t always the case. In reality, there were times that member leaders didn’t have the full information needed to strategically analyze a situation & then deliberate to find a solution. To put it simply, I learned that members were not always the agents of change in DSA. The outgoing NPC initiated efforts to rectify this, & I am eager to leverage my insights gained from the staff perspective to continue this. DSA must be a pivotal force in establishing an authentic working-class party, actively engaging with rank-and-file union members to bring their energy and perspective into the socialist movement & cultivating members to assume leadership roles within their unions, DSA, & social movements such as the fight for a Free Palestine & abolishing ICE. The next NPC must endeavor to foster a stronger culture of democracy within DSA, empower members to assume ownership of the organization's direction, & actively work to build bridges with the broader labor & social movements globally. With the knowledge and experience I have, I am prepared to undertake this responsibility.

I joined DSA in 2019 while living in Denver, after running the field program for a US Senate candidate who was endorsed by all four Colorado DSA chapters. I joined the Denver chapter when her campaign abruptly ended during the COVID shutdown and I very quickly began serving as the electoral chair for over a year, during which time we successfully elected 3 members to the Colorado State House. In that same period, I led an organizing campaign to unionize the nonprofit I was working at with a fellow Denver DSA comrade. Inspired by these experiences, I joined DSA national staff as a regional field organizer and served in that role for two years. In August of 2024, I moved to Portland, Oregon and transitioned into the role of Field Director for DSA’s nationally endorsed campaign for Tiffany Koyama Lane for Portland City Council, where we knocked over 14,000 doors and identified over 8,000 voters across the district. Over the last 5 years, I have served as a campaign manager and/or field director on over 6 nationally endorsed campaigns. These days, I am a staff organizer at AFT-Oregon, representing 18,000 education workers across the state. I am also serving on the Portland DSA Steering Committee, National Electoral Steering Committee and an elected at-large member of the 2025 DSA Convention Planning Committee, where I am leading the programming coordination for this year's convention.

DSA is the largest, most impactful socialist organization in the United States. Our whole world is in chaos and DSA needs to be a steady hand for the working class to grab onto. Our most urgent challenge as the next NPC will be to offer resolute and unambiguous leadership in the midst of this chaos, and embody the hope that a better world is possible. We need to fight the repression of the current government and also seize the moment to build DSA by providing an alternative to the Democratic Party. I helped write this year’s NEC consensus resolution, which lays out criteria for the types of DSA candidates we should be striving to endorse: those who view themselves as socialist organizers first, and legislators second and will commit to grow their DSA chapter and develop DSA leaders through their campaign. We must also use the next two years to capitalize on the May Day 2028 call for mass strikes and mobilizations. This convention, we are bringing together unions and organizations from around the world, which can serve as the beginnings towards a genuine working class party. In order to do any of this well, we need a strong internal democracy.

DSA has a long way to go to be truly rooted within the broader working class and we need to be united in our effort to do so. The next NPC needs to lead DSA to be an organization that very clearly understands the difference between liberal politics that keep the working class divided and exploitation justified, and class struggle politics that bring together a multiracial working class to actually have enough power to win. There are three specific ways I believe we do this: 1) By rooting ourselves in workplaces as rank and file organizers in unions all across the country and bringing our coworkers into the socialist movement 2) By running true class struggle campaigns with candidates who are running to build and serve the movement. Most of our electoral work thus far has brought in people similar to the existing DSA demographic, and the way we run our campaigns can change that. 3) By prioritizing the fights for broad classwide demands, such as healthcare, education, jobs, and housing, that benefit all working-class people and many times, will disproportionately benefit oppressed groups. To execute these tactics effectively, a robust member-led communications committee and paid political leadership are essential, utilizing diverse media platforms to engage working-class communities.

What should the relationship between the national organization and local chapters look like--how should they engage each other and what role should NPC members take in shaping that relationship?

Unfortunately, chapters are generally pretty isolated from each other and from the national organization. It is rare that chapter leaders feel they have a close relationship to the national org or understand its inner workings, let alone general chapter members. I believe this is starting to get slightly better, but we still have a lot of work to do. National should be in constant communication with chapters to support them and plug them into mass campaigns, beyond biweekly emails. We need a strong Growth and Development Committee led by members that helps to develop a strong channel of communication between national and chapter members through all different forms of media. I also believe the members of the NPC should be more familiar with chapters, in regular communication, actively supporting the work of national campaigns and helping to engage chapters on those national campaigns. Successful organizing is rooted in relationships, and national committees, alongside NPC members, directly working with chapters is one crucial way we can scale up those relationships to build a stronger pipeline between national and local chapters. But to do that, national leaders cannot continue to be composed purely of volunteer labor – we desperately need more paid political leadership.

Have you ever held a position within or on behalf of law enforcement (such as a police union organizer)? No.

If you would like to share any links to articles you’ve written, a portfolio, or similar resources you feel will be useful for members to get to know you, do so here.

Reflections from a Former DSA Staffer: https://open.substack.com/pub/organizinggrowth/p/reflections-from-a-former-dsa-staffer

Our Work Has Just Begun- DSA on Portland City Council: https://socialistcall.com/2024/11/13/our-work-has-just-begun-dsa-on-portland-city-council/

“We’re changing everything. And we need a union to do that.”: https://cwa-union.org/news/were-changing-everything-and-we-need-union-do

Sidney Carlson White

New York City, New York (He/Him)

Are you running for an At-Large NPC seat or for one of the two Co-Chair seats (or both)? At-Large

Why are you running for NPC?

I am running for DSA’s National Political Committee because I believe that now is the moment to put forward a coherent partyist vision for the working class. To me, that means that DSA needs both a political program and a vision for helping every chapter across the country implement it. Primarily, I want to use my experience as a Zohran Mamdani field lead and an elected Central Brooklyn branch leader to help chapters across the country strengthen their electoral programs while maintaining democratic and open political structures.

I also want to use my experience in 2024 in connecting Eon Huntley’s state legislative campaign to Bed-Stuy’s tenant union movement as a model for how chapters can connect electoral operations and independent working class organizations. Our electoral work can only win long-term victories for the working class when it is paired with functional and durable basebuilding initiatives.

Finally, I am running because I believe in DSA’s fight for democracy, both internally and externally. I would like to replicate the success of opening the National Electoral Commission to mass membership, making national DSA formations open, accessible and democratic. Rather than just being a collection of chapters, DSA must provide spaces—like the NEC’s Socialist Cash Takes Out Capitalist Trash fundraising initiative and the Housing Justice Commission’s Emergency Tenant Organizing Committee—for us to coordinate and uplift each other’s work.

Though I have been involved with DSA and its organizing work since 2017, I became a member of our organization in 2022. Last year, I served as a field lead and core comms volunteer on the Eon Huntley campaign.

Currently, I serve on the Central Brooklyn DSA Organizing Committee. In my work running meetings and sending emails, I strive to build a democratic culture within my branch in which members new and old are able to openly discuss chapter proposals, electoral strategy, and other critical aspects of our work without getting siloed in “breakout groups” or subjected to endless Powerpoints.

Additionally, I lead the Saturday canvass in Bed-Stuy for Zohran Mamdani. Each week, I see new faces, often dozens of new volunteers who have never canvassed before. Plenty of them are not even aware of our hard-fought battle in Bed-Stuy the year before. As I help our new volunteers, I am careful to remind them that the work they do here is helping build DSA and strengthen it as we continue to organize, both at the ballot box and beyond it. In doing so, I model what it means for us to be a real socialist party that can think and act beyond the timeframe of a single election.

Eight years on from the upsurge in political consciousness that defined the first Trump presidency, DSA has remained one of the most durable communities of resistance to both capital and fascism in the United States. Since our explosive rebirth, we have matured as thinkers and organizers. This difficult work must continue.

Internally, we need to pass a political program for our work for the next two years. By passing one at convention, we can begin to respond to the present moment’s surge of resistance by clarifying our electoral goals and recruiting candidates who are “tribunes of the people” and will fearlessly advance our program as independent socialist leaders, refusing to consign themselves to be permanent junior partners of the Democrats. The Zohran campaign was successful because of the committed base of DSA cadre that helped

Externally, DSA will need to reaffirm its commitment to both police abolition and Palestinian liberation—and do so through building connections with organizers at the forefront of these struggles. Despite apparent evidence to the contrary, the postwar US-led global capitalist order remains almost entirely intact. DSA’s ability to lead will be measured not merely by the number of people we elect, but by our ability to ensure that all aspects of our political project align with our ambitious goals for a more peaceful, equal, and democratic world.

Tactically, DSA needs to continue to focus on Independent Working Class Organizing ventures, specifically tenant organizing. In New York, DSA’s collaboration with tenant associations and unions has proven fruitful because they allow workers, especially workers of color, to form communities of resistance that are difficult for the establishment to capture or neutralize. In many cities, the space of “local politics” has been absorbed by do-nothing NGOs, shredded by the nihilism of neoliberal capitalism, or liquidated by Democratic Party apparatchiks. The DSA difference allows us to provide something new, rather than ambulance-chase existing formations. By centering these struggles, we can reject market-urbanist compromises that transform our cities into playgrounds for the wealthy and displace the workers of color who call them home.

Simultaneously, DSA will also need to take a firm stance against the still-growing power of the police across the country, and sincerely challenge the so-called progressives who have retreated from previous calls to defund and abolish the colonial forces that brutalize Black and Brown people across the US. DSA must continue to affirm our commitments to oppose the whole carceral system, always, and refuse to equivocate when it is politically convenient. This also means building democratic structures to hold our members and electeds accountable when they waver on these issues. We cannot allow ourselves to be perceived as fair-weather friends by the communities who will face the brunt of this violence.

What should the relationship between the national organization and local chapters look like--how should they engage each other and what role should NPC members take in shaping that relationship?

In return for setting the program and agenda for our organization, National owes its chapters both the resources to carry it out and the faith that it will be implemented properly.

On a concrete level, this means that chapters need to have faith in National’s ability to help them fight for our program. When chapters endorse candidates on the condition of adherence to our program, they should understand and embrace the idea that National can contribute resources to help candidates fight for the principles we have collectively agreed upon. Additionally, having a programmatically unified national organization will give chapters a firmer rhetorical footing when making difficult asks of candidates and members around questions of political discipline and program adherence.

Members across the country can buy into National’s work through open, democratic, and deliberative working groups. The opening of the National Electoral Commission to general membership will help transform the body into a laboratory for robust, member-led electoral work. As our electoral terrain becomes more fruitful, this body will provide the framework for supporting chapters as they carve out an independent socialist identity for our candidates. Critically, our more-democratic and open NEC will allow members of larger chapters to use this resource to present their own visions of how the body can best serve them

Expanding democratic input across national bodies will better allow members and leaders to make effective demands of our organization while resisting the localism and parochialism that holds socialist organizers back.

Have you ever held a position within or on behalf of law enforcement (such as a police union organizer)? No.

If you would like to share any links to articles you’ve written, a portfolio, or similar resources you feel will be useful for members to get to know you, do so here.

This article discusses the debate around whether or not New York City DSA should run Zohran Mamdani's campaign. It was written in August 2024, prior to the endorsement of Zohran by our chapter.

https://socialisttribune.substack.com/p/run-zohran

This short piece details reactions to the first Zohran canvass in December 2024.

https://socialisttribune.substack.com/p/walking-for-a-red-city-reflections

This article advocates against endorsing a local City Council candidate who submitted a request for endorsment late in the process and vacillated on whether or not she would be willing to subject herself to the discipline of DSA's democracy

https://socialisttribune.substack.com/p/letter-an-argument-against-endorsing

This article discusses the shortcomings of the "DREAM" rhetorical strategy (Don't Rank Eric or Andrew for Mayor), which was popular among progressives and some socialists in early 2025

https://socialisttribune.substack.com/p/quit-dreaming

This is a video of my introduction to my Zohran Mamdani canvassing training. In it, I talk to canvassers (many of whom are not yet members of DSA) about the importance of candidates being a part of a larger political project.

https://x.com/MarxistUnityDSA/status/1929998353623838873

https://x.com/Wellstonist

This is my twitter account. I try to use it for serious discussions about DSA and how we project our vision to the broader Left. I want to make sure my online self reflects the real-world organizing that I do, rather than the other way around.

Leslie Chang

Los Angeles, California (She/Her)

Are you running for an At-Large NPC seat or for one of the two Co-Chair seats (or both)? At-Large

Why are you running for NPC?

I am running for NPC to help build an organization that has the capacity, campaigns, and candidates to contest for power in 2028. My vision for DSA is one that emphasizes solidarity over individuality. Over the next two years, we need to participate in a united front to defeat the MAGA movement. Our NPC must be willing to engage in struggle with membership and mobilization organizations at the forefront of the anti-Trump movement so that we remain visible in the fight for democracy, and surface the best strategy and tactics for moving the American working class to our socialist values. This means organizing with unions and workers’ groups, civic organizations, faith groups, political leaders, and affinity groups to build a diverse coalition capable of reaching a broader base than we could do alone. Through this united front, we must also develop a mass line: one that spells out a positive and optimistic vision for expanding democracy in the United States. We must also work internally across states and chapters to develop popular, external-facing campaigns that champion this mass line and expand and deepen our base.

Since joining DSA in March 2020, I’ve organized and served in leadership roles both locally with DSA-LA (Steering, Administrative Committee, Eastside + San Gabriel Valley branch, Mutual Aid and Community Defense) and nationally (Democracy Commission, National Electoral Commission, For Our Rights Committee). I am proud of the work that Los Angeles has done since 2020 to build an electoral program that has unseated four incumbents on the LA city council, and that is well on its way to building an SiO majority.

I am also deeply committed to the organizing that we are doing right now to fight back against ICE in our communities. Our response is focused on developing legislative and policy priorities with our SiOs, conducting know your rights trainings, expanding our mutual aid network, engaging in tactical civil disobedience, and building a rapid response network in coalition with other immigration justice champions. This current campaign and the forces we’re fighting demonstrate the importance of building power statewide, so that we can better codify rights and protections for the most vulnerable communities. We need to build better statewide formations so that chapters can coordinate on campaigns and share resources, rather than fighting back against these issues in an atomized manner. It also draws attention to the work DSA still needs to do to build relationships and trust with coalition partners, so that we can better organize and identify our role in times of crisis.

DSA is the most important political project in this country in a century, and we need to grow our members, our organizing capacity, and our power. The speed and scale at which the Trump administration is reshaping society should make it very plain to us the importance of electing more socialists to the highest levels of office. The transformative change we demand—a green new deal, immigration justice, public housing, trans rights, an end to racial capitalism--can only be enacted when we have some governing power.

In our current constitutional crisis, as we face fascism and oligarchy, DSA needs to be laser-focused on winning a socialist majority. Zohran’s campaign in NYC and Bernie and AOC’s fighting oligarchy tour are leading the way with a popular vision for socialist politics. DSA should be the mass organization behind this vision, and in the coming years we can develop strategies that continue to build winning campaigns, build state and worker power, and cultivate more movement leaders.

To do this, we need to focus on building the following: a well-staffed and well-resourced organization with a healthy, participatory, and democratic organizing culture; a deep bench of political leaders at the forefront of the organization, both leading and governing; a united front with a broad set of coalition partners; a clear political program with a popular mass line and relevant and capturing messaging; and an expansion of our existing electoral project to run more socialists for office so that we can continue to contest for governing power.

When I participated in Socialism Beats Fascism, I canvassed for Kamala Harris knowing that it was my responsibility as a socialist to stop Trump from winning a second term. I travelled to Arizona and North Carolina and was one of many organizers participating in a broad coalition effort that included unions, non-profit organizations, and statewide IPOs. In both states, these organizations (including paid staff and volunteers) were highly diverse in race, age, gender, and sexuality. I worked alongside Black and brown organizers, who were united in their belief that a Harris administration would be better for working Americans than a Trump administration.

I bring this up as an example of how DSA has been more focused on building a particular socialist identity, rather than addressing the principal contradiction facing the masses. Building a diverse movement means dealing with the contradictions of contesting for power. Through mutual struggle, we can correctly identify the principal contradiction and organize through it, but it has to be a collective effort, and that means we must be confident in entering spaces that do not identify as socialist and rejecting red lines for the sake of moral purity.

Looking ahead, our organizing work should, when possible, be done with coalition partners so that we can build our reach and establish trust in multiracial working class communities. These campaigns must have popular, winnable demands that emphasize material improvement for working Americans, and these determinations should be made based on a clear assessment of the political moment.

What should the relationship between the national organization and local chapters look like--how should they engage each other and what role should NPC members take in shaping that relationship?

Every two years DSA gathers for national convention, but our national priorities very rarely determine how and what our chapters organize around. The NPC should work with chapter leaders to develop broad campaign directives for our national priorities, rooted in our theory of change, and then direct national committees and staff to work with chapters to develop campaign strategy and tactics based on local organizing conditions.

We should also establish a better internal culture of campaign assessment so that chapters are reflecting back on campaign implementation and surfacing what worked, what didn’t, and what should change about how the chapter organizes next time. NPC should then work with staff to compile these learnings so that our organizing efforts become an iterative and quantitative process that’s available to other chapters. Both of these efforts will require the NPC to have a strong political vision for DSA’s growth and development, and a well-resourced, strong field team to implement. We should, as soon as possible, prioritize re-staffing our organization so that chapters can get the targeted support they need.

Have you ever held a position within or on behalf of law enforcement (such as a police union organizer)? No

Jeremy Cohan

New York City, New York (He/Him)

Are you running for an At-Large NPC seat or for one of the two Co-Chair seats (or both)? At-Large

Why are you running for NPC?

We are witnessing the terrifying rampage of the dictatorial and fascist far right. A dying empire is no less deadly for that, and the US is sponsoring a genocide in Gaza, while the threat of nuclear war rises. The Democratic party establishment has done zero to oppose Trump, with the fate of democracy and the species in the balance. DSA nationally has huge potential with our membership model, size, reach, and popular political vision. And left leaders like Zohran Mamdani, Bernie Sanders, Rashida Tlaib, and AOC are leading the way in presenting a path both toward opposing the far-right, but also challenging the neoliberal politics that gave rise to them in the first place. However, our national organization's leadership has too often allowed factionalism, purity politics, and disorganization to undermine the work. In the key fights of our day against fascism and oligarchy—e.g. the fight to block Medicaid cuts that has the real potential to pull people who supported Trump out of his coalition—the national organization has been mostly absent. My hope is that my experience in leading strategic electoral, legislative, and anti-imperialist campaigns, in building co-governance with socialists in office, in working to cohere people across caucus lines both through mutual understanding and through a relentless focus on power-building for the working class and the left, will all be of service to the organization and its work in this crucial period. Now is the time!

I joined DSA Thanksgiving weekend of 2016—inspired by Bernie and terrified by Trump—and haven’t looked back since. I recently realized that Zohran for NYC Mayor will be the 30th DSA electoral campaign I’ll have been involved in (!!) — many for NYC-DSA but also for other chapters like Detroit, East Bay, Mid-Hudson Valley, Lower Hudson Valley, Ithaca, and New Orleans. It was my honor to serve for 2 years as NYC-DSA Co-Chair and to be trusted with the responsibility to guide the chapter through turbulent political times, to take on a highly public role at the front of the organization, and to build socialist power. Among other roles, I currently sit on NYC-DSA’s Citywide Leadership Committee, and work as our Federal Socialists in Office Coordinator. Some other roles I have had in NYC-DSA: Palestine Solidarity Organizing Committee; Electoral campaign leadership (most recently field lead and staging coordinator for Zohran for NYC); Internal leadership committees (e.g. founder and longtime member of State & City Socialists in Office Committees); Administrative committees (fundraising, compliance); Political Education (founding member of North Brooklyn Night School and DSA Academy); Student organizing (NYU-YDSA co-founder). On the national level, I was involved in our No Money for Massacres phonebanking operation; helped organize, and participated in, our weekly phonebanks to defend Cori Bush; have worked to support many chapters in founding their socialist-in-office committees; have been at every national convention since 2017; and this last year have served on the National Electoral Commission Steering Committee.

Gramsci’s description of interregnum fits our moment eerily well—the old (neoliberalism) is dying, the new is struggling to be born, and we are living in the time of monsters. There are tremendous dangers—and tremendous opportunities if we seize the moment in the coming years! DSA should join in the fight against fascism, and contest for left leadership over it. We should be on the cutting edge of fights both of defensive fights—against the persecution of migrants, trans people, unions, and the left—and offensive fights to win working people away from authoritarianism—more campaigns like Zohran's that are laser-focused on the cost of living, and fights against Medicaid cuts and oligarchy. DSA should seize the opportunity presented by the collapse of the Dem establishment and a revolt stirring in the Democratic Party’s base, and run aggressive primary campaigns, with labor and labor candidates wherever possible, culminating in a left presidential bid in 2028. Finally, DSA needs to firmly reject the sectarianism that has all-too-often undermined the American left. We need a more democratic culture that truly sounds out our membership and produces decisions with legitimacy and depth; we need a comradely and disciplined public culture less beholden to the capitalistic rhythms and information insecurity of big social media corporations. And, as we are still but a small organization, we should relentlessly focus on speaking to those not already within the fold, through propaganda, program, and coalition campaigns, about issues that resonate with their daily needs and experience. Onwards!

I am so proud that DSA is the largest socialist organization in America in nearly 100 years. But we must root our politics more deeply in the multiracial working class. Working with the labor movement, for all its complexities among the most diverse and democratic institutions in American life, is one key path. We should encourage our members to get union jobs and get involved in their unions; be involved in new organizing drives, strike support and May Day 2028; work with allied unions to recruit candidates and run organic labor leaders for office. We can also use labor tactics, like organic leader identification, in community organizing to broaden DSA’s base. Secondly, we should actively pursue coalition work with membership organizations with a POC base. One reason the Black church was such an important part of the history of the civil rights movement was that it was a membership organization of working-class Black people; we should actively pursue opportunities for alliances with all the contradictions they may entail. Finally, we can’t ignore the rightward drift of some communities of color or the fact many people still have a lot of trust in the Democratic Party—we must think through and navigate these contradictions with humility and honesty. As we do this, internally it’s important that we examine our organizing culture and assess how we are providing relevant and welcoming spaces for people of color, as well as leadership opportunities especially in our campaign work, while avoiding deference politics and tokenism.

What should the relationship between the national organization and local chapters look like--how should they engage each other and what role should NPC members take in shaping that relationship?

The national organization should help guide a truly national strategy to seize the political moment. That involves providing opportunities for members to come together to consider the big political fault lines of the day and coordinating campaigns that begin locally but can expand nationally to intervene in struggles—e.g. for an arms embargo, to prevent Medicaid cuts—that can only be undertaken on a national level. That said, some of our greatest strength is in the power—on the streets, in our workplaces, in our schools, in our communities, and in the halls of government—that our chapters are building on a local level. The national organization should publicize the amazing work going on in so many chapters and act with the knowledge that they know their local conditions best. The national organization should support chapters and offer them the resources—training, mentorship, inter-chapter connections, campaign tools, etc.—that they need to be successful. I’m put in mind of the opportunities I’ve had to discuss building socialists-in-office committees with members from chapters across the country like Chicago, LA, Boston, Twin Cities, Ithaca—sharing perspectives, knowledge, resources, and collectively getting stronger as a result is one of the most powerful and useful things the national organization should be doing. Finally, it should be said, given the current conjuncture, the national organization must help protect local chapters from the Right, in terms of legal support and strategic direction to build the front required to protect us when, not if, they let loose the hounds on our organization.

Have you ever held a position within or on behalf of law enforcement (such as a police union organizer)? No.

If you would like to share any links to articles you’ve written, a portfolio, or similar resources you feel will be useful for members to get to know you, do so here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLiPtR-r76s&ab_channel=OwenJones

https://x.com/DemSocialists/status/1770551951618724040

https://d3n8a8pro7vhmx.cloudfront.net/religioussocialism/pages/145/attachments/original/1530008698/DSA_QueerLiberation.pdf?1530008698

https://www.wnyc.org/story/behind-dsas-stance-israel-and-palestine/

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DKw71kZM8K2/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TSmgtkbo6mA&ab_channel=EyewitnessNewsABC7NY

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/11/nyregion/aoc-torres-israel-gaza.html

https://www.cityandstateny.com/politics/2023/10/national-tv-eric-adams-falsely-accuses-dsa-carr ying-swastikas-and-calling-extermination-jews/391249/

https://www.instagram.com/nycdsa/reel/CzKl38jtfXn/

https://x.com/rafaelshimunov/status/1722396321208738227?s=46

https://nypost.com/2022/12/31/democratic-socialists-push-holidays-recruitment/

https://jacobin.com/2021/12/herbert-marcuse-new-left-marxism-materialism-socialism

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OSkiE2FdfF8&ab_channel=NewYorkCityDemocraticSocialistsofAmerica

Cliff Connolly

Orlando, Florida (He/Him, Any/All)

Are you running for an At-Large NPC seat or for one of the two Co-Chair seats (or both)? At-Large

Why are you running for NPC?

With organizing experience in five different DSA chapters and a track record of local leadership, I will bring a unique perspective to the NPC. I’ve been able to see what does and doesn’t work in a variety of organizing environments—large chapters and small, red states and blue, North, South, and Midwest. I’ve drawn lessons from these experiences and implemented them on my chapter’s Steering Committee, learning more in the process. I believe our NPC needs to take a more active role in connecting local chapters to national DSA infrastructure, and I’m uniquely positioned to carry out that task. With the second Trump administration posing an existential threat to our organization, we need to get serious about weathering the coming repression. That means seeking unity in diversity through a shared political program, standardizing internal democratic procedures across every chapter in the country, and prioritizing chapters facing the harshest repression with national resources. There are many political groups in the United States that claim to champion democracy, and many that claim to be the revolutionary party of the future. The DSA difference is understanding these things can’t be separated—without party democracy there will be no revolution, and without revolution there will be no democracy for those living under the constitutional tyranny of the United States. I want to make DSA the home of revolutionary democracy, and I will be a consistent fighter for these principles on the NPC.

I joined DSA in 2017 as part of the first “Trump bump” when I lived in Tampa. Since then, I’ve organized in our Chicago, NYC, Atlanta, and Orlando chapters while moving around the country. In my current chapter here in Orlando, I’ve served on our steering committee and led our external-facing campaigns. In 2024 I spearheaded our work on Amendment 4, a statewide abortion rights ballot measure in collaboration with every other DSA chapter in Florida. This year I’m leading our recruitment drive, conducting a brake light clinic, a cookout, and a DSA 101 in each of the three working-class neighborhoods we canvassed for Amendment 4.

My biggest challenge has been onboarding and developing all the new members we’ve recruited during this second Trump bump. I’d love to see national DSA deploy its resources to chapters like mine in red states experiencing this wave of resistance, and I’d like to work on sending experienced organizers to these areas to help design organizing projects and develop chapter members to run them.

The highlight of my time in Orlando has been watching my comrades go from shy first-time canvassers to confident middle-level chapter leaders running their own campaigns. While there’s potential for much more (especially with access to more resources from national), we’ve significantly increased the active layer of our chapter’s membership. I believe the goal of a leader should be self-replacement, and I’m happy to say I can leave my chapter in competent hands if I’m elected to the NPC.

DSA faces three primary threats, each of which presents an opportunity for organizing—repression from the Trump administration, Zionism, and disunity leading to a split. Trump could revoke our nonprofit status, frame up our organization with RICO cases like Atlanta Democrats helped do to Stop Cop City activists, target our immigrant comrades with deportations, and generally attempt to crush DSA with another Red Scare. We must seriously plan for this possibility while capitalizing on the administration’s unpopularity with both the liberal “resistance” and working class communities. While the Democratic Party refuses to put up a real fight, DSA can position ourselves as the home of resistance to right-wing reaction. The Zionist threat is two-sided. We’ve seen its hard edge at work with mobs funded by millionaires like Jerry Seinfeld attacking pro-Palestine demonstrations, and we see its soft edge at work in DSA with calls to normalize rhetoric about the occupation’s “right to exist.” This presents a dual opportunity to improve our physical security at the chapter level and cohere our anti-Zionist commitments at the national level, unifying the organization and improving our standing with the wider Palestine solidarity movement. Finally, we see increasing tension between chapters like NYC and Los Angeles with the rest of DSA which need to be worked through in order to prevent any possibility of a split down the road. Robust reforms to improve DSA’s internal democracy, such as R8: Democratic Discipline will go a long way in this regard.

DSA is majority white. The working class is not. This is one of the primary barriers to making DSA the socialist mass party most of us want it to be. I look to my BIPOC comrades for leadership on how to solve this problem, and they’re organized to do just that. The Afrosocialists and Socialists of Color Caucus is a multi-tendency internal body open to all BIPOC DSA members. If elected to NPC I will prioritize keeping our DSA leaders in close contact with Afrosoc to make sure our Black and Brown members are heard. I’m concerned their voices are already being ignored leading up to convention with the introduction of R10: Make DSA More Diverse, a nicely titled resolution which was written without the input of Afrosoc members. The resolution would create a separate body called MROC with the exact same mandate as Afrosoc. Afrosoc members have repeatedly asked on the forums why a competing body separate from Afrosoc is necessary and have thus far not been answered.

At the local level, I prioritize campaigning in majority non-white working class neighborhoods around Orlando. My chapter spent last year canvassing for abortion rights in strategic neighborhoods like Sanford, Eatonville, and Pine Hills—this year we’re returning with a recruitment drive structured around brake light clinics, cookouts, and DSA 101s. We’re connecting with our communities, learning about their grievances and organizing opportunities, and building relationships with grassroots formations. I’d like the NPC to deploy resources to chapters doing similar work.

What should the relationship between the national organization and local chapters look like--how should they engage each other and what role should NPC members take in shaping that relationship?

NPC members need to take a more active role in guiding local chapters and integrating them with national party infrastructure. Uneven development is a major issue in DSA. Some chapters don’t use dues-funded tools like our textblast and phonebank software to turn members out to general meetings or campaign events. Some chapters don’t teach their members how to make motions at general meetings. Some chapters don’t have general meetings at all! NPC members should be consistently visiting chapters and coordinating with their steering committees to encourage the adoption of best practices and advise on common challenges. Special focus should be given to chapters in red states, where the blueprint for nation-wide political repression is drawn out and tested.

Connections between chapters should be fostered by NPC members in two ways: state-wide and regional bodies should be encouraged for campaign coordination between nearby chapters, and organizer exchange programs should be conducted between well-established chapters and those which are either new or struggling to maintain consistent activity. Regular contact between NPC members and local chapters will also allow DSA to make convention sovereignty a reality—the decisions we make at the highest level of our democracy should actually be executed. Building connective tissue between local and national leaders will help ensure that campaigns and organizing practices we commit to at convention are carried out in every locale where DSA members are present.

Have you ever held a position within or on behalf of law enforcement (such as a police union organizer)? No.

If you would like to share any links to articles you’ve written, a portfolio, or similar resources you feel will be useful for members to get to know you, do so here.

The best summary of my political views is MUG’s Vision of Democracy, which I wrote earlier this year: https://www.marxistunity.com/light-and-air/mugs-vision-of-democracy

Additionally, I laid out the historical and theoretical foundation of my views in New Life For the Old Lenin: https://cosmonautmag.com/2024/02/new-life-for-the-old-lenin/

For audiobook enjoyers, I narrated the text of Lars Lih’s Lenin Rediscovered: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-sCjTRN7l5g

To see my organizing work in action, you can find videos on any of Orlando DSA’s social media accounts (the new TikTok is my personal favorite).

Andrew Dai

San Francisco, California (He/Him)

Are you running for an At-Large NPC seat or for one of the two Co-Chair seats (or both)? At-Large

Why are you running for NPC?

I am running for NPC to push DSA step-by-step towards a revolutionary horizon. I want to contribute my perspective as an experienced chapter leader in San Francisco who successfully facilitated democratic processes to navigate contentious political disagreements. We can only win by working together to build a strong organization of our own that can fight back. The party cannot be declared. It must be built day-by-day through individual and collective commitments to struggle together.

Although it’s not a monolith, the Western Left has historically abandoned international solidarity and a revolutionary horizon for short term gains. I strongly believe that we must not abdicate our responsibility in the imperial core to push back and lift the boot off the neck of the oppressed masses of the Global South. This is not just a moral imperative; it’s also a strategic assessment. Time and time again, shortsighted focus on domestic reforms and ceding more radical demands to accommodate and avoid discomforting the constituencies that engage with DSA have undermined the broader resistance against capitalism. I am a Marxist Leninist and member of Red Star running for NPC to center the revolutionary outlook needed to create real change.

We've seen past working-class wins melt away as capitalism redoubles its efforts to undermine working class organizations and strikes back to consolidate power and profits. It’s time to break out of this cycle by organizing to fight back against the capitalist imperialist class and the state it uses to oppress us at home and abroad.

I joined DSA in 2021 and started by volunteering on my chapter’s ballot measure campaign where I gathered signatures every weekend, talking to thousands of people over a few short months. On the campaign trail, I quickly became an organizer and then a campaign and chapter leader. Winning was a thrilling experience! DSA SF wrote, ran, and won the Prop M campaign to establish a residential vacancy tax.

Afterwards, I served on my chapter’s Steering Committee as Secretary and then as Co-chair. I helped rebuild finances after a budget crisis by controlling costs, fundraising, and revamping our budgeting process. As Co-chair, I helped navigate the response to Oct 7. It was a high stakes moment and I am extremely proud of the role chapter democracy played in shaping our response. We mobilized to help pass the then-biggest city Ceasefire Resolution.

At the end of my 2.5 years in leadership, I struggled with burnout. Looking back, I’ve learned a lot about how to support members to make organizing sustainable. This fight is a marathon, not a sprint, and we all need to be in it for the long haul.

Over the last year, I’ve spent a lot of time working on the GDC’s State of DSA research team and I regularly run the RONR Chair and Leadership Intensive trainings. I love to talk to members and leaders across the country and hear about their local conditions and exchange lessons learned. This is one of the most rewarding parts of DSA.

As I write this, just this week: the genocide in Gaza continues while Israel actively escalates a hot war with Iran and ICE is spearheading state-directed domestic terror. The naked state repression has revealed a clear discontent across a broad swath of Americans and triggered another wave of mass-scale civil unrest.

We need to meet the moment with clear, principled analysis to oppose the state and the system it upholds. Our project remains the same: build power in the ranks of the working class that are disenfranchised, disillusioned, left behind by the system. Right now, our urgent task is to mount a credible and useful resistance against the jackbooted thugs that are disappearing our neighbors. We must be able to demonstrate our willingness and capability to support and protect the working class — without that, what is the point?

DSA is a predominantly white organization. This must change — we need to orient ourselves towards the racialized communities already most exploited by capitalism. Our power does not come from access to liberal institutions or high profile elected officials. Those are systems built and maintained by the enemy to oppress the working class. Any wins and relief we win there are temporary concessions. Our power comes from the millions of workers who will be organized to militantly resist the fascist threat and punch back.

This is a time of increasing desperation and urgency. It’s our opportunity to meet the moment with clear-eyed revolutionary optimism and resistance.

Since 2016, DSA has transformed from a stagnant, aging organization to the largest socialist organization in this country in a century. But this growth was not equal across class and color lines. DSA is a predominantly white organization. Even knowing this, I’m still regularly surprised and unsettled by the lack of comrades of color in national DSA spaces. Chapters must lead in doing the slow, person-to-person work of building relationships — especially in communities that are not represented in their chapter.

This requires abandoning the race-blind approach to economic struggles for better wages and lower rents. We cannot directly connect nor speak to people exploited most by capitalism without centering the racial and immigration hierarchies at play. We absolutely cannot compromise our anti-imperialist and abolitionist values. To do so plays into the empire's racialized logic and undermines our ability to grow beyond our predominantly white present state.

Compared to Democrats, DSA stands uniquely poised in our ability to voice the grievances of the most marginalized. This is our strength, our responsibility, and our most precious opportunity to show that we are a worthwhile avenue for political power. We must shed any approach that seeks to avoid scandalizing the “average (white) American”. In the coming ruptures, DSA will need to stand on a track record of consistent, principled advocacy and mobilize on-the-ground connections.

Our power stems from our ability to consolidate the oppressed masses in opposition: racialized groups already marginalized by the state should be a perfect place to start.

What should the relationship between the national organization and local chapters look like--how should they engage each other and what role should NPC members take in shaping that relationship?

Only a tiny fraction of members engage with the national organization. Is this ideal? No. But the only question is how to move forward. We have to understand that, at present, DSA is its chapters: the vast majority of active members only organize with their local chapter. Chapters are where strangers can meet face to face and build the personal connections needed to grow and learn from collective struggle.

We are not yet in a position to directly contest the most powerful empire in history. That means that our primary task as an organization is to grow and learn. We learn by organizing, and the most effective learning experience is something just barely within reach: ambitious campaigns that are not so large that we are doomed to fail or factor only as a rounding error. We must have a credible chance at success with a meaningful contribution in order to be able to reflect and identify what worked and what didn’t.

Most of DSA’s organizing is at the local level, and I think this is appropriate for now. The national organization should primarily facilitate lessons learned in order to support the development of strong chapters deeply rooted in their local communities. The NPC should prioritize the development of member-led and chapter-focused organizing. I believe that my experience as an effective chapter leader makes me well suited for this role. We must build the foundation of a fighting working class organization brick by brick, chapter by chapter.

Have you ever held a position within or on behalf of law enforcement (such as a police union organizer)? No

If you would like to share any links to articles you’ve written, a portfolio, or similar resources you feel will be useful for members to get to know you, do so here.

- "Principled Socialist Values ARE Mass Politics!" article recapping DSA San Francisco's post-Oct 7th response and the city's passage of a ceasefire resolution https://redstarcaucus.org/principled-socialist-values-are-mass-politics/

- Recruitment analysis as part of State of DSA's research https://democraticleft.dsausa.org/2025/02/27/state-of-dsa-part-one-welcome-to-dsa/

- Forum post analyzing San Francisco-specific retention https://discussion.dsausa.org/t/membership-trends-and-the-first-year-retention-problem/29266

- Forum discussion about burnout and supporting each other in the long run as organizers and comrades https://discussion.dsausa.org/t/social-exhaustion-and-withdrawal-from-organizing/34867/16?u=andrew2

Kareem Elrefai

New York City, New York (He/Him)

Are you running for an At-Large NPC seat or for one of the two Co-Chair seats (or both)? At-Large

Why are you running for NPC?

I am highly motivated to run for this seat because I believe DSA needs to be the organization that represents the face of anti-Trumpism and a positive vision for the future. We have seen the consequences of the failure of the democratic party to speak to the decay of American society. DSA has an opportunity to fill that void, and assert ourselves as the answer to the alienation that people feel. I believe we represent the base of the most talented anti-fascist organizers in the country and want to be a part of marshaling the bulwark against fascism. I am also keenly aware of the threats DSA faces. As DSA continues to grow and gain power as a political force, the nonprofit killer bill, which has repeatedly come before the congress, could easily pass and directly attack DSA's tax status. As a proven leader of the 3rd largest chapter in the country as well as an incumbent NPC member, I believe I can bring the steady hand combined with the fiery motivation to help us weather these attacks and project strength in a challenging political environment. Additionally, the Zohran campaign has given me a renewed sense of broad horizons of our movement, and how we can set up all of our chapters to build dsa through strong campaigns.

I became a dues-paying member the day Bernie Sanders dropped out. I had worked on his campaign as a ballot access organizer in 6 states and was devastated when he exited the race. Covid had just begun, and I felt like I was looking around, seeing the worst news story of my life every day, and knew I needed to do something. I joined Metro DC DSA and served 3 terms on the steering committee (May 2021- December 2023), including one term as chair of the chapter, chaired the 2021 chapter convention, and served as delegate to the 2021 and 2023 national conventions. During that time, our chapter won 2 electoral races, led many rallies, including a 1,000-person midnight rally at the Supreme Court the night Dobbs was overturned, which I helped organize, built ties with labor, namely Unite HERE 25 around picket line support and electoral strategy, and many other wins which I do not have space to name here.

In late 2023, I moved to New York City. I hit the ground running here by volunteering for election day visibility, knocking doors for our endorsed candidates, and participating in protests at NYU with the student encampments. Most recently I have been a field lead and GOTV captain for the Zohran for NYC campaign, as well as attending Friday Prayers around Brooklyn to help build a broad base of support for his candidacy with Muslim communities.

Liberals cannot fill the void or properly oppose fascists the way we can, so we have a duty to compete in all arenas. Our electoral strategy has largely been a success in building toward our goal of building a party surrogate, if slow. We have faced difficulties but have largely responded to them well by constantly evaluating whether or not any given race or tactic builds our power together. So far, this has meant running candidates opportunistically on the dem Party ballot line. This has been effective in terms of hijacking a fairly contestable ballot line and building a measurable base among a section of the working class, and has given us a large megaphone with which to speak to the public with authority.

As we continue to build power electorally, this will mean taking our strategy up a notch. We must recruit more cadre candidates, something already underway in many chapters,, especially those with ties to labor, and organize for the power to discipline and support them after their victories. A great example of this is Claire Valdez, once a UAW Region 9A member, who marshaled a field force that united her union with DSA in the fight to get her elected. Such is the basis for a future labor party. Additionally, Cadre candidates who are bound to organizational discipline won't fall into the same pitfalls as their non-organizationally tied progressive counterparts who, without an organized base of support, are easy targets to slide into the party establishment.

One thing that has been personally very moving to see is the ways in which certain cadre candidates can form organic connections with groups outside of DSA’s traditional base. Earlier this year, I had been attending Jummah prayers with Zohran, and I am struck by how plainly and convincingly he can communicate a vision of working class power across identity and cultural differences to win universal programs as transformative reforms. Seeing how our candidates can help us bridge the divide between working class communities without compromising on our values has reinvigorated my belief that we can win sections of the working class to our banner as socialists. This campaign is creating a model for the rest of the organization, bringing NYC DSA’s membership closer to multiracial and immigrant working class organizations like the New York Taxi Workers’ Alliance, DRUM (Desis Rising Up and Moving), and its lessons can be applied beyond electoral.

Effective membership recruitment and engagement structures are necessary preconditions to DSA effectively absorbing and retaining a more multiracial working class membership. While I was on Metro DC DSA steering, I helped develop a more multiracial leadership layer by emphasizing these practices through our campaigns. In the past year, NYC DSA’s membership 101 program has been highly effective at absorbing new members and developing a pipeline of effective organizers, and membership surveys indicate a higher rate of people of color joining the NYC chapter in this period. There are no shortcuts to sustaining and building on these basic practices.

What should the relationship between the national organization and local chapters look like--how should they engage each other and what role should NPC members take in shaping that relationship?

We often talk about becoming a political party, and that means acting like a political party. We need strong integration between national DSA and chapters for a common program. In my time in Metro DC leadership, I felt as if my only interactions with National DSA were when a major issue came up or check-ins with our field organizer. NPC members were often hard to directly access beyond those that I already had personal relationships with. Many members, even active ones, do not even know who is on the NPC, let alone how to influence major decisions that impact every member of the organization. We need outlets for members to be able to participate in decision-making and have a feeling of buy-in toward the national organization. We can do this through regional structures and reallocating NPC members’ time away from national committees and more toward chapter and member-facing work

Have you ever held a position within or on behalf of law enforcement (such as a police union organizer)? no

If you would like to share any links to articles you’ve written, a portfolio, or similar resources you feel will be useful for members to get to know you, do so here.

https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/aoc-dnc-speech-gaza/

https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/eric-adams-trump-deal-collaborator/

https://washingtonsocialist.mdcdsa.org/ws-articles/21-01-embrace-the-base

Cerena Ermitanio

Houston, Texas (She/Her, They/Them)

Are you running for an At-Large NPC seat or for one of the two Co-Chair seats (or both)? At-Large

Why are you running for NPC?

For nearly 7 years, DSA has been training grounds for my development as an organizer and my political home. Who I am today and what I believe we can do to transform the world I owe to Y/DSA, so I’m beyond excited for the opportunity to serve my comrades on the NPC as a member of the Bread and Roses slate. DSA isn’t just the largest socialist organization in the US—we’re home to socialists becoming and developing lifelong organizers. We’re rank-and-file union members democratizing our unions into becoming weapons for international class struggle. We’re also students taking control of the institutions we study in and work for, demanding an end to austerity budgets and war profiteering for the sake of endowments that workers only see a sliver of. We’re members of our community going door-to-door, having political conversations with people we don’t know, inspiring people around us to recognize their power as organized workers fighting back against the capitalist class. As a member of the NPC, I want to help steer our collective project in raising class consciousness towards a socialist party that is run by and for the multiracial, multi-gendered international working class.

I joined Austin DSA and UT YDSA in 2018 out of frustration with the Democratic Party’s failure to pose any credible opposition to every level of governance, from Greg Abbott to Trump. I canvassed for Austin DSA’s Homes Not Handcuffs campaign to repeal ordinances criminalizing homelessness. I later organized as co-chair of UT YDSA to support a slate of Austin DSA candidates for office, which included DSA members José Garza for DA and Heidi Sloan for Texas’ 25th congressional district, and Bernie Sanders for president (highlight: I’m a Big Ass Canvass-er for life). I became co-chair of UT YDSA in 2019, organizing canvasses alongside Austin DSA and supporting fights against sexual harassment on campus. I also organized as a member of the Texas State Employees Union, connecting our YDSA chapter work to student workers’ fights for a livable wage. From 2020-2021 I served on YDSA's NCC and Austin DSA's SC as YDSA rep, supporting the growth of YDSA as the home for lifelong socialist organizers and rooting ourselves in the multiracial working class through our work on university campuses. In 2022 I became a member of Houston DSA with a commitment to labor solidarity work and YDSA mentorship. I was later elected to co-chair our Labor Working Group in 2024. Through our Labor WG, we've provided picket support, supported new workplace organizing, and developed relationships with rank-and-file union members. As part of my commitment to the rank-and-file strategy, I am now working as a union nurse in AFSCME.

While Trump and his oligarchs in arms steamroll over what little we have left of critical public services like FEMA and the CDC, activists like Mahmoud Khalil and workers like Kilmar Abrego Garcia are torn from their families in the name of “public safety” from “illegal” immigrants. Repression amidst the empire’s genocide of Palestinians and the capitalist class’ massive theft from working people—this is our organizing terrain, and DSA must meet these struggles with our organizing muscle and confidence in our politics. Campaigns like Labor for an Arms Embargo and Boycott Avelo represent the kind of work necessary to build a real threat to international capital. Our candidates in office should speak candidly to our socialist vision for a just world, especially when the alternative is rule by another party beholden to capital. Our organization, not just in name but also in our organizing and political leadership, must stand in solidarity with the masses of people taking risk and recognizing our collective power: from the federal workers of FUN to students demanding divestment from US-Israel’s war machine, we must root our work in our collective struggle against capitalism.

To make DSA’s membership more reflective of the multiracial working class, we need to confront how our organization appeals to self-selecting activists and favors them in leadership. We need to take deliberate steps to meet the working class where they are and strengthen DSA into a democratic organization where working people can have meaningful debates take ownership of our political strategy. Our commitment to rebuilding the labor movement, from strike support and new organizing through EWOC to democratizing our unions as rank-and-file members, is how we are able to embed our project into the daily lives of the working class. DSA Labor is central for developing this work, and we should continue to strengthen its work with funding and membership participation. Furthermore, YDSA is not just recruiting grounds for new socialists—it’s our pipeline to developing diverse, lifelong organizers already experiencing the brutality of capitalism through debt, overwork, and repression. YDSA members are at the front lines against attacks on free speech and taking up jobs in strategic sectors to organize the broader working class. Supporting the growth of DSA and its development into a working class organization means supporting the work of YDSA. Finally, we must support a model of democracy rooted in deliberative discussion, engaging membership beyond just symbols of buy-in for our projects. Our strength as a democratic, big tent organization comes from engaging membership in debates over strategy, providing opportunities for political education through deliberation, and developing leaders through the projects we craft through these discussions.

What should the relationship between the national organization and local chapters look like--how should they engage each other and what role should NPC members take in shaping that relationship?

The relationship between the national organization and local chapters must be strategic and rooted in a shared commitment to building working-class power. Chapters are where DSA’s leaders are developed and organizing towards our shared vision happens. DSA is also a national organization, and we need to act like one: coordinated and able to build power at scale. While our national priorities should guide the work of our chapters, national leaders should also be engaged in the experiences of chapters as they execute our program locally. Expanding the capacity of NPC members and supporting their outreach to chapters will better inform our day-to-day decisions as a national organization and engage new members to take on core roles of our organization’s work locally and nationally.

Have you ever held a position within or on behalf of law enforcement (such as a police union organizer)? No.

If you would like to share any links to articles you’ve written, a portfolio, or similar resources you feel will be useful for members to get to know you, do so here.

Articles:

"Twenty-Hour Days, 100-Hour Weeks, No Lunch Breaks: An IATSE Member Talks Working Conditions" (Labor Notes, 2021) https://labornotes.org/2021/10/twenty-hour-days-100-hour-weeks-no-lunch-breaks-iatse-member-talks-working-conditions

Report on Austin's protests for George Floyd (Socialist Call, 2020) https://socialistcall.com/news/austin-george-floyd-protest/

Quotes for press:

"UT students protest leadership of campus president Jay Hartzell over pandemic decisions, other issues" (2021) https://www.statesman.com/story/news/2021/09/24/ut-students-protest-during-inauguration-campus-president/5796553001/

"Houstonians speak up for NASA's employees and its impact on Space City" (2025)

https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/trending/article/nasa-houston-employees-impact-20173312.php

Abdullah Farooq

Los Angeles, California (He/Him)

Are you running for an At-Large NPC seat or for one of the two Co-Chair seats (or both)? At-Large

Why are you running for NPC?

The American imperial boomerang is a precision-guided munition, and we’re in the midst of a merciless shelling. Today, the same MQ-9 Reaper drones that terrorize the Palestinian people almost every week fly above my streets in Los Angeles.

I am running for NPC to build a DSA that can fight back against imperialism at home and abroad. We can do this by organizing working people around a minimal program: Medicare for All, Bring Down the Cost of Living, End Political Corruption, Unions for All, and End US Militarism, and developing short, medium, and long term organizing plans to translate local power into federal power.

I saw the power of organized workers when I helped to organize a new union with the UAW and win unprecedented free speech protections at work. I saw this power when I helped to win rent control in Pasadena through a ballot measure campaign. I saw this power when I helped expose the movement of military cargo to Israel from the US, enabling left parties in Spain and portworkers in Morocco to delay the movement of military cargo to Israel by months.

Victory is possible, but it has to be fought for by a unified and powerful movement of working people. Brick by brick, conversation by conversation, we can build our power until we win a free Palestine, freedom for the American people, and a new international order predicated on equality and justice for all.

I joined DSA in 2020 after the Bernie Sanders campaign. Through DSA, I became active in YDSA by helping build a chapter at Caltech. DSA members also introduced me to union organizing, which led me to begin organizing at my workplace in 2021 with the UAW. I served on the steering committee of the Measure H campaign in Pasadena, which won some of the strongest renter protections in the country by substantially amending the constitution of the city. Our campaign, built out of the Pasadena Tenants Union, collected over 13,000 physical signatures in six months from registered voters in Pasadena with a base of hundreds of volunteers.

I served as the YDSA Coordinator for DSA-LA for two years, where I helped to recruit and develop YDSA leaders.

I currently serve on the steering committee for the National Labor Commission, where I helped to start the Labor for an Arms Embargo campaign. Our campaign attracted hundreds of DSA and DSA-curious union members across the country to our campaign launch, and we are now helping people organize in their unions around the arms embargo demand.

Our campaign harnesses research work mapping the movement of military cargo across the country that I have spearheaded as the research lead for the Progressive International’s No Harbor for Genocide campaign, and as a collaborator with the Palestinian Youth Movement’s Mask Off Maersk campaign. I have delivered research for antiwar activists and parties in France, the UK, Spain, and Italy.

Our most urgent challenge is to end the genocide in Palestine through winning an arms embargo on Israel. Despite popular support for this demand in the US, our government has initiated a political upheaval that threatens to overturn democratic rights won through hard-fought battles by organized labor and the civil rights movement. Raids on undocumented people by militarized immigration officers under Trump have punctuated the overturn of democratic rights initiated by the Biden-Harris regime.

In this moment, DSA has shown itself to be a unique force in politics, as a mass socialist party that has developed strong ties with the working class across the country and elected members to local and state office. Despite these impressive wins, our party is still not programmatically organized or powerful enough to intervene in politics at the national level.

This vacuum poses a severe threat not just to Americans but to the lives of billions of people around the world. Our party needs to emphasize internal reforms and policies that enable us to fill this vacuum. We have to build a well-staffed organization, with professional, competent organizers that can develop organizing plans with chapters and work full time to carry out the mandate set at convention. We also have to develop a plan to elect more socialists, particularly in Congress, to be able to build a bloc that can strategically intervene in foreign policy decisions. I am committed to supporting all resolutions and NPC candidates that commit DSA to building around these goals.

We should run issue-based organizing campaigns which incorporate concrete demands around our five point program (Medicare For All, Bring Down the Cost of Living, End Political Corruption, Unions for All, and End US Militarism) that will disproportionately benefit historically disadvantaged sections of the working class.

We should continue to build on the successes of campaigns like Zohran Mamdani’s run for mayor of New York, which has galvanized working class people across diverse racial backgrounds around a platform that addresses some of the most pressing issues they face. Zohran’s platform, built around a minimal set of demands for bringing down the cost of living, reaches people from across the working class. His staunch support for Palestine and BDS has engaged immigrant communities that want to fight back against the genocide and see his campaign as a powerful way to do so at the local level, despite intense opposition from the pro-war lobby.

We should continue to build powerful, mass-participation unions that are able to win on the shopfloor and in politics. The labor movement has historically been, and continues to be, a powerful force for racial justice in this country and around the world. In states like California and New York, the majority of union members are people of color. Unions today are fighting back against the terroristic raids and abductions of undocumented people across the country today, and DSA should assist them in this fight.

What should the relationship between the national organization and local chapters look like--how should they engage each other and what role should NPC members take in shaping that relationship?

For DSA to function as a party capable of ending the genocide and fighting climate change, we need to be able to take action at the federal scale. For local issue-based campaigns to build our power federally, we need to coordinate our messaging, outreach, and organizing strategy. This will require a significantly more centralized DSA, where the NPC is empowered to provide chapters with strategic organizing directives.

Coming out of convention, the NPC should establish liaisons with every chapter in the country, to ensure that the mandate of convention is communicated effectively to every chapter. Every chapter should feel empowered to bring concerns to the NPC, and the NPC should develop an organizing structure to educate the membership about decisions being made at the national level.

The NPC and every chapter should organize around the same minimal program: Medicare for All, Bring Down The Cost of Living, End Political Corruption, Unions for All, and End US Militarism. The NPC should take an active role in helping chapters choose local campaigns around these programs, and in crafting the platforms of local candidates that are running on this program. Local chapters should be empowered to share feedback with the NPC on the effectiveness of their issue-based organizing. Local chapters should also take an active role in identifying leaders to run for office. The NPC should mentor these leaders and develop them to be future cadre candidates.

Have you ever held a position within or on behalf of law enforcement (such as a police union organizer)? No lol unless you count policing illegal arms shipments to a genocidal ethnostate

If you would like to share any links to articles you’ve written, a portfolio, or similar resources you feel will be useful for members to get to know you, do so here.

My comrades Griffin M, Tej B, and I have written a short program for DSA that outlines our short, medium, and long-term objectives. You can read an introduction to this program here: https://sites.google.com/view/carnation-program/introduction

My article on lessons learned from the Workers Party of Belgium:

https://www.dsausa.org/blog/three-lessons-from-the-workers-party-of-belgium/

My article with Griffin M on the strategy underlying the Labor for an Arms Embargo campaign:

https://www.dsausa.org/blog/workers-can-stop-arms-shipments-to-israel/

An interview with some of the core organizers of the Measure H campaign in Pasadena: https://jacobin.com/2022/12/pasadena-tenants-union-rent-control-measure-h-organizing

An article in DropSite News outlining the movement of arms from the UK to Israel: https://www.dropsitenews.com/p/uk-israel-munitions-shipments-palestine

A report I authored outlining the movement of arms components from Spain to Israel, which resulted in an ongoing National Court case being opened in Spain to investigate these shipments: https://static1.squarespace.com/static/664aed65d320123f2b3ab647/t/67b6661b78033a7366303cf5/1740006940925/Final-v2-Report-Zaragoza-MilitaryCargo-Feb2025.pdf

National Court case: https://x.com/progintl/status/1892526837059690680?s=46

A report I authored outlining the movement of arms components, F-35 parts, and Special Forces flights from France to Israel for a broad antiwar coalition:

https://static1.squarespace.com/static/664aed65d320123f2b3ab647/t/6847cc99a125643c489f20dd/1749535904343/REPORT-Livraisons-Darmes-France-vers-Israel.pdf

An article that I contributed research for and am quoted in, mapping US military cargo flights from Italy to Israel: https://www.ilfattoquotidiano.it/in-edicola/articoli/2025/01/24/intelligence-drones-italian-weapons-against-the-people-of-gaza/7849689/

A report I assisted with, outlining the movement of military cargo from the US to Israel on Maersk ships through Spanish ports. After the publication of this report, the Spanish Foreign Ministry turned these ships away, where they sought to dock in Morocco and were met with mass protests and worker action.

https://static1.squarespace.com/static/664aed65d320123f2b3ab647/t/67534581b1692e1777d81bd1/1733510532268/Report-MaerskShipmentsIsrael-Rev7Nov2024-Final.pdf

A clip from a speech I gave at the “Not Another Bomb” rally:

https://x.com/demsocialists/status/1826762275711234065?s=46

Article I co-authored on PR:

https://jacobin.com/2024/05/fair-representation-act-labor-electoral-reform

Nell Geiser

Metro DC, District of Columbia (She/Her, They/Them)

Are you running for an At-Large NPC seat or for one of the two Co-Chair seats (or both)? At-Large

Why are you running for NPC?

I’m running for NPC because I see the need for experienced organizers to ground DSA’s national leadership in its mission to support chapters doing the intensive work of movement building. I’ve been a political organizer for 25 years and I’ve learned how to navigate differences within the left to build unity where possible towards a broad popular front fighting for the people.

Alongside building this broad movement we must also be principled. As we ask our community and institutions, “which side are you on?”, we need to be clear on our own red lines. Through my work in DSA and on the left more broadly, I’ve sharpened my ideological and strategic analysis and feel ready to help hold the line.

I became active in DSA in June 2020 when Metro DC DSA started a Defund MPD Working Group to support the uprisings against police killings of Black people. I helped build sustainable onboarding processes and contributed to working group activities, publications, and decision-making.

I joined the DSA International Committee in 2021, becoming co-chair of the Labor Subcommittee in 2022 and member of IC Steering starting in 2023. I have helped anchor our solidarity work with peoples’ struggles in the Philippines and liaised with the Asia Oceania Subcommittee. I led implementation of the chapter liaison program mandated by the 2023 convention.

In 2024 I led rebuilding of the Internationalism Working Group in Metro DC after it was dormant for almost a year. I coordinated a four-part organizing training and have mentored a group of stewards leading the Working Group. We have strengthened collaboration with Palestine solidarity organizations, launched the Chevron boycott/divestment campaign in DC, hosted frequent political education events, and taken actions in support of the people of Cuba, the Philippines, and elsewhere.

Some of the challenges I see in DSA include (1) the tilt of the organizational culture towards white office workers, preventing DSA from being an effective working class organization embedded in our communities, (2) many members are new to organizing in left coalitions and may have blind spots around opportunities to build unity and work across differences towards larger goals, leading with humility, (3) inadequate absorption structures for all new members to get political education and relationship-building opportunities.

I believe the central obstacle preventing global socialist transformation is the US-led imperialist world order that acts as a boot on the neck of working people everywhere, keeping the working class disorganized. In 2025, we face heightened contradictions and delegitimization of US hegemony, but until US military bases are shut around the world and the US control of financial flows is replaced with a more just system, our primary obstacle is our government’s ability to dictate geopolitics and economics in the interest of global capital. If we are to be effective, DSA should orient ourselves to learn from movements around the world and situate ourselves within a global struggle. This means long-term commitment to international solidarity and migrant justice work within our chapters. It means engaging in labor struggles across corporations’ global supply chains. It means deeper political education for new members to develop a baseline understanding of imperialism and struggles against it. I do not have a silver bullet to make DSA live up to its potential, but I am an experienced organizer and I know how to do the hard work of organizing, and how to teach that work to others.

I believe the most important strategy to become a working class organization is to focus our organizing on the direct, material interests of working class communities by engaging in labor, tenant and immigrant struggles. Also critical is to learn from the organizations that already do this work, such as unions, that find ways to involve a broad group of people in democratic decision-making and mobilization in ways that work for their lives, schedules, and budgets. I support making DSA a multilingual organization and being open to changing our practices to make broad-based participation more feasible.

What should the relationship between the national organization and local chapters look like--how should they engage each other and what role should NPC members take in shaping that relationship?

The national organization should support chapters materially, since it is in our chapters that the core of our work takes place. The national organization should be an expression of the will of our members via the convention and the NPC. The members of the NPC should act as stewards to ensure the will of the delegates is carried out and the organization is coherent internally and externally, as much as possible. NPC members are also organizers who model comradely conduct and contribute materially to DSA campaigns and initiatives.

Have you ever held a position within or on behalf of law enforcement (such as a police union organizer)? No. However, full disclosure, I work for the Communications Workers of America, one of the more democratic and militant unions, which does still represent some law enforcement (others have disaffiliated). I have not worked with those bargaining units. The

If you would like to share any links to articles you’ve written, a portfolio, or similar resources you feel will be useful for members to get to know you, do so here.

I've written or contributed to a few articles for our chapter zine, the Washington Socialist:

*https://washingtonsocialist.mdcdsa.org/ws-articles/24-06-labor-notes-2024

*https://washingtonsocialist.mdcdsa.org/ws-articles/20-12-police-union-negotiations

*https://washingtonsocialist.mdcdsa.org/ws-articles/24-04-secure-dc

And for evidence I've been a leftist for quite awhile, here's a couple columns from when I was in college:

*https://www.columbiaspectator.com/2006/03/08/norman-finkelstein-speaks/

*https://www.columbiaspectator.com/2006/02/22/tour-de-force-elision/

Frances Gill

Los Angeles, California (She/Her)

Are you running for an At-Large NPC seat or for one of the two Co-Chair seats (or both)? At-Large

Why are you running for NPC?

Hello! My name is Frances Gill. My pronouns are she/her and I’m a member of DSA Los Angeles. I’m excited to be running for re-election to the NPC. I chose to run again because I believe deeply in our political project, and I want to dedicate my life to helping to build it. We have a unique historic responsibility to build a strong socialist political pole in US politics, or else we will continue to see a slide further towards right wing extremism.

Over the past two years on the NPC, I’ve helped navigate real challenges: internal conflict, political disagreements, and the complexity of trying to grow a multi-tendency socialist organization. But I’ve also seen how much is possible when we act together and lead with our politics -- from the No Money for Massacres campaign to the Zohran campaign in NYC. As stunningly challenging as this political moment is, I also see enormous potential and great opportunities for socialists to lead.

DSA must become a force capable of organizing against the far right, while also presenting a hopeful, transformative alternative vision for society that invites new people in. DSA can be a powerful vehicle for liberation; I’ve seen that firsthand. But we still have so much to do to realize our potential. I’m running because I want to be a part of helping us achieve that!

I joined DSA in 2017. I was a founding member of the New Orleans DSA chapter, and I served as co-chair of that chapter from 2020-2021. I moved to Los Angeles, where I got involved in the Labor Committee and served as co-chair of that committee. In 2023, I ran for National Political Committee and have served on the NPC for the last two years! During my time on NPC, I have focused primarily on reforming our organization’s grievance + conflict resolution program.

Right now, we are in the midst of a major political crisis. Armed federal agents are abducting people from their workplaces, from their homes, off the streets. People are being arrested, detained, and deported for expressing their political beliefs. We are likely to face attempts at organizational repression under this administration, and as extremist ideas become more and more normalized, we increasingly risk random acts of right wing violence against us as well. As I write this, the news has broken that the US has just bombed Iran. The broader political scenario that DSA will face during this term is a dark and frightening one, but there are pockets of light and hope that can sustain and orient us. For example, Los Angeles’ response to the ICE raids over the last two weeks: coordinated neighborhood watch groups, urgent and ferocious resistance to the raids themselves, a legislative strategy, and popular education, all pulled together in just a few days. We have so much potential to fight back, and for this reason, one of the proposals at Convention that I am the most excited about is the "Fight Fascism, Build Socialism" proposal.

Too often, DSA sits on the sidelines during important moments of political struggle. But people -- all people -- want to be a part of an organization that is fighting for them. We cannot wait idly by for the perfect moment to launch the perfect campaign or the perfect intervention. We have to be willing to be creative, to experiment, and to trust one another enough that we can act with urgency. When we fail to do that, we fail to present ourselves as a viable, fighting political org, and that is when we lose folks that should be a part of our base. There are cultural and structural barriers to entry in DSA too, and those should not be minimized. Those barriers also work to prevent us from being a truly multiracial working class organization. We need our decision making to be clear, democratic, and accessible to everyone. We need our campaigns and projects to have clear, actionable asks that engage everyone. And we need to be willing to really fight! This is the stuff that can break us out of our current demographic patterns if we really commit to it.

What should the relationship between the national organization and local chapters look like--how should they engage each other and what role should NPC members take in shaping that relationship?

NPC members should be more deeply engaged in helping to develop and execute national organizing campaigns, which should all have a strong core of local, chapter-based organizing. That work could include a variety of different efforts, like federal legislative campaigns, leveraging our national infrastructure to support local electoral campaigns, corporate campaigns like Boycott Chevron, or nationally coordinated labor organizing like Strike Ready. Unfortunately, as things currently stand, the daily workload of the NPC is almost completely divorced from this type of political work and from the political work being carried out in chapters. NPC members are often mired in internally facing political struggle, and instead, we should all consciously turn our attention outward and make time to develop -- across caucus lines -- shared analysis and strategic goals, to find ways to consolidate and leverage our power, and to grow our organization. This will inevitably mean allowing ourselves to be informed by and moved by the work of and priorities of chapters, and it will also mean that NPC members are incentivized to build strong relationships with chapters such that they can coordinate more closely on campaign work.

Have you ever held a position within or on behalf of law enforcement (such as a police union organizer)? No

If you would like to share any links to articles you’ve written, a portfolio, or similar resources you feel will be useful for members to get to know you, do so here.

I am running for NPC on the Groundwork slate. You can read more about us here: groundworkdsa.com!

Olivia Gonzalez Killingsworth

New York City, New York (She/Her)

Are you running for an At-Large NPC seat or for one of the two Co-Chair seats (or both)? At-Large

Why are you running for NPC?

I’m running to act as a bridge-builder. DSA members are passionate about building a better world through democratic socialism. Often, our passion can create tension and disagreement about how to build that better world. Don’t get me wrong: dissent is a healthy and essential part of any democratic organization. However, I’ve seen too many groups and leadership teams stall or fall into disorganization because of an unwillingness or inability to courageously confront and constructively move through internal conflict. I have a 20-year background working in collaborative art forms (theater and film), and years of experience organizing and building across political tendencies, both within and between DSA, organized labor, and other social justice groups. I’m proud of the work I’ve done at both the local (NYC) and national level, with caucused and uncaucused comrades alike, to move our priorities forward, whether they be in labor organizing, Palestine solidarity, housing justice, or migrant rights. I’m not afraid to address differences and work to build consensus, so we can spend less of our time bogged down in internal disputes and more of our time and resources fighting fascism, the climate crisis, and the ruling class.

I joined NYC-DSA in December 2022 and was recruited into leadership roles for both the South Brooklyn branch and the Labor Branch after serving as a strike captain for my union during SAG-AFTRA’s historic 118-day strike in 2023. I’m proud of the consensus-building work I did with my comrades to combine the Labor Branch with the Union Power Campaign and transform it into the NYC-DSA Labor Working Group, a body that is now over 1,800 members strong. As its co-chair and treasurer for two terms, I supported a successful campaign to raise $10,000 to send our members to Labor Notes, as well as a huge strike solidarity operation in December of 2024 for Amazon and Starbucks workers, including chartering buses to Staten Island and sending thousands of dollars worth of food and supplies to picket lines in Queens, Manhattan, and Brooklyn. I’m beyond excited to have helped launch the House the Future Campaign to create a Social Housing Development Authority for New York State, in coalition with several other DSA chapters, labor unions, and our statewide coalition partner, Housing Justice for All. Additionally, I’ve been supremely honored to serve on the Steering Committee of the National Labor Commission, where I’ve worked with national finance staff to unlock the Labor Solidarity Fund, and supported the creation of the national Labor for Arms Embargo campaign along with our partners in PYM and the Progressive International, as well as its local iteration in NYC, the Break the Chain campaign.

The US is reaching the culmination of a decades-long battle to roll back hard-won rights and civil liberties for workers and marginalized people. In the face of an anti-immigrant, anti-trans, militarized, and authoritarian fascist ruling class hell-bent on the subjugation of workers worldwide, we face a severe lack of left-wing political organization at the national level. As more people become willing to consider political alternatives to the status quo, socialists must play a leading role in the fight against international far-right authoritarianism, lest we cede the mantle of opposition to the liberals who laid the foundation for it. Our most important medium-term goals should be ending genocidal wars and preventing the acceleration of climate change. To move towards these goals, we must acquire power at the federal level to influence national political discourse and legislative priorities. These priorities should be based on issues that are widely and deeply felt across the working class: Medicare for All, reducing the cost of living, ending political corruption, unionization for all, and ending US militarism. As our members in unions organize to build mass-participation, solidaristic unions that connect our program to a working-class base, we can run issue-based campaigns across the country in our DSA chapters, using clearly defined metrics to assess successes and failures, build DSA, and develop new leaders. We can then build on our popular mandate, as well as our expanded membership, lists, and fundraising capacity, to launch a campaign for five House seats in 2028.

As an organizer who got her start in the anti-racist movement, and as a product of a mixed Mexican & Anglo family, I’m keenly aware of the demographic differences between DSA’s membership and the makeup of the multiracial working class. I think one of the first places to start is by openly admitting and owning up to the makeup of our organization: we should complete a full member census to get an accurate picture of who exactly we are, and release those results! Are we really more white, more educated, and more urban than the broader working class? How does that break down across chapters? With that knowledge, we’ll be better able to identify and target specific areas for growth. We'll also be more equipped to participate in multiracial coalitional spaces, with a deeper understanding of the privileges and identities we bring to the table. I’m also dedicated to supporting and expanding efforts to make DSA more multilingual, with language justice as a critical part of our local and national campaigns. This would both expand the capacities of our members who speak English as a first language and help us invest in new leaders from marginalized backgrounds.

What should the relationship between the national organization and local chapters look like--how should they engage each other and what role should NPC members take in shaping that relationship?

One of my favorite aspects of serving in leadership of the National Labor Commission has been getting to know members from chapters across the country, both large and small, and hearing about the amazing work they’ve been doing (which some of us in New York City could only dream of)! I’m especially interested in supporting the expansion of smaller chapters in rural areas and red states, as well as statewide coordination among local chapters, big and small. I believe an expanded NPC could help facilitate stronger coordination, allowing NPC members to “adopt” different regions and act as liaisons between the locals within those regions, as well as provide a vital connection between those locals and national leadership and staff. This will be critical to coordinating issue-based campaigns to stop the acceleration of the climate crisis and ending genocidal wars, as well as the identification of candidates for Congress. The success of the Build Public Renewables Act in NYC was crucial to building our national Green New Deal strategy, and conversely, the BPRA would not have passed without the success of the IRA on the federal level. I also believe in the importance of opening up more of our national political decisions to rank-and-file members through "one member, one vote" and DSA-wide advisory votes.

Have you ever held a position within or on behalf of law enforcement (such as a police union organizer)? No

If you would like to share any links to articles you’ve written, a portfolio, or similar resources you feel will be useful for members to get to know you, do so here.

While I am not a member of any caucus within DSA, I am a supporter of "Carnation" - neither a caucus, nor a resolution, but a proposal for a political program and a short, medium, and long-term plan of action for DSA: https://sites.google.com/view/carnation-program/home?authuser=0

Ahmed Husain

New York City, New York (He/Him)

Are you running for an At-Large NPC seat or for one of the two Co-Chair seats (or both)? At-Large

Why are you running for NPC?

I have been asked to run again by my team and allies across the movement. After two years of genocide and ruptures, I want to ground our organization in the long-term work in between the crises. Navigating loss, stagnation, and repression are learned skills. I didn’t always believe we can win socialism in our lifetime as I navigated through organizing setbacks during the Arab Spring and the George Floyd uprising in 2020. We must be honest and critical about weaknesses in our organization and our own ranks:

- If we are to forge true solidarity with immigrant and brown/Black communities, we need leadership on the NPC that understands our communities' issues intimately and speaks their language. I immigrated to the US alone, with limited resources, on a ‘bad’ passport. I will continue to fight for our place in this organization.

- Locals are the lifeblood of this organisation. The hard and unsung organizing that drives DSA’s success and continued growth happens on small, local campaigns. I will continue to defend and prioritize our chapters’ ability to organize; push to double chapter’s income from dues shares (Resolution 43); and work to cohere the national organization so that every chapter can have a say on the issues that affect them.

- Members must lead our work in every aspect, from internationalism to social media. The most effective version of our national organization is one that delegates to member leaders with the most expertise.

I want to pass and implement the Springs of Revolution platform.

I joined DSA in 2017 and have since organized across Denver DSA, NYC DSA, and National DSA:

- Served as a member of the National Political Committee in 2023-2025. I spearheaded our organizational response to the ongoing genocide in Palestine. I’ve helped pen nearly every national statement on Palestine, organized around No Votes for Genocide, on the ground for the student encampments, and rebuilt organizational relationships for DSA/YDSA with the rest of the Palestine solidarity movement. I’ve fought for a DSA that works with the broader movement rather than in isolation. I defended our local chapters’ ability to organize by protecting dues share from budget cuts. I’ve also defended the political standards of the national organization by pursuing electoral standards for endorsed officials such as AOC.

- Served as co-chair on Denver DSA’s Steering Committee. We rebuilt the chapter post-COVID following a near-fatal collapse in activity and dissolution of most committees. Painstakingly, we resurrected all projects, rebuilt internal capacity, developed new leadership, and adapted sustainable internal structures.

- Started Denver’s Palestine WG and co-founded the Colorado Palestine Coalition in 2021, which includes all major organizations working on Palestine in Colorado and acts as a “clearinghouse for action for Palestine”. It has since led some of the largest pro-Palestine campaigns and largest rallies in Colorado history.

- Started Denver’s Abolition WG and spearheaded DSA’s team on the “Defund DPD” campaign (which began life inside the WG) through which we coalesced a large coalition of organizations around abolitionist goals and a long-term vision for Denver.

DSA needs to show up to 2028 with a loaded gun. We need a united front, with a broad left-labor-liberation coalition around shared points of unity, to take advantage of the escalating crises of capitalism. There will be further ruptures, whether against escalating ICE or over regional war in the Middle East, that will ignite the streets here in the US. We will have to organize segments of these uprisings and build coalitions with the organisations that arise from communities we’re not in. We can’t afford to isolate ourselves from the rest of the movement.

DSA’s strength is our ability to experiment across 200+ chapters; our weakness is the lack of knowledge sharing with regard to these experiments. Addressing gaps in coordination and building up mechanisms to facilitate mentorship and skill/resource sharing between chapters, bypassing bottlenecks nationally, will be key to replicating our successes across the organisation much more rapidly.

DSA cannot make qualifications or exceptions to our solidarity.

We have racism and classism issues within our organization. People outside the existing progressive milieu that dominates DSA don’t often have the time or acculturation to overcome the cultural BS to organize around the issues they care about. I have seen a frequent double standard in terms of how harshly the existing leadership treats issues predominantly affecting Black and brown membership.

There already exists a large degree of self-organization in racial and immigrant communities. There are already fault lines and lightning rods, factions and discourses. Before DSA can be accepted in these communities, their struggle must become our struggle. Palestinian liberation is a top priority for an already militant and organized base in Muslim and Arab communities; there is already consensus. Our lapses in solidarity add friction onto an already existing tough sell. We must stand in real solidarity.

Other communities have lightning rod issues that don’t fit neatly inside DSA’s current political platform or schedules. We must be willing to step into rooms where we’re the minority. We must make room for people who don’t work desk jobs. We cannot compromise on accessibility. For us to root in the broader working class, we must belong to all parts of it. To belong and take part, we must begin to listen with humility.

What should the relationship between the national organization and local chapters look like--how should they engage each other and what role should NPC members take in shaping that relationship?

Locals first.

DSA’s deepest, most consistent, and impactful organizing happens in our local chapters. They are the fundamental building block of DSA, and developing chapters should be the national organization’s primary priority. A ‘locals first’ approach puts national bodies in service of local chapters and directs national resources and funds into developing chapters. We must also have coherent, binding national standards for our chapters so that we’re able to move as a single organization with one voice. The decisions of each chapter inevitably affect every other chapter. We’re accountable to each other, chapter to chapter, member to member and should have democratic measures that allow chapters to work through the national organization in order to come to shared organizational decisions. Dues shares are the lifeline of our local chapters that allow them to pursue ambitious campaigns, maintain equitable membership engagement, and build roots in their local communities. We should double each chapter's share of dues to 40% (R43).

Have you ever held a position within or on behalf of law enforcement (such as a police union organizer)? No

If you would like to share any links to articles you’ve written, a portfolio, or similar resources you feel will be useful for members to get to know you, do so here.

Pisces Sun, Leo Moon. Welcome to my Saturn Return.

Against Cowardice: Palestine Charts the Path for DSA https://partisanmag.com/against-cowardice-dsa-palestine/

C.S. Jackson

San Diego, California (He/Him)

Are you running for an At-Large NPC seat or for one of the two Co-Chair seats (or both)? At-Large

Why are you running for NPC?

I am running for NPC to bring decisiveness and long-term strategic planning to our organization. For far too long, DSA has only reacted to changing events and not planned ahead. This short-term thinking has affected everything from candidate endorsements to our funds and membership pushes. For DSA to become a genuine mass organization, we must think beyond the two-year terms of the NPC and develop a clear roadmap for: building independent working-class power; articulating a left political alternative; transforming social institutions; and implementing genuine antifascism. This requires both bold vision and practical member-led governance, not just reacting to crises, but preparing for the political opportunities ahead. As an NPC member, I'll push for this long-view approach while ensuring our national work remains accountable to and energized by our chapters.

I've been a DSA member for seven years, joining in 2018. As San Diego chapter treasurer for three years, I implemented financial systems that improved our capacity while organizing mutual aid that raised $15,000 during COVID. Currently serving on steering committees for both the Queer Socialist and Disability Working Groups, I helped initiate our coalition work against the Kids Online Safety Act, building connections with digital rights groups through persistent outreach. In DWG, we confront DSA's institutional ableism, from inaccessible events to token accommodations. My work is grounded in lived experience with cerebral palsy; I know disability justice can't be an afterthought. This range of experience, from crisis response to policy fights, shows both our potential and how far we must grow.

Domestically, we face escalating authoritarianism from the crackdowns in Los Angeles to ICE’s brutal raids terrorizing immigrant communities nationwide. These raids prove what we’ve long argued: abolition isn’t radical, it’s necessary. Trans rights, bodily autonomy, and reproductive justice are under siege; we must embrace a diversity of tactics, from clinic defense to deportation defense networks to workplace strikes. Internationally, stopping the genocide in Palestine remains the cause of our time. DSA must intensify pressure through labor actions, port blockades, and unrelenting protests, while standing firm against repression. These struggles, for migrant justice, for Gaza, for queer liberation, for reproductive freedom, are interconnected. We cannot rely on Democrats who replicate Republican repression; our power comes from building working-class resistance that confronts all systems of oppression at their roots while organizing beyond electoral dead ends.

I strongly support the Afro-Socialist Caucus’s efforts to recruit and develop more BIPOC members within DSA. To build a truly inclusive and revolutionary movement, we must deepen our outreach to Indigenous communities, particularly by learning from their 500-year resistance to settler colonialism, which offers critical lessons in collective struggle and sustainable solidarity. As a biracial organizer of Haudenosaunee descent, I recognize how DSA’s demographics still skew overwhelmingly white and male, limiting our ability to connect with the multiracial working class we aim to organize. To address this, we need active, consistent tabling at community colleges and intentional partnerships with tenant unions, mutual aid networks, and Indigenous-led struggles. Our theory must be grounded in the material conditions of the marginalized communities we claim to represent; anything less risks replicating the same exclusionary patterns we seek to dismantle.

What should the relationship between the national organization and local chapters look like--how should they engage each other and what role should NPC members take in shaping that relationship?

The disconnect between national and local work is stark. Most members only engage with national when controversy erupts, while small chapters lack input and larger ones wield disproportionate influence. This imbalance reflects a deeper problem: too often, national work feels distant from the daily struggles of rank-and-file members.

The NPC must do more than facilitate a middle ground. We must model the organization we want to build. How NPC members conduct themselves in meetings, both public and private, resolve conflicts, and prioritize collective work over individual agendas sets the tone for the entire organization. When we center patience in debate, uphold accountability without factional malice, and consistently redirect energy to grassroots building, we demonstrate the socialist culture DSA needs.

Have you ever held a position within or on behalf of law enforcement (such as a police union organizer)? No

If you would like to share any links to articles you’ve written, a portfolio, or similar resources you feel will be useful for members to get to know you, do so here.

I post on the DSA forums as @autobotcoop, including this thread: https://discussion.dsausa.org/t/i-dont-think-trump-is-a-fascist-or-that-fascism-has-ever-existed-in-the-us/38013/.

I also contributed to this Libertarian Socialist Caucus piece: For Direct Democracy Without Caveats https://dsa-lsc.org/2024/04/27/for-direct-democracy-without-caveats-lsc-opposes-the-deliberative-member-engagement-proposal/

David Jenkins

New York City, New York (He/Him)

Are you running for an At-Large NPC seat or for one of the two Co-Chair seats (or both)? At-Large

Why are you running for NPC?

I am running because since I joined the organization in 2020, and throughout my various leadership and rank-and-file efforts, it has been my mission to break down the walls between the various domains within DSA and to cultivate a robust ecology of tactics that mutually reinforce and catalyze our work and independent working class power. In this pivotal historical moment, I think the most urgent task for the largest socialist organization in a century is to more meaningfully connect National DSA with chapters, chapters and OCs with each other, and the members themselves.

We will only be able to achieve this throughout the organization if we have leadership at the top committed to this evolving, historic political project that is DSA. We are seeing a surge of membership and continue to rack up wins, but also see unprecedented attacks on the organization amidst potentially catastrophic domestic and global crises. We need patient, positive, critical thinkers with firm principles and a long-term vision to make this organization as resilient and capable as possible. I have demonstrated a capacity to work across tendencies for shared goals and a positive vision for the future of our organization.

I joined DSA in 2020 after meeting some NYC-DSA members down in South Carolina while canvassing for Bernie, and coming home to a pandemic and an uprising.

My very first canvass was with the Ecosocialist WG in my neighborhood after a power outage, and that summer I found my home in the DefundNYPD campaign of the Racial Justice Working Group, as police and prison abolition became the clearest analysis and most urgent action I could find. Over the years we’ve tabled, lobbied, organized community conversations on public safety, held councilmembers accountable, done mutual aid, political education and more. This work continues to present contradictions with our ambitious electoral work, in both public fear mongering, and in the pitfalls of executive power.

In part because of my tenant organizing activity outside of DSA within my own tenant association and the fledgling neighborhood tenant union, I became involved in writing the bylaws and organizing plan to establish the Flatbush Branch of NYC-DSA in 2023, and served on the founding Organizing Committee as Campaign Coordinator. I authored and led a branch campaign that kickstarted our weekly tabling, built ties with local orgs, and seeded independent tenant power in the neighborhood.

I have done field work for a dozen electoral and legislative campaigns across the chapter, and as a marshal and trainer for Red Rabbits have worked to make our presence in protest actions safe and effective. I served as an alternate for the 2021 NYC-DSA Convention, and as a delegate in 2024.

In the broadest sense, ongoing global ecological collapse and a decaying world order have resulted in wars, mass migration, and a rising authoritarianism that is variously merging with a right-wing technofascist ideology to control and profit off of the collapse. In the United States our decrepit democracy and rampant inequality serves only to fuel and be consumed by the fires it’s set around the world.

While we contend with a hostile Democratic Party and billionaire-bought elections, we will need to expand our politics beyond the operations of the state through radical labor, housing, direct action, and mutual aid work, that can connect to our campaigns for immigrant and international solidarity, bodily autonomy and reproductive rights, abolition, ecosocialism, and more. And as we continue to contest and win state power, and face unprecedented levels of money, bureaucracy, and pure authority to defeat us, we must merge all of this work into something revolutionary that is prepared for opportunities to upend and remake the systems designed to impoverish and disempower the multiracial working class.

Having open, democratic National DSA bodies committed to connecting and supporting chapters and members in a variety of work, encouraging experimentation, creativity, and a diversity of tactics, we can build a flexible big tent organization capable of attracting and accommodating massive growth during this period of instability.

Marginalized communities, far from being depoliticized, are rightly skeptical of big promises from well-meaning activists who don’t seem to show up between votes. We must be consistently present in our communities and workplaces, and not come knocking every couple years seeking support for a candidate or piece of legislation before we’ve built long-term trust. Workplace & tenant organizing, and projects like NYC-DSA’s “Socialism Is The People” – connecting to and supporting existing aligned grassroots organizations – are ways to build trust and deep community bonds.

Internally, we must foster the continued resurgence of the AfroSoC Caucus and make serious connections between it and the Growth & Development Committee to deliberately and authentically shift our membership’s racial makeup. An intentional focus on rural areas, also up for consideration at Convention, can help us connect to more Native communities, which are over five times more represented there than in urban areas.

Finally, I think as part of a general cultural shift and political education effort, we must make participating in discussion and decision-making as a rank-and-file member more accessible and legible, and honestly confront white supremacy as it arises. Consistent, digestible trainings on meeting procedure, proposal writing, and member democracy must be paired with consistent transparency, communication, and things like childcare, food, and disability accommodations for meetings. The multiracial working class is beset by many demands on their time and attention; these practices give ownership and agency to all members, and ensure already marginalized members aren’t further alienated.

What should the relationship between the national organization and local chapters look like--how should they engage each other and what role should NPC members take in shaping that relationship?

Most of the work of DSA happens at the chapter level. But too much of our most precious resource – our members’ valuable time and energy – is spent reinventing the wheel, reproducing materials and campaigns from scratch, and struggling to get traction despite being part of the largest, most powerful socialist organization in the country.

We have done a great deal to address this in the last few years, but we can go further. In addition to ensuring open, democratic National bodies that catalyze chapter work, National DSA can become the conduit through which chapters iterate and replicate successful campaigns and share important information, mutually reinforcing and adapting across diverse contexts. Shared national resources, from graphic design to issue-based analyses and case studies – and member-to-member support through the ever-evolving Forums and other member tools – will help accelerate our growth.

The NPC, as liaisons to National bodies and potentially chapters, must serve as the facilitators of this cross-pollination and ultimately new growth, and work as a coherent body to find and seize opportunities as they arise to expand the possibilities of our work and bring the full weight of the National organization onto strategic local fights. In any organization, culture starts at the top. The NPC must tend the DSA garden together and trust our members’ collective wisdom and work.

Have you ever held a position within or on behalf of law enforcement (such as a police union organizer)? No.

If you would like to share any links to articles you’ve written, a portfolio, or similar resources you feel will be useful for members to get to know you, do so here.

I recently posted this on the DSA Forum, as a way of introducing myself and my work in (and outside) of the organization. It’s pretty long, so there’s also a “tl;dr” that includes a video series of testimonies, speeches, and a panel appearance that tells the whole story in brief:

"Let This Radicalize You: My Testimonies Over Time"

https://discussion.dsausa.org/t/let-this-radicalize-you-my-testimonies-over-time/47040

John Lewis

New Orleans, Louisiana (He/Him)

Are you running for an At-Large NPC seat or for one of the two Co-Chair seats (or both)? At-Large

Why are you running for NPC?

I’m running to continue serving my comrades, our organization, our collective. Nothing fills my tank like helping someone else and I’m always trying to pour that energy back into DSA. In the NPC, I’ve tried to turn that collective spirit into action; opening national up to members and boosting comrades up to organize alongside us is just the beginning. We’ve done a bit this past term making the organization less opaque to members so there’s room for more participation, understanding and shared skill building. Our organization is built on our connections and the work we do for and with each other. In doing so we push ourselves and society towards the better world we all deserve.

Collective leaders help move us along that path by following through on the democratically decided tasks and initiatives so that we model the world we’re building. We’re not just building a socialist organization to smash capitalism; we’re building it to create something new. That means ensuring DSA is a space for constructive struggle, where conflict sharpens rather than destroys the bonds we need. Good struggle builds each of our analyses and strengthens our practicing of democracy. For our movement to grow to the millions, our collective practices must be strong. That’s the spirit I’ll carry into the 2025-2027 NPC; because how I show up is a responsibility to every comrade, so DSA remains the place people go to change their communities, their states, their world, and we get there together.

I joined DSA in 2020. While it’s my first explicitly socialist organization, I’d been organizing for about ten years beforehand. One of my first tasks was organizing with local comrades to revive our chapter and then scale up from there. Our first collective action was turning out for a pro-abortion protest!

Since then I’ve been elected to leadership at every level of DSA. I’ve participated in canvasses and electoral campaigns, supported unions during strikes, led political-education initiatives, done Palestine-solidarity organizing, coordinated community-centered mutual aid, and built coalitions across chapters and states. I’m always looking for opportunities to support comrades so we keep them around and add more socialists to our collective.

Beyond serving on the National Political Committee and Steering Committee as Treasurer, I’ve been Chapter Co-Chair, Co-Chair of a BIPoC Caucus, member of the AfroSoC Executive Committee, National Abolition Working Group, and a rank-and-file contributor to committees and campaigns like the National Tech Committee. I’ve also stayed active working with our National New Member Orientations for several years.

On the NPC I’ve shared financial information with members, opened up the Budget & Finance Committee, partnered with organizing committees, and kicked off the 2025 Convention Planning Committee, among other efforts. Shifting the organization toward long-term financial planning has been challenging but necessary, and it must be a focus because it equips DSA for the struggles ahead.

We’re about six months into Trump’s second term and have already seen heightened reaction against our organizing and working-class people. The administration presses to deport and detain as many people as possible, often focusing on those who oppose Zionism and imperialism. Heightened attacks on Gaza, Iran, Yemen, and Lebanon continue alongside a global trade war. This comes with legislative agitation against labor unions and political organizations, including ours, via overstated anti-billionaire Tesla protest coverage and letters calling for a federal investigation.

In a world of pressure, the release comes in the continued activation of people declaring themselves socialists amid political and economic anxiety. We must orient our Growth & Development and Political Education Committees, alongside chapters, toward developing, educating, and retaining these new socialists. We must be clear that, while the organization and its members act well within our rights, our opponents will still look for any compliance missteps that could cost us in legal representation. Expanding chapter compliance and financial training, considering legal-defense funds, establishing a national rapid-response legal hotline, and building stronger chapter-mentorship networks are all necessary outcomes. However, most of all we cannot stop our political organizing, and this is the time, if any, to align ourselves with organizations that share our end goals and to continue the push for true democracy against capitalism and imperialism.

Politics is the allocation of resources, time, and organizing. What communities DSA organizes is a political decision; what fields and industries we salt, what unions we work with, what campaigns we take on, and who we decide to recruit. Despite attestations that identity has no place, as followers of dialectics we know society’s interactions with us shape our political expression. It’s why comrades struggle against the Black misleadership class bending radical ideology into liberalism; why comrades shaped by immigration engage migrant communities; why colonized people resonate with anti-imperialism; why those who’ve felt the hand of stop-and-frisk and the boots of state violence demand we Stop Cop City.

Our task as a democratic organization is to craft a space where these political tendencies can organize, struggle constructively, and critique one another. Many comrades of color already organize; they don’t need a special leadership program; they need an organization that affirms and sharpens the work they’re doing, treating them as comrades to learn from and develop alongside. This process can widen our political expression, our reach and the people we can recruit. It’s not about prioritizing or monolithizing specific organizing but having the solidarity to consider different perspectives. An affirming organization builds trust, and structures that are fair and balanced receive participation. DSA being that organization gives us the platform to urge chapters to map worker and tenant-led fights and find opportunities to co-organize mutual aid, Cop/ICE-watch and labor actions in places we aren’t.

What should the relationship between the national organization and local chapters look like--how should they engage each other and what role should NPC members take in shaping that relationship?

Members and chapters are the foundation of DSA, and a strong DSA has movement of information, skills and organizers between national and local. A majority of our organizing time should be dedicated to supporting members and chapters because if the organization wants to do labor, electoral, mutual aid, immigration, trans-rights work; it takes members who know their local conditions and are ready to fight. We are a grassroots funded and organized organization and the people tilling the soil are the people we lend our support to. Through their work the working class will bear the fruits of our collective efforts.

Comrades on the NPC will typically be the most in the know about the organization and should look at ways to engage comrades and tie chapters to national bodies and commissions. As the national treasurer I’ve opened up member participation in our finances. I’ve made it a point to share reports and updates for comrades so they can have awareness of where the organization is currently and consolidated national policy to help members navigate what was an opaque environment.

As an NPCer I’ve worked with several organizing committees to offer peer support, org related mentorship, visiting to back up organizers. The reason for this is because as someone who helped reignite his chapter, having ties to the organization, nearby chapters and national can be crucial. Regular communication, relationships and comradery add a human element. Organizing is better with solidarity and we have comrades everywhere.

Have you ever held a position within or on behalf of law enforcement (such as a police union organizer)? No

If you would like to share any links to articles you’ve written, a portfolio, or similar resources you feel will be useful for members to get to know you, do so here.

https://discussion.dsausa.org/t/dsa-treasury-reports-and-information/29022

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-zSGkZqyPvlYoz9QLniMyCk8AtATUGod4JKthTpJ70U/edit?tab=t.0

https://redstarcaucus.org/zenithv3-protagonism/

https://www.dsausa.org/blog/juneteenth-the-slaves-cause-the-socialists-cause/

https://hoodcommunist.org/2020/11/19/atlantan-wakandism-why-black-capitalism-must-be-challenged/

https://www.wbrz.com/news/community-fridge-created-in-baton-rouge-to-provide-free-groceries-for-people-in-need/

https://tech.dsausa.org/google-drive-google-groups-for-chapters/

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1TGwDifP-Z_p0m-TQD1YuOSyWkc_6s4wX/edit?slide=id.p20#slide=id.p20

Byron Lopez

Orange County, California (He/Him)

Are you running for an At-Large NPC seat or for one of the two Co-Chair seats (or both)? At-Large

Why are you running for NPC?

I am running because I see a serious deficiency in our organization in two aspects. First, we must end the culture of conflict avoidance at the national level. For the eight years I have been an active member of this organization, it is almost taken as a matter of fact that if you enjoy your sanity and peace of mind, you avoid national level internal politics as best you can. Instead of discussing our disagreements in an open and direct manner that is understandable to rank and file membership, it is instead relegated to group chats and whisper networks. We cannot practice democracy if every substantive debate is couched in proxy fights and social media spats. I see this behavior as a replication of the white, middle class office politics we are supposed to be advocating against. Secondly, our organization has had multiple internal fights over how to properly set red lines for our nationally endorsed politicians. We have created a dangerous situation where endorsees feel free to pick and choose which stances they will align with us on and which they will break ranks. As seen with Bowman’s Israeli-sponsored visit to Palestine and vote for Iron Dome funding, Nithya Raman’s closeness to Liberal Zionist organizations, and AOC’s breaking with us over Palestine until it became more convenient for her, we must question ourselves if our current policies around endorsees is truly building power for DSA or simply building proximity to power that is not ours.

I have been a DSA member since January 2017 and have co-founded my local chapter as well as a YDSA chapter (Titan YDSA). Since my first DSA meeting, when Orange County was an Organizing Committee, I have been a member of OC DSA’s Steering Committee as an at-large member, Secretary, and Co-Chair. As an organizer, I co-lead our anti-fascist organizing from 2017 to 2018. I then focused on the Rise Up Willowick campaign until 2022, successfully preventing the city of Garden Grove from building luxury housing in my low-income neighborhood in Santa Ana. During this time, I began to transition to more internal organizing within my chapter during my time as a Co-Chair, then Secretary.

The United States is hurtling towards a time of unprecedented power for the far-right within government. As we have already seen by Trump’s constant violations of constitutional boundaries and the kidnapping of people from the streets of our country regardless of legal status, the Law as generally understood by the majority of the country is dead. The obvious fact that the Constitution and its protections is simply a piece of paper that is increasingly disconnected with how the United States is actually governed. After multiple administrations, both Democrat and Republican, of ever-increasing power to the Presidency and the growing surveillance-state, we have reached the inevitable conclusion of fascism at our doorsteps. Our organization will have to seriously grapple with this fact and reanalyze how we relate to each other and to the public. We must acknowledge that the usual legal protections we have relied on are going to be slowly stripped away and we will become the target of both government and vigilante attacks. This is why we must reform our security committee (Red Rabbits) and give them the resources to aid our chapters. The issue of ICE’s deportation campaign also necessitates us to prepare for the injury and detention of our organizers in the fight against the racist machinations of ICE. The majority of all this work is done by chapters that must be empowered to have a more consistent say in our organization beyond three days every two years.

The truth of the matter is that DSA is overwhelmingly white, male, and college educated. I have seen too many instances of our organization failing minority groups. Whether it was our flailing HGO process protecting “useful” male organizers over the safety of their victims, whole local AfroSoc caucuses splitting over disregarded instances of racism from leadership, or the recreation of passive-aggressive “office politics” in local chapters and our National organization. How is it possible to deal with these barriers for my fellow non-white comrades when there is such a social taboo to acknowledging when there’s a clear issue. How can I convince femme comrades to stay in DSA when it is clear to all in the know that men can get away with a shocking amount if they know the right people. Until we substantively deal with both our structural and cultural issues within our organization, we can recruit non-white, non-cis men all day but they will fall by the wayside if they are not supported and protected from patriarchal and racist systems that none of us are immune to.

What should the relationship between the national organization and local chapters look like--how should they engage each other and what role should NPC members take in shaping that relationship?

I firmly believe that DSA’s federal structure and big tent nature have been its two greatest strengths for preventing our coalition from tearing itself apart. It allows chapters to best focus on the work their members wish to prioritize. The fact is, national structures have difficulty judging local conditions and that is why local organizers will always be able to react quicker and more effectively than if they waited for national leadership to bring down orders. At the same time, for federal structures to work effectively there must be general standards that can be agreed on by the whole organization, not just national leadership. This degree of democratic participation in the formation of these rules is paramount due to the legitimacy needed when the national organization does need to intervene when chapters are breaking our agreed upon rules. Without said legitimacy, chapters will be correct in checking national leadership’s oversteps through petitions, statements, or even calling for special conventions if the need arises. That is why previous resolutions stating our organization’s positions on Palestine and how that relates to our endorsed politicians is a key example of how important democratic deliberation is to crafting these general principles that apply to both our national organization as well as chapters. As NPC members, our job is to maintain these standards for everyone and to maintain communication with chapters to ensure they have the resources and support they need for their projects. We are not here to play favorites, we’re here in solidarity.

Have you ever held a position within or on behalf of law enforcement (such as a police union organizer)? God no.

If you would like to share any links to articles you’ve written, a portfolio, or similar resources you feel will be useful for members to get to know you, do so here.

Francesca Maria

Connecticut, Connecticut (She/Her, They/Them)

Are you running for an At-Large NPC seat or for one of the two Co-Chair seats (or both)? At-Large

Why are you running for NPC?

I’m running alongside a slate of principled and experienced comrades to champion and implement the Springs of Revolution platform (https://discussion.dsausa.org/t/springs-of-revolution-our-platform-for-the-2025-convention/43144).

DSA is at its best when we are able to move together grounded in a unifying political vision while preserving chapter autonomy to adapt practices to their local organizing terrain. Internally, I will support reforms and programs that build DSA into a chapter-led organization that cultivates every single member’s ability to organize and struggle against oppression in their own life, anchored by shared principles and a coherent political voice. The last few years have shown that there is an appetite across the organization for replicable and tactically flexible organizing efforts built around a shared goal, as shown by the huge success of the 2023 Strike Ready campaign as well as the broad uptake of Palestine solidarity campaigns such as No Appetite for Apartheid by chapters in vastly different geographical and structural conditions.

I want to develop and support this kind of locally-grounded, base-building organizing around the political priorities that I believe to be crucial in meeting the current political moment: anti-imperialism and anti-war organizing, as catalyzed by the Palestinian struggle; resisting state fascism in the form of political repression and immigration enforcement; and building strong coalitions across the left, labor, and national liberation movements.

I joined Connecticut DSA in late 2021, looking for a political home after the May 2021 Unity Intifada mobilizations, and quickly became active in our tenant organizing. I have been on the CT DSA Steering Committee as New Haven branch representative (2023-2024), Chapter Co-Chair (2024-2025), and now At Large. I had a leading role in launching new projects, such as our Reproductive Justice WG and Migrant Rights Committee, and after our merger into a statewide chapter I helped the transition from three chapters in a trench coat to one integrated chapter.

From 2022 through 2024, I chaired our International WG, working on a range of Palestine solidarity efforts, including ceasefire resolutions; the CT Uncommitted and No Votes for Genocide campaigns (which I led as campaign coordinator); political defense of doxxed/arrested comrades; the No Appetite for Apartheid boycott campaign (which I launched and coordinate nationally); trainings for newly activated comrades; and countless rallies, bird-dogging, and direct actions.

In 2023, I co-founded the CT Palestine Solidarity Coalition. In striving to get DSA embedded in the larger Palestine movement, I have observed these challenges: (1) DSA’s lack of ‘rootedness’ in the communities we seek to organize, due to most of our members’ racial and class identity; (2) difficulty in developing members beyond 101 organizing skills: while most will get trained in 1-on-1s, power-mapping, campaign planning basics, etc., it’s harder to cultivate the ability to engage in deeper and lasting base-building, develop trust with local communities, and escalate to win direct class confrontations.

On a global scale, Western imperialism is attempting to manage its increasing loss of hegemony by deploying more virulent violence. The level of wealth and military power that the United States has amassed through extraction, exploitation, and war allows it to keep its boot on the necks of millions worldwide and prevent the rise of socialism at home. As socialists in the belly of the beast, DSA can play a crucial role in finding choke points to disrupt the flow of capital and technology of empire; the BDS campaigns against Maersk and Chevron are a good start, and more strategies can emerge if we deepen our collaborations with internationalist partners.

Domestically, we will continue to see the expansion of the state’s repression apparatus in the form of police, mass deportations, and surveillance technologies, as well as moments of mass eruptions and confrontation with the agents of state-sponsored racism. DSA is well-positioned to provide critical infrastructure to mitigate these attacks and sustain organization through cycles of crisis. However, this will require expanding our capacity to counter repression, which is why I co-authored R26: Fight Fascist State Repression & ICE. Beyond simple participation in street uprisings, we need to prioritize organizing that builds the self-organization of immigrants and racialized people, in order to be politically integrated in the movements that arise during ruptures. Finally, we must build more intentional, structured coalitions with other forces on the left so that we can take on key political agitation moments like 2028 as a united front.

In my experience, people join DSA when DSA is organizing on issues central to their lives, and they stay involved when these issues are consistently recognized as sites of struggle. Working-class tenants outside of DSA’s typical white-collar millennial milieu got involved with CT DSA through our tenant union work and our support for militant tenant action. One of the most racially diverse spaces in our chapter is the International Working Group, which recruited many members to the chapter because of our principled support for Palestine solidarity organizing, including our willingness to work in coalitions with humility and provide resources and manpower to the broader movement.

For DSA to expand its membership to sections of the working class that are largely underrepresented or absent, not only must we physically bring our organizing to the neighborhoods and workplaces that different communities inhabit, but we must also be willing to recognize that issues like racism, imperialism, immigration control, and policing are as important of organizing catalysts as the ‘bread-and-butter’ economic issues like rent or wages. These forces have inspired distinct traditions of resistance with their own histories, vocabulary, organizing practices, internal fault-lines that we must engage with on their terms, rather than impose the ones we are already comfortable with. It’s not enough to recruit members of color to lead organizing projects that then largely cater to a white membership; people must be empowered to determine their own political priorities and receive support to organize in their own lives and communities.

What should the relationship between the national organization and local chapters look like--how should they engage each other and what role should NPC members take in shaping that relationship?

Our priority should be to power local, member-led organizing with more resources to chapters, namely increased dues-share; to sustain programs that develop DSA as an organization of organizers, such as the Emergency Workplace Organizing Committee and the Emergency Tenant Organizing Committee; and to develop similar programs that apply this organizer-to-organizer training model to other areas of struggle, from migrant defense to Palestine solidarity.

There is a wealth of organizing experience being produced at the chapter level; in my experience, however, most of the resource-sharing happens through informal channels. For example, when I spearheaded the Connecticut Uncommitted campaign, I received campaign materials from Denver DSA, and I later shared our local templates and campaign plan to a few other chapters that were starting out. At the time, Uncommitted was a priority national campaign, yet the entirety of the support we benefited from, and were able to offer, was facilitated by lucky personal connections!

I believe the role of the national organization should be to facilitate increased coordination between chapters, member-to-member training, and spaces for bottom-up transfer of knowledge and organizing practices. The NPC alone can never embody the breadth of expertise and creativity that exists across the membership body, so it is imperative that we trust members and defer to our best organizers as experts on different issues and strategies.

Have you ever held a position within or on behalf of law enforcement (such as a police union organizer)? No.

If you would like to share any links to articles you’ve written, a portfolio, or similar resources you feel will be useful for members to get to know you, do so here.

I wrote this article about the No Appetite for Apartheid campaign: https://partisanmag.com/no-appetite-for-apartheid/

I co-authored this reflection on a political education series on Palestinian liberation that I led with a few other comrades in my chapter: https://ctdsa.org/ctdsa-agitating-for-palestine-liberation/

Luisa Martínez

Portland, Oregon (She/Her)

Are you running for an At-Large NPC seat or for one of the two Co-Chair seats (or both)? At-Large

Why are you running for NPC?

I am running to make sure poor and undocumented people are given a voice on the NPC. As an immigrant to the United States from a country that was couped by the US government (Chile), I have a first-hand perspective when it comes to immigration as a formerly undocumented person. I also contribute a novel perspective when it comes to US imperialism and generational poverty. I want poor people and immigrants to see their lived experiences represented in the leadership of our organization.

I’m also running alongside a slate of principled and experienced comrades to champion and implement the Springs of Revolution platform.

I have been a member of DSA since at 2018 and have served in the following leadership positions over the course of this time:

Internal Organizing Committee co-chair (Portland, DSA)

Chapter co-chair (Portland DSA)

International Committee steering committee (national position)

Immigrant Justice WG (Portland DSA)

NPC (national position)

I have worked on many campaigns, projects, and delegations, I’ve experienced many highlights and some low points. By far the best part is working with like-minded people who are sincere, passionate, and some of the smartest people I’ve ever met. The challenges have been navigating the interpersonal dynamics of a predominantly middle class membership. At times I feel like a sharp piece of glass in DSA because I grew up poor, but the benefits far outweigh whatever personal challenges I have. At the end of the day, I believe in the US left and I believe in DSA.

During my term I would help to organize against a Trump administration. At the time of my application submission, Iran is actively bombing Tel Aviv. The genocide continues in Gaza. Hatred towards immigrants is at the core to Trump’s presidential legacy. From an organizing perspective, internationalism will be key in terms of how to attract people to DSA and differentiate ourselves from Democratic party operatives trying to hijack public discontent. This means actively rejecting US chauvinism and making international solidarity with immigrants, migrants, and those in the global south core to our messaging. It also means bringing poor people into DSA is a way that is accessible to them. These two concepts are not mutually exclusive, they are two sides of the same coin.

We need to be leaders in immigrant justice & internationalism under Trump 2.0. and we need to develop some semblance of integrity when it comes to our relationship with electoralism. See my comments above. Our job on the left is and always have been to present alternatives to what the liberals are saying. We tell the truth. They do not.

What should the relationship between the national organization and local chapters look like--how should they engage each other and what role should NPC members take in shaping that relationship?

If re-elected, this will be my second time on NPC. I’ve learnt, and seen, a lot in the last two years. I strongly believe the NPC needs to respect national working groups and chapters. Critical to this is protecting all chapters’ share of dues. I will vote to respect chapters and WG autonomy until clear rules are democratically voted on at convention to address contradictions between different bodies when they arise. This is because the core of our work is done by the chapters and national working groups, not by a tiny group of 18 people.

Have you ever held a position within or on behalf of law enforcement (such as a police union organizer)? Never.

If you would like to share any links to articles you’ve written, a portfolio, or similar resources you feel will be useful for members to get to know you, do so here.

Dem Left: https://www.dsausa.org/democratic-left/how-socialism-brought-me-dignity-as-an-undocumented-person/

2025 Convention Resolution #26: Fight Fascist State Repression & IC: https://www.dsausa.org/blog/how-socialism-brought-me-dignity-as-an-undocumented-person/

Sarah Milner

Portland, Oregon (She/Her)

Are you running for an At-Large NPC seat or for one of the two Co-Chair seats (or both)? At-Large

Why are you running for NPC?

I am running for NPC because I want to help our organization grow and win.

I believe we are facing an extraordinary moment for socialists in the U.S., and we have a pivotal role to play. Our organization is growing by the thousands, with chapters recruiting so quickly they cannot find places for all the new members. Popular consciousness is shifting wildly on major questions. The foundations of our country’s political order are unsteady. On the one side, a rising right wing threatens an all out assault on the working class. On the other, a feckless and meandering Democratic party has proved unable to stop the rise of Trumpism. We can be a catalyzing force to unify popular opposition around a coherent, credible alternative.

I am running for NPC to help our chapters take full advantage of this moment—to ensure there are resources, materials, clear plans of action, and deliberative democratic spaces for our members. I am running to help us navigate the contradictions of this moment—to do our best to keep our attention outward, towards mass struggle, and forward, towards the horizon of the working class conquest of power.

Currently, I’m one of our national Communications Co-Chairs. I’ve helped coordinate our messaging on the 2024 election, Palestine, and anti-ICE protests. We’re also opening up the committee to rank-and-file members! Previously, I was the co-chair of the national TRBA Campaign and helped operate the 2022 YDSA Abortion Rights campaign. My experience in national work, organizing with comrades across tendencies and chapters, has taught me that our national organization can only play a decisive role if we proactively organize our members, providing consistent support, accessible campaign work, and clear political leadership.

I joined DSA as a teenager in 2018, founding my school’s YDSA chapter and organizing with DSA for Bernie, where I saw the enormous potential of mass campaigns. By May, I was out in the streets for one hundred nights in a row against the police during George Floyd. I learned that without political direction and leadership, these mass movements would fizzle out.

In 2021, I ran for Portland DSA Steering Committee to help the chapter turn towards principled mass work. After two years in leadership, helping organize our Nabisco strike solidarity and other projects, I chaired our electoral working group. We developed and implemented a new endorsement policy to run campaigns for Portland’s City Council, drafted two DSA candidates and won.

Revolutionary principles and mass politics aren’t contradictory. We can inspire our members and engage the working masses with Marxist ideas, developing mass struggles with the aim of working class independence and raising our horizon towards a new society.

DSA is coming off years of stagnating growth, internal division, and complex internal political development. The last four years have been brutal—organizers were stretched to or past the breaking point. Small groups of leaders spent years exhausting themselves to keep chapters running. Now, suddenly, the situation is reversed. Floods of excited new members are joining in droves.

This isn’t due to any specific strategy bearing fruit. Most of our “Trump bump” is coming from fears of Trump and his right-wing regime. Our task is to take advantage of this and other critical moments as best we can.

The moment is ripe for profound change. The success of the Zohran campaign, breakthroughs in opinion on Israel and Gaza, anti-ICE protests, huge attendance for AOC and Bernie’s rallies, the collapsing approval of the Trump administration and the Democratic Party—all point to a profound instability underlying the American political order.

Upsurges in consciousness and protests have happened before and faded away. DSA’s role is to turn these moments into a sustained struggle against capitalism itself. Our key tasks presently are resisting the right, building a socialist party, and cohering socialists and militants within the labor movement. This work must be unified under a revolutionary socialist program, one which points towards a horizon of working class conquest of power.

To make DSA’s membership more reflective of the multiracial working class, we need a bold campaigning approach where we engage in liberation struggles in a nationally coordinated way under a bold socialist program. In doing so, we can build genuine trust with multiracial communities and win radicalizing workers to socialist politics.

In Portland, the city protested for over a hundred nights. It was the most profound and energizing radical movement I have ever seen, yet I also saw that energy dissipated without a clear direction. A lack of democracy and clear demands turned our relentless effort into exhaustion. Most strikingly, I saw the absence of DSA. There was a key role we could have played, but only if we’d spent years building up credibility in fighting for Black liberation.

My experience as a trans woman and labor organizer is that the working class is open to hearing radical messages on a host of issues when they’re explained in a way which matches their own lives. Socialists in the labor movement should be steadfast in our efforts to politicize the struggle alongside economical immediate interests—to include the fight for trans rights, an end to war, and the defense of migrants.

America’s labor force has been splintered by four hundred years of anti-Black racism and centuries of nativist and racist immigration policies. The socialist movement must proactively seek to rectify this splintering, fighting to defend oppressed racial minorities and overturn oppressive laws. We cannot unify the working class by abandoning these struggles.

What should the relationship between the national organization and local chapters look like--how should they engage each other and what role should NPC members take in shaping that relationship?

Our national organization must be deeply engaged with the successes of our local chapters and the challenges that they are facing, taking a proactive role in developing nationally coordinated and locally applied solutions. I’ve been travelling around the country visiting dozens of DSA chapters for the past few months, and I’ve noticed that chapters are facing a myriad of different challenges that emerge from shared roots.

During this surge of membership, chapters are struggling to keep up with onboarding, leadership development, political education, and democratic functions while also navigating outward campaigns and coalition work. Many comrades I met had never met national leaders before.

Our national organization needs to serve as a coordinating body for campaigning and mass work, facilitate cross chapter relationships, and provide resources that help chapters develop. The NPC could easily be hosting regular national calls for members across the country to discuss and debate key political questions, proactively conducting outreach and organizing new chapters in places that lack them, and sending regular bulletins to all DSA members (like the current emails) to help comrades stay up to date on important organizing going on in chapters around the country, national committees, and our growth and development as an organization.

Have you ever held a position within or on behalf of law enforcement (such as a police union organizer)? No.

If you would like to share any links to articles you’ve written, a portfolio, or similar resources you feel will be useful for members to get to know you, do so here.

I am a member of Reform and Revolution, a Marxist caucus in DSA. Many of my articles are written on our website, which I will link below.

Why DSA Needs a Revolutionary Socialist Program: https://reformandrevolution.org/2025/04/04/why-dsa-needs-a-revolutionary-socialist-program/

With DSA's Recent Membership Growth, We Must Seize the Moment: https://reformandrevolution.org/2025/02/12/with-dsas-recent-membership-growth-we-must-seize-the-moment/

DSA Must Move Seriously to Launch a New Party: https://reformandrevolution.org/2024/12/13/dsa-must-move-seriously-to-launch-a-new-party/

Fight Back Against Far-Right Attacks on Immigrants!: https://reformandrevolution.org/2024/10/06/fight-back-against-far-right-attacks-on-immigrants/

Why DSA Should Agitate for a One State Solution: https://reformandrevolution.org/2024/07/05/why-dsa-should-agitate-for-a-one-state-solution/

Leading the Fight for Trans Liberation: https://reformandrevolution.org/2024/06/21/leading-the-fight-for-trans-liberation/

What BLM Teaches Us About Palestine Solidarity: https://reformandrevolution.org/2024/05/04/what-blm-teaches-us-about-palestine-solidarity/

Envisioning the Future of YDSA: https://reformandrevolution.org/2023/07/24/envisioning-the-future-of-ydsa/

I've also written articles in Democratic Left and The Activist!

We Must Demand Federal Workers Right to Strike: https://democraticleft.dsausa.org/2025/05/20/we-must-demand-federal-workers-right-to-strike/

A Hundred Nights in Portland: https://y.dsausa.org/the-activist/a-hundred-nights-in-portland/

Finally, I've been able to participate in several panels of DSA members

Winning Socialism Locally: https://youtu.be/vgAccSU18NM

How Can Socialists Beat Trump: https://youtu.be/PIYKRECPY8E

Party-Building Under the Trump Regime: https://youtu.be/thQCpBmw7Ws

Adithya P

Madison Area, Wisconsin (They/Them, He/Him)

Are you running for an At-Large NPC seat or for one of the two Co-Chair seats (or both)? At-Large

Why are you running for NPC?

As Madison Area co-chair, I led the revival of a chapter hollowed out by political and interpersonal conflict and worked with members across tendencies to build a stronger, more unified chapter, increasing membership by over 50% the last year and average GM attendance from 15 to 75 during my tenure. I was well-versed with the political contours and history of our chapter and national org but not consumed by it – as a rule I refuse to inherit other people’s beefs.

I’m running as a Marxist-Leninist and Red Star member to bring that same knowledge and skillset to the NPC, which demands strong political leadership capable of handling conflict generatively, identifying our current political contradictions, and working with members and leaders to synthesize them, building our ability to act like a party.

The NPC is currently both an administrative and parliamentary body, and the workload of the former hamstrings its ability to be strong political leadership. I want to change that by recruiting members to build a national administrative committee and delegate work done by the Secretary and other NPC members.

We need to continue building more connective tissue between chapters, national committees, and elected leadership, using bodies like the Growth and Development Committee to help chapters better learn from one another and engage membership with the national organization. I want to improve our ability to develop members into protagonistic leaders and chapters into fighting socialist organizations capable of organizing the working class and waging class struggle on every terrain.

I joined DSA in 2017 and the Madison Area chapter in 2018. I saw multiple generations of chapter leaders burn out and wither away and determined to break that cycle as co-chair from 2023 to this spring.

I became active in 2020 doing Bernie canvassing, street protests, and workplace organizing, and realized I needed to become more active in DSA to be grounded and develop as an organizer with a clear socialist analysis. Over the next few years, I was active in work across the chapter, including serving on the campaign team of a cadre candidate for city council and as an HGO. I also was active for several years in the Asia/Oceania Subcommittee of the IC.

I served as a delegate to the 2023 Convention which was a life-changing experience for me, and I came back to Madison stepping into a vacant co-chair position with a vision to rebuild the chapter. I led efforts to desilo our chapter by building buy-in to take on a democratically decided priority campaign. I focused on membership work and building a stronger shared democratic deliberative culture, understanding that internal organizing was necessary to scale up our ability to do mass work and act as a unified socialist organization. During my term I also pushed to build stronger relationships with our local elected officials and YDSA.

I’m now a member of the GDC, leading Robert’s Rules trainings and sharing out membership data updates, and am also on this year’s Convention Resolutions Subcommittee.

Our current political trajectory is unlikely to reverse within the next two years – we will see increased state repression of the left and marginalized populations, including potential lawfare against DSA. Domestically, increased proletarianization of the PMC and higher unemployment in sectors like tech and academia; internationally, a mostly bipartisan push for economic warfare and potential military action against countries like Iran, Yemen, Cuba, China, Mexico, and Haiti.

Threats and crises are also opportunities we must take advantage of to build our movement. We must continue developing chapters everywhere into fighting socialist organizations, further sharpen their ability to assess their conditions, build new socialist organizers, and wage class struggle wherever possible. To do so we’ll need to continue emphasizing recruitment as a vital component of every campaign. We also need to experiment in other areas like mutual aid and abolition to identify strategies that more effectively build up chapters, rather than pushing them out and writing them off.

We’ll face challenges increasing co-governance between electeds and chapters, and within chapters and nationally when our political priorities come into conflict with one another. We also need to develop stronger strategies around engaging in political coalitions, where our role should be to increase democratic structure participation and structure rather than liquidating our political independence and undermining our own democratic process to reduce the influence of internal DSA rivals. Building the skill to resolve these questions via constructive struggle rather than destructive conflict is a key priority.

My background straddling divides in this country – race, gender, class, nationality – have deeply informed my revolutionary, partyist horizon. While there are absolutely changes to be made to make DSA more accessible and welcoming, too often navel gazing prevents us from taking steps to build relationships and actually making asks to people to join DSA. We should be proud to be in the largest member-run socialist org in the US and invite people to struggle for their liberation and be powerful with us!

DSA pessimism can lead to economistic tendencies in our electoral, labor and tenant organizing, where we build relationships and organizers but are reluctant to sufficiently politicize them as socialists, or sometimes even identify ourselves as such. When we meet people where they are we too often reflexively limit our own political vision – particularly when it comes to defending our staunch anti-imperialist positions.

To defeat capitalism we must unite these mass movements globally with the shared understanding that our demands can only be won by overthrowing it and replacing it with socialism. When we shy away from presenting this political horizon in labor and tenants unions, we are effectively kicking the can down the road and leaving greater contradictions that we may or may not be able to resolve later (e.g. the recent UAWD split).

A bigger tent requires us to also improve our ability to engage in principled political conflict and transcend differences productively, which is why I helped write R10-A: DSA For Multiracial Liberation.

What should the relationship between the national organization and local chapters look like--how should they engage each other and what role should NPC members take in shaping that relationship?

As NPC members we should keep pushing against the status quo of a few super-organizers taking on the majority of organizational work and focus on developing structure and culture that enable more people to become political leaders.

DSA is a national organization and our long-term goal should be for greater centralization. Right now most of our best work still happens at the chapter level, where members are most connected and rooted in their local communities. In order to become a powerful mass party our national organization must prioritize building up party capacities locally.

A strength of DSA's current decentralization is chapter autonomy to develop new organizing methods and strategies - however this is not a strength if we lack the ability to synthesize and share lessons learned from these projects, both within and between chapters. Otherwise we constantly reinvent the wheel and chapters struggle to resolve common issues like siloed working groups and developing new leadership. Where national does need to be more top-down is ensuring chapters are building those capacities, having national bodies become a nexus for chapter leaders to set national direction and cross-pollinate, refine our organizing models and train-the-trainers to build up their chapter.

Our goal is to build more socialists, more chapters, more quickly – and without having to relearn every lesson by trial and error. I want the level of internal development it took Madison five years to accomplish to take three years for the next chapter, and one year for the chapter after that.

Have you ever held a position within or on behalf of law enforcement (such as a police union organizer)? No.

If you would like to share any links to articles you’ve written, a portfolio, or similar resources you feel will be useful for members to get to know you, do so here.

- https://redstarcaucus.org/npc-slate-2025/#adithya-p-hethey-madison-area-dsa

- https://madison-dsa.org/2024/03/23/2024-state-of-the-chapter-report/

- https://madison-dsa.org/2025/03/24/2025-annual-chapter-report/

- https://discussion.dsausa.org/t/april-2025-chapter-org-membership-growth-updates-with-bonus-data/45310

Renée Paradis

New York City, New York (She/Her)

Are you running for an At-Large NPC seat or for one of the two Co-Chair seats (or both)? At-Large

Why are you running for NPC?

I believe that DSA can become the democratically run, mass membership socialist party that it needs to become, and I’m running for reelection for NPC because I think my experience, knowledge, and skills make me a strong asset to the organization in that role. For me, running for the NPC is an act of service to the organization, to my comrades, and to the movement. I would be honored to be elected to a second term.

I joined DSA in early 2017 and quickly joined leadership of the NYC-DSA Brooklyn Electoral WG. I served on the NEC for multiple terms, including as chair, and I also served on the DSA for Bernie committee, helping design our 2020 independent expenditure campaign. After I moved to Oakland in 2019, I helped found East Bay DSA's Electoral Committee and served as co-chair, and helped get a PAC set up to support CA statewide electoral organizing.

In NYC-DSA, I served for two years as a Citywide Leadership Committee representative. In EBDSA, I served a term on the Steering Committee. I also played a key role in building California DSA and was one of CA DSA’s first co-chairs. I've been a delegate to every national convention since 2017.

In 2023 I was elected to the NPC; during my term, I’m proudest of having brought the Uncommitted campaign to DSA, connecting the original Michigan campaign with Detroit DSA and securing national endorsement for first the Michigan and then the national Uncommitted campaigns. I’ve also worked on the NPC’s Organizational Security Committee to navigate DSA’s risks under the Trump administration.

As a lawyer, I've helped NYC-DSA and chapters across the country navigate campaign finance issues. I've also worked for numerous DSA-endorsed candidates, like Bernie Sanders, AOC, Julia Salazar, Tiffany Cabán, and India Walton. Most recently, I was counsel to the MI Uncommitted campaign, did voter protection for Jamaal Bowman and Cori Bush, & successfully represented Tammy Honeywell in a ballot access case.

Right now, the Democratic Party’s base is enraged and mobilized, while the party’s leadership fumbles uselessly. 2026 and even more so 2028 represent an enormous opportunity for the left to take power electorally. DSA could, if we turn our focus from talking primarily to people who already agree with us, to building a mass organization that can work effectively in coalition with a popular front, be a part of a winning coalition for the presidency in 2028. As terrible as what’s happening now is–and I am proud of my record of correctly predicting how Trump would govern and advocating for DSA to fight the right–it opens the door for a democratic socialist president to take the kinds of big swings necessary to build a sustainable majority for social democracy. That is only possible, however, if there’s a mass mobilization behind them–uniting those who are protesting against ICE, union members who will be part of the UAW-convened general strike, and yes members of Indivisible who are out at the No Kings protests. The dangers we face are too severe–not just the ascendant MAGA right but the ever worsening climate crisis–to be precious about who we organize with.

We should engage in deliberate recruitment, focusing in particular on leaders of color in the labor movement and organic leaders in social movements. We should ensure our public-facing meetings are legible to and welcoming of new members or people interested in becoming members, and not engage in gatekeeping around who is really a socialist: anyone in the working class who wants to work towards democratic control of the economy should be welcome in DSA. We should also be engaging in campaigns in our community that have activated the working class (not just electoral campaigns); showing up for those fights draws people to us. In NYC-DSA in 2017, we wanted to run a campaign for Khader El-Yateem that was controlled by DSA and focused on socialist messaging, so we ran canvasses separate from the rest of the campaign in the months leading up to the primary campaign. During the final push of GOTV, we integrated with the rest of the campaign and realized we had made a mistake in isolating ourselves from the Muslim, Middle Eastern and North African, and South Asian communities supporting Khader; it would have been worth it to sacrifice some of our control to be working with those communities for a longer period of time.

What should the relationship between the national organization and local chapters look like--how should they engage each other and what role should NPC members take in shaping that relationship?

The relationship between local chapters and the national organization is one of the places where DSA’s lack of capacity has really hurt us. Chapters’ primary contact with national is through overburdened staff organizers; while national has resources to provide to chapters, lack of capacity means local leaders aren’t necessarily aware of those resources, especially newer leaders, and those resources can be difficult to access or provided only with a delay. (This problem, which I identified in my 2023 NPC questionnaire, has only been exacerbated by the current NPC majority’s disastrous and unnecessary decision to lay off over a dozen staff members.) I would like to see DSA grow and think staff and an expanded elected national leadership both have a vital role to play in connecting chapters to the national organization.

Have you ever held a position within or on behalf of law enforcement (such as a police union organizer)? No. I clerked for a federal judge in 2003-04, in which capacity I assisted in the drafting of opinions that affirmed criminal convictions and/or sentences, and in my previous position as a lawyer for California’s Civil Rights Department, I engaged in civil enforcement of state civil rights laws; I was also a union steward for CRD in my union, which included prosecutors from the state’s Attorney General’s office, but I did not represent them.

If you would like to share any links to articles you’ve written, a portfolio, or similar resources you feel will be useful for members to get to know you, do so here.

I’m running on the Socialist Majority NPC slate; a link to our convention platform is here: https://www.socialistmajority.com/2025-platform
I appeared on a panel called “Marx over MAGA” put on by Convergence Magazine in 2024: Marx over MAGA: The Socialist Left in the Fight Against MAGA
SMC ran a series of interviews with caucus members who worked on the Uncommitted campaign; my interview is here: Renée Paradis and Uncommitted: How SMC Members Contributed to the Historic Protest Vote Against Genocide in Gaza
Way back in 2018, I appeared on The Dig podcast to talk about the DSA electoral project: DSA at the Ballot Box · The Dig
Also from 2018, I was a primary author of this national electoral strategy draft, ultimately adopted in amended form by the NPC, which has set much of the template for DSA’s national electoral strategy since then: National Electoral Strategy Proposal

Alex Pellitteri

New York City, New York (He/Him)

Are you running for an At-Large NPC seat or for one of the two Co-Chair seats (or both)? Co-Chair*

Why are you running for NPC?

Lenin said “There are decades when nothing happens and weeks where decades happen”. Decades are happening now, and we need strong political leadership in this historic moment. The next two years will prove extremely consequential for DSA and the socialist movement – we are facing a fascist Trump presidency, a genocide in Gaza, and increasing repression against militants. While these are scary times, we also have opportunities for growth. Working class people are deeply unsatisfied with the Democratic Party and looking for an alternative and there continues to be a labor upsurge that may culminate with historic actions on May Day 2028. This convention will not just be about winning a battle of ideas or determining the correct political orientation for DSA; we need leadership who can continue to take concrete steps towards our democratically decided upon goals. We need to elect experienced leaders who can not just guide DSA through a Trump political landscape, but who can also grow DSA’s popularity among working class people through media appearances and organizing wins. My experience as an electoral campaign manager, YDSA chapter founder, NYC DSA leader, and incumbent NPC member give me the insights necessary to to build a DSA for the decades.

I joined DSA in April 2017 when I was a junior in high school after Bernie Sanders presidential campaign because I felt the movement Bernie started could not end with this campaign. I started a YDSA chapter at Hunter College, which grew to be one of the largest in the country, and I ran the New Deal 4 CUNY campaign to eliminate tuition from public colleges in New York City. I have also served in nearly every level of leadership in NYC DSA and have been a field lead on multiple NYC-DSA-endorsed campaigns. I also served as campaign manager for DSA-endorsed Assemblymember Marcela Mitaynes in 2020 who is the first formerly undocumented legislator in New York and whose election defeated a 20 year incumbent during the worst of the Covid-19 pandemic. I also served on the NYC DSA Socialists in Office Committee where I helped form NYC-DSA’s legislative strategy and served as an intermediary between NYC-DSA and our elected officials. I’ve spent the last 2 years as a member of the NPC where I serve on the Steering Committee and chair the National Electoral Commission. I have also previously served on the Budget and Finance Committee and Personnel Committee and led efforts to publish, print, distribute our Workers Deserve More Program. As an NPC member I also participated in the Palestine Solidarity Encampments and was arrested protesting the genocide in Gaza, defended YDSA funding and seek to find a middle ground on contentious internal issues.

The election of Donald Trump has drastically changed the organizing terrain for DSA. He engages in brutal attacks on our democracy and most vulnerable communities, and uses violence to crush social movements and protests. However, the election of Trump also showed that many working class people are deeply unhappy with the Democratic Party and are looking for an alternative. The challenge DSA faces is fighting against the repression of the Trump administration while also seizing this opportunity to build DSA into a viable alternative to the Democratic Party and form a party of our own. National DSA should provide chapters with more support to hold protest and local actions, and develop clearer criteria for how DSA should work in coalition with organizations who have different political views. Furthermore, DSA elected officials should see their role as agitators against the entire capitalist class which includes both parties. They should center DSA in their messaging and explicitly call on their supporters to join. I believe the NEC consensus resolutions set a clear path for our electoral work over the next two years. Furthermore, we have opportunities to make significant advancements on the question of labor ahead of May Day 2028. While the guest organization section of this convention is a start, we must ensure the relationships built at this convention can translate toward significant May Day 2028 movement.

Organizing in our workplaces and on college campuses are strategic ways to recruit more members of the multi racial working class. DSA members are organizing in their unions, salting or participating in work such as the Strike Ready Campaign are introducing thousands of people to working class politics and DSA by making apparent the connection between labor rights and socialism. YDSA has historically been one of the most diverse sections of DSA, and has proven to be able to recruit thousands of members through campaigns. As an NPC member, I defended preserving and expanding the YDSA budget, and I will continue to ensure our labor and YDSA work is sufficiently funded and centered in our organization. Often time organizers struggle to know when the most effective time is to ask a co-worker or classmate to join DSA. The NPC should work with the NLC and YDSA to provide more resources for recruiting people from your workplace or campus into committed DSA organizers. Furthermore, DSA must do more outreach in communities where we wish to grow our members. The Zohran campaign has proved that a socialist can be viable in places not typically considered DSA strongholds, and we should experiment with running more campaigns in these communities.

What should the relationship between the national organization and local chapters look like--how should they engage each other and what role should NPC members take in shaping that relationship?

DSA often feels like a loose group of several chapters rather than one united socialist organization. The differences in political tendencies and organizing conditions often make it difficult for us to develop a cohesive national identity. Furthermore, the democratic votes of a local chapter sometimes contradict those of the national convention. The role of the NPC should be to provide political direction for DSA, and to give chapters the resources needed to carry out democratically determined priorities. At the 2023 convention, we passed the resolution “Act Like An Independent Party,” and for us to truly do this, we must have clear lines of communication between national and chapters, and operate as a united socialist organization. I support the NEC Consensus Resolution as amended which would streamline our national endorsement process. I also support the Democracy Commission package which would implement more standardization across chapters.

Have you ever held a position within or on behalf of law enforcement (such as a police union organizer)? No

If you would like to share any links to articles you’ve written, a portfolio, or similar resources you feel will be useful for members to get to know you, do so here.

What Makes a DSA Chapter Democratic?

https://socialistcall.com/2024/11/25/what-makes-a-dsa-chapter-democratic/

Socialists and the Democratic Party

https://socialistcall.com/2024/06/14/socialists-and-the-democratic-party/

Left on Red Podcast Bread and Roses Episode

https://open.spotify.com/episode/5v9UL1bkhJ2phziaswCKOL

Andrew Porter

New York City, New York (He/Him)

Are you running for an At-Large NPC seat or for one of the two Co-Chair seats (or both)? At-Large

Why are you running for NPC?

I am running because DSA has been my political home for almost 20 years. I've seen the organization grow in numbers and influence during my time. I'm proud that we've grown and matured our electoral program, embedded ourselves in the labor movement, and recruited and trained thousands of new socialists. I want to continue and expand on this work using my insights from socialist organizing before the Bernie era. It’s great that we have so many new leaders adapting to a changing political context, and it’s also essential that we reflect on what the left learned during prior eras.

I believe that DSA has a unique role to play in our political system. We are one of the few member funded and democratically run organizations on the American left. We aren't beholden to foundations or large donors, which allows us to pursue long term radical projects.

I joined DSA in 2006 when a friend and I started a YDSA chapter on our campus. I joined the national leadership of YDSA and eventually came on staff as the National Youth Organizer from 2010 to 2012. I was Co-Chair of Columbus DSA during the Trump bump and helped revitalize the chapter. I was involved in the National Labor Commission as an at large member and wirked on mapping the labor work happening in chapters. After moving to NYC, I was part of the Union Power campaign, a chapter priority campaign that was designed the integrated labor work into all aspects of NYC DSA, as a leader of the Union Solidarity Committee. I helped coordinate our strike support work for the UPS campaign, the SAG-AFTRA/WGA strike, and UAW strike.

The most immediate concern facing DSA is the second Trump administration. His attack on immigrants, labor unions, free speech rights, and general corruption are a real danger to our movement for a better world. While the left is stronger than it's been since the 70s, we are still nowhere close to where we need to be in order to fundamentally change our economic system and stop the worst effects of climate change.

Our main task is building class consciousness, since the working class cannot become a political agent until it identifies as a class. Our labor, electoral, political education, and international work should reflect that.

Externally that means continuing to encourage members to get rank and file jobs, organize their workplaces, and democratize their unions. It means increasing people's understanding that DSA is separate and distinct from the Democratic Pary. It means supporting and having a role in social movements and uprisings that spur radical consciousness. It means supporting the working class wherever they are in motion, including popular movements in other countries that challenge the ruling parties.

Internally, I'm very excited about the recommendations from the Democracy Commission. I think they will help make DSA more democratic and functional. We also need to improve and increase the amount of political education we do with our members, so we're fully developing them as socialists.

Creating a more diverse membership is no easy task. We are facing a multitude of challenges, but I think the most pressing are the general lack of organized spaces in the US and the lack of free time.

At this point social or community organizations are few and far between, which is why it is so important we are rooted in the labor movement, since it is one of the few multi-racial political spaces in the US. By participating in social movements, continuing our solidarity work, and talking to our co-workers about DSA, we have the ability to bring a wide variety of people into DSA.

With people lacking time to engage in political work, one of the most important things we can do is make DSA work meaningful and politically inspiring. The NPC should be working with chapters to make sure their spaces are democratic and are engaged in campaign work. This will look different across chapters, but the NPC can provide mentorship, materials, and best practices. Especially at the highest levels of DSA leadership, we need member-leaders to be stipended so that we are not limiting ourselves to the inclinations of people who can afford to work less in order to spend their time on DSA.

What should the relationship between the national organization and local chapters look like--how should they engage each other and what role should NPC members take in shaping that relationship?

I think that while we need strong national coordination for our work, our chapters will remain the engine of our work. Local conditions will influence how work gets done, the targets of our campaigns, and how to tailor our message.

National DSA should lead in a few ways. One, the NPC should provide political leadership to the organization, whether through statements or campaign toolkits or facilitated national discussions where we can all learn from each other and develop democratic consensus outside of convention. Two, the NPC should mentor chapters, provide campaign and educational matrials to develop our work. Third, the NPC should work to connect the work of local chapters to make a larger national impact.

Have you ever held a position within or on behalf of law enforcement (such as a police union organizer)? No

Alejandra Quintero

Los Angeles, California (She/Her)

Are you running for an At-Large NPC seat or for one of the two Co-Chair seats (or both)? At-Large

Why are you running for NPC?

I’m running to help build DSA into a disciplined, working-class organization grounded in real worker power. With my background in labor organizing and digital communications strategy, I want to strengthen connections between comrades across regions and help DSA win tangible gains for workers.

I joined DSA-LA in 2021 when my coworkers and I unionized our second workplace. DSA-LA was the only group to provide us with tangible support and guidance when we were targeted and union-busted. I have been deeply involved in labor and community campaigns. I co-coordinate the nonprofit circle of the DSA-LA Labor Committee. I’ve helped organize workers in nonprofits and immigrant communities, led digital comms support for our members and their unions across the US.

DSA will face an increasingly hostile political landscape marked by the rise of fascism, the destruction of labor rights, and our lack of a clear, unified strategy to combat these threats. The right is organized, well-funded, and using communications strategy effectively to target and divide the working class. We must respond with a renewed focus on strategy and discipline.

We need to embrace conflict as part of healthy political struggle, as long as it’s grounded in our shared goal of building real worker power. That means creating a culture where disagreement isn’t feared but used to sharpen our collective work.

We must also invest in our digital strategy. Workers are online. If we want to win, we have to meet them where they are, with better, sharper messaging that educates, mobilizes, and builds lasting community both online and in real life. This is how we reach, grow, and win as a collective.

We must support multilingual campaigns, centering workers’ lived experiences, and partnering with grassroots organizations to break down barriers to participation in an organization that is quite often perceived as dominated by white comrades.

But it’s not enough to bring POC in; we must also create more leaders from all backgrounds and actively support them once they hold those positions. That means building up political education, mentorship, and sustainable structures that don’t burn people out, so working-class organizers can lead and stay leading.

What should the relationship between the national organization and local chapters look like--how should they engage each other and what role should NPC members take in shaping that relationship?

The national org should provide resources, training, and coordination while respecting local autonomy. NPC members should bridge communication, listen to local needs, and help distribute power and decision-making across chapters, ensuring national campaigns reflect local realities.

Also, the national can also focus on supporting smaller chapters, especially those in under-resourced or rural areas by giving them the tools to run their campaigns, including digital strategy, communications, and organizing infrastructure. This builds long-term capacity and ensures all chapters, regardless of size, can meaningfully contribute to our shared mission.

Have you ever held a position within or on behalf of law enforcement (such as a police union organizer)? Hell no.

If you would like to share any links to articles you’ve written, a portfolio, or similar resources you feel will be useful for members to get to know you, do so here.

Here are some articles I've written:

1. https://jacobin.com/2025/06/trump-immigration-crackdown-unions-labor

2. https://labornotes.org/2023/02/mexican-auto-glass-workers-withstand-threats-form-independent-union

3. https://labornotes.org/2022/08/immigrant-detainees-strike-over-1-day-pay-working-conditions

4. https://labornotes.org/2022/06/first-contract-mexican-gm-plants-independent-union

Here is my social media account, Allthingslabor

https://www.tiktok.com/@allthingslabor?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pc

https://www.instagram.com/allthingslabor/#

Carl Roberts

Metro DC, District of Columbia (He/Him)

Are you running for an At-Large NPC seat or for one of the two Co-Chair seats (or both)? At-Large

Why are you running for NPC?

DSA needs to be two things during Trump 2.0: the hub of anti-fascist resistance and the political power leading the charge for a different society after Trump.

Anti-fascist resistance means we need to be opposing the genocide in Palestine, fighting back against the ethnic cleansing of America by ICE, protecting trans people everywhere, defending our climate - essentially, being the group people join to take on the Trump administration. I saw DSA doing that during the first Trump administration, and it’s part of why I joined. We need that energy again: confrontation at every strategic opportunity.

Leading the charge for a changed society means electing socialists everywhere, strengthening and expanding the labor movement, and cohering the working class. We need to make sure that workers in America understand their class position and understand DSA is the political representation of those interests. And most importantly, we need people to understand that DSA wins things in line with those interests. In my years of campaigning for DSA candidates and ballot initiatives, people - voters and volunteers - have responded best when there’s a vision and a doable path to getting there. If we are aiming for a general strike and running to win the presidency in 2028, we have to make that path - difficult as it may be - a reality, and I want to do exactly that.

I joined DSA in 2018, and got active with Tulsa DSA before moving to Washington, DC in 2019 and organizing with MDC DSA. I’ve mainly electoral organizing, starting with Tulsa’s electoral efforts. In DC I co-chaired our DSA4Bernie work in 2020. We had hundreds of volunteers spread across the DMV, and I learned the fundamentals there: how to develop and then move people up an engagement ladder, logistics for large events and volunteer coordination at scale, and public facing comms. After that, I was elected to our Steering Committee in 2022, and was a leader of the team that won a DC Council seat, defended an incumbent, and beat the restaurant lobby to end the subminimum wage. We knocked 82,000 doors that cycle, a record for the chapter. I did the administrative work to make that happen and personally knocked thousands of doors. I also helped plan and do security for countless rallies, marches, and protests, including our emergency rally in front of the Supreme Court after the Dobbs decision leaked. In 2023, I was re-elected to our Steering Committee, and led the censure of one of our SIOs after he caved to pressure from DC’s right wing mayor and supported racist, pro-police, anti-youth emergency legislation. In 2024, I was elected to my third and final term on the Steering Committee and was chosen to be chair of the chapter. That year, we reelected Janeese Lewis George and I knocked the most doors of any DSA volunteer.

Donald Trump has returned to the White House seeking revenge. Liberals, feckless and unable to take the Trump threat seriously, are either not fighting back at all or doing so in an uncoordinated, ineffective fashion. Republicans are using the state to ethnically cleanse parts of the country, and are sending people to literal concentration camps with no recourse or way out. Our challenge is thus twofold: how do we respond to the Trump administration’s turbocharged repression against the working class, and how do we muscle out the liberals who got us here?

We must be the face of the anti-Trump resistance. We need to lead protests. We need to scream at administration officials everywhere in public. We need to work our electoral programs across the country so we can, hopefully, run a viable candidate for president in 2028. We must cohere the working class - by deepening relationships with unions, organizing unorganized workers and tenants, and advocating for better organizing conditions while co-governing.

Internally, too, we must become more democratic and more representative of the working class. We need national input on national questions, so members see themselves as part of a collective, national party of the working class. We need recruitment guidance and support so we grow beyond our current base of “people who choose to join DSA” into an organization broadly representative of the working class.

DSA must recognize that its current recruitment model is, nationally and in many chapters, functionally nonexistent. We have multiple ways for new members to come to DSA, through open organizing meetings, general discussions, or social activities; we do not often ask our class to join. This passivity has resulted in DSA overrepresenting one segment of the working class.

We must do three specific things to grow. First: we need to be more deeply involved in labor. That can take multiple forms: backing a reform caucus where strategic, and fighting the boss together where leadership is friendly. And while doing so, we ask people to join. We need to do this regularly, and with workers at all levels.

Second, we go recruit in communities where we want more members. How can we get more workers in the trades into DSA? Have we tried simply going to the local union hall and trying to recruit? This is not common in DSA, and we can solve it with some elbow grease. Targeted recruitment with specific organizing asks will grow the org and let us better represent all segments of the working class.

Last, win! Workers’ time is precious: if a tactic or campaign isn’t working and doesn’t seem to have a path to victory, people won’t keep doing it. We need clear campaigns, with clear goals, that are winnable (not guaranteed, not easy, but winnable). People will join an org that represents their interests, respects their time, and gives them valuable work!

What should the relationship between the national organization and local chapters look like--how should they engage each other and what role should NPC members take in shaping that relationship?

Currently, I think the national organization doesn’t effectively relate to local chapters. As a former leader of one of our largest chapters, I often felt like we relied on ourselves for a lot of things - not because it was the most efficient or best way to do things, but simply because we had the capacity to. At times this made sense, and at times it felt duplicative.

This self-reliance, which is decidedly not ideal, often also results in members identifying with their chapters, their electeds, their campaigns - and not with DSA as such. And in many cases too, people want to hold the national organization at arm’s length - because being too close to it may invite unwanted attention.

We absolutely must change this state of affairs. Cross-chapter solidarity and exchange are vital: one of the first things I remember about DSA was the North Texas chapter bringing pizzas to striking teachers in Oklahoma. How can we build those opportunities into our organizing? How can we make members trust national?

I believe the NPC can play a very important role here. Obviously, we have limited organizing time, and NPC members cannot personally devote time to chapters (often even their own!). But we can, as a body, work to make decisions that do two things: make national actively helpful to chapters, in a way that visibly benefits our members; and lower the temperature on internal fights in a way that makes everyone think national won’t present liabilities for their organizing.

Have you ever held a position within or on behalf of law enforcement (such as a police union organizer)? I have never held a position within or on behalf of law enforcement.

Megan Romer

At-Large, New York (She/Her)

Are you running for an At-Large NPC seat or for one of the two Co-Chair seats (or both)? Co-Chair,

At Large

Why are you running for NPC?

Serving a term as the national co-chair has been, and I do not put this lightly, one of the most rewarding experiences in my life. The daily work of developing socialists from across the country through both institutional changes and personal connections gives me genuine hope in a time of widespread hopelessness and supporting the organizing that our members are taking on pay off in genuine wins for the working class and growth of our movement leaves me feeling like my work isn’t done here. DSA is a huge, complicated machine, and in some ways, I feel like it’s taken me this long to gain a deep understanding of how the moving pieces fit together, identify the rusty parts that need a full change, spot where it just needs a little bit of oil or a tightened screw, all with the goal of continuing to steer it toward the socialist horizon that we all want, combining the strength of 70,000 self-made mechanics to keep it in fighting shape. This NPC term has not been without mistakes, but I feel strongly that DSA is stronger and more powerful than it was when the 2023-2025 NPC took office, and I can’t wait to see how the 2025-2027 NPC is able to build upon that work alongside our incredible membership.

I began organizing with my DSA local (Southwest Louisiana OC) in 2018 as a skeptic – I was frustrated with (and a poor fit in) our local Dem Party groups, but thought the aesthetic of socialism was too divisive and off-putting. Still, I found my local DSA to be welcoming and I liked that they offered real opportunities for engagement. I officially joined in 2019 on the night we held a vote to become a chapter. Being a tiny chapter in a very conservative area, we primarily engaged in mutual aid work, including extensive response to Hurricanes Laura, Delta, and Ida, drawing out the contradictions exposed by the lackluster official government response. I was 100k captain and then co-chair in SWLA, and served on the national Mutual Aid Working Group SC for 3 years, 2 as co-chair. From there, I ran for the NPC and then national co-chair, where I’ve worked to try to develop the co-chair program into something that can be a powerful force multiplier for DSA’s political work and external presence, as well as a tool to help close the national-to-chapter gap. I dug in hard and learned from scratch how to understand and interpret budgetary processes, compliance issues, and the nuts and bolts of practicing democracy at scale, and worked to find ways to balance the large administrative load of the co-chair program with the political role of being a spokesperson, both internal and external.

As I write this application, I have a news tab open on my computer where I’m watching Israel escalate war with Iran while simultaneously continuing the genocide on the Palestinian people. Meanwhile, ICE is kidnapping undocumented neighbors across the country, trans rights are being violently stripped away, and the working class struggles to pay for basic needs while more and more wealth is transferred to the ruling class. What’s critical is that we continue to not only fight these fights, but recognize that they are all connected: we know the causes of evil, we see a way out, and we are more than capable of struggle. In order to make our organization the durable tool we need to both destruct this heinous system and rebuild a new one from its ashes, we need strong communications (internal and external), robust democratic practice at every level, and strong member support systems so we can turn thousands of regular folks into strong organizers with keen socialist analysis. It’s mass protagonism time, and DSA is well-positioned to keep moving in a solid direction by doubling down on member development as we fight on multiple terrains of struggle.

Campaigns are good, and a critical structure for much of our work. They are a good way to think about organizing because they are a good way to think about power. Target, demand, a series of escalations. They’re also not the only way to interact with the broader working class, and sometimes DSA chapters forget that it’s possible to just show up for the community in order to build trust, connections, and camaraderie, and that simple act of regularly and reliably showing up, in our cool socialist red t-shirts, for things like a park clean-up day or playground build or food pantry distro in majority-non-white neighborhoods can be incredibly useful ways to better-engage with the community at large. This may seem overly simplistic, but it really isn’t, and chapters should be encouraged and trained to engage with their communities, meeting folks where they’re at, and beginning that process of trust-building. Sometimes we leapfrog the basics, but just being out in the community, friendly and helpful and unashamed of our socialism, is a crucial first step to actually growing a wider movement.

What should the relationship between the national organization and local chapters look like--how should they engage each other and what role should NPC members take in shaping that relationship?

There is a significant lack of trust between a lot of locals and the national organization right now, and it goes both ways, but I believe that the gap is beginning to close as we engage from the national level in dedicated work to close it. National has long run almost as a chapter in and of itself, with a parallel (but often not intersecting) structure to the chapter model, but national committees that use a chapter liaison program have increasingly seen success, though managing those programs can be cumbersome. National committees should largely exist to elevate strong chapter-level work, scale it and use it to inform strategy and analysis, and then push it back out to other chapters – best practices, case studies, toolkits, trainings, material and human support – taking cues from actual organizing work and cohering it alongside other national leadership bodies with the National Political Committee at the helm. The work of building socialism is happening primarily on the ground in chapters right now – that’s where organizers are getting trained, that’s where we’re getting the wins, and our issue-focused national bodies should be focused on providing the support necessary to help scale and share best practices. As the organization’s stewards, the NPC is responsible for managing this flow of information and resources, cohering it, and pointing it directly at a shared political program, using all levers available to develop DSA into the powerful political instrument that the moment demands.

Have you ever held a position within or on behalf of law enforcement (such as a police union organizer)? No

If you would like to share any links to articles you’ve written, a portfolio, or similar resources you feel will be useful for members to get to know you, do so here.

- No, ‘Playing Dead’ is the Last Thing the Democrats Should Be Doing - The Guardian (op-ed) - https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/mar/07/democrats-trump-socialism

- DSAUSA ft. Megan Romer - Western Kabuki (podcast) - https://westernkabuki.podbean.com/e/dsausa-ft-megan-romer/

- A World to Build: A Review of Marta Harnecker’s ‘Rebuilding The Left’ - Red Star Zenith - https://redstarcaucus.org/zenithv3-rebuild/

- NPEC Foundational Series: What Is Socialism? (political education training) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5hHM-O8az5M

Joshua Rusinov

North New Jersey, New Jersey (He/Him)

Are you running for an At-Large NPC seat or for one of the two Co-Chair seats (or both)? At-Large

Why are you running for NPC?

To fight for socialism born of an unlimited & unconditional compassion for our fellow workers; those who are victims of capitalism, facism, imperialism & otherwise deprived of their economic & social liberty. Something beyond even solidarity, kindness that we must intentionally foster constantly & must drive every intention & decision.

Though, to truly be kind to the oppressed, we must equally despise the oppressors. Not because we’re hateful, but because we’re forced to hate those who work to crush the rights of working class people.

Allowing these principles to govern our movement can build socialism that both understands the challenges people face taking on the ambitious goal of changing the world, & strongly opposes those who enable suffering to proliferate the interests of capital. There’s hunger for something, not simply “different” from the moneyed interests that govern, but beyond that; uniquely kind to the oppressed & uniquely, unrelentingly ruthless towards oppressors.

I want a DSA that’s more open & communicative with members. I want to build an NPC that’s more present & available to politically lead the organization on the values & principles it was elected to uphold. A DSA that places emphasis on making members feel they have ample opportunity for their voices to be heard. A DSA with absolute freedom in its debate & deliberation, but that’s unified in action as representatives of the decisions we make. Just as we prioritize campaigns at the chapter level based on impact, viability, transformational demands, etc. I want a DSA that can concentrate force to win truly monumental change.

Joined: September 2020

Leadership Examples:

GDC Steering Committee: 2023-Present (Currently Co-Chair)

A leader on the Recommitment drive & currently leads the New Member Development subcommittee

Built a committee improving communication between chapters & the GDC & developed more effective new member practices

NNJ Chapter Co-Chair: 2021-23

Participated in reshaping chapter Grievance Policy

Also liaison to the Grievance Committee

Helped move chapter to meet in-person

implemented first example of what's now the National Tech Committee's recommended Hybrid Meeting Setup

NNJ Electoral Committee - Field Coordinator: 2021-22

Led two campaigns as the NNJ DSA field contact determining & leading field events

Joel Brooks - J.C. Ward B

Chigozie Onyema - Newark West Ward

Inspiring people is the most important highlight from my time in DSA. It's what keeps me committed. That, combined with the material change seen through campaign successes. The real, positive change we can have on people’s lives; there's nothing better. Who could walk away from that?

The other highlight is people inspired by their own organizing. Folks come into DSA & become something they never believed they could be. I couldn't fathom public speaking or leading before comrades organized me to go beyond.

The main challenge I've seen is that our organization under-invests in member development & internal organizing. I speak with folks at New Member Orientations every month & I wanna know chapters will be empowered to develop their organizing skills. If we can build our membership to be the best organizers, without anyone falling through the cracks; they could further organize all our communities & beyond.

We face emboldened & aggressive attacks from the alt-right. Direct confrontation of our identities, attempting to seal all power with the rich. Not a new challenge although the severity may be higher. But it also allows us to stand out in our opposition to the harm being done.

Our mission is to build a viable & revolutionary movement empowering the collectivist ideals, compassion, optimism & SOLIDARITY that society demands we abandon. That movement will take in all; then empower them to become enthusiastic organizers & connect material issues with the ideals of how we govern. A mass SOCIALIST movement.

We must validate that this world can be better! That we aren’t limited to what we’re told is possible! We have the opportunity to do that.

People want something different from the status quo. We must actively differentiate ourselves & our vision. We must show our policies are rooted in the working class & the way we will achieve power is based in a mass movement. We also must show we’re ready to win. That we have the structures, practices & logistics to achieve working class wins.

It’s our responsibility to collaborate & ensure all chapters employ the best organizing practices & apply those to every member. We’ll provide upcoming generations a strong socialist & organizing base. We’ll build out political education so everyone that joins understands the interconnectivity of societal issues & the reasons behind demands. We’ll build out DSA’s systems of democracy & ensure they allow members to feel passionate & invested in decision making processes, as well as the whole project.

For us to be able to encompass the entire working class we must build an organization that’ll retain & develop its membership. DSA takes in new members constantly, but we fail to retain existing members. Lack of investment in new members directly creates a cycle where our organization becomes most comfortable–stereotypically–for young, white “online” men. To be sure, this is an incomplete picture. But to make people from all backgrounds comfortable, we must focus on continuously building the ability & involvement of each member through: committed personal outreach, listwork done religiously, intentional development at all organizing levels, & through expanded political education/discourse.

We must also reform our democratic processes in DSA so that members believe in & value the organization’s decision making. When members feel they can trust the ways we make decisions, they won't be compelled to exit. Allowing members to be more enthusiastic about encouraging those around them to organize with DSA.

We must also demonstrate that DSA can actually win justice for the multi-racial working class. We must take a leading role in the fight against ICE, the police & other racist institutions. Not just by getting involved in direct action, but by showing we remain committed to dismantling oppression & building equity when we occupy positions of power. We must ensure that our elected officials, union leaders, housing organizations, etc. will use their positions to take concrete material steps to undo the harm done to our most vulnerable. Something accountable & completely separate from the empty promises of previous institutions & groups.

What should the relationship between the national organization and local chapters look like--how should they engage each other and what role should NPC members take in shaping that relationship?

As GDC Co-chair, I envision us building out what it means to develop members. We bring together the elected membership leads from chapters alongside the GDC. We collectively outline/identify what it means to be a member & to organize members.

This construction of a unified DSA must come out of the relationship between national & chapters/membership at large. We must, everywhere, come together, deliberate; build unified strategies, goals & ideals. Then, we must act as valiant, committed, redoubt representatives of that which we have built together.

This can only occur when members believe our democracy is representative of our movement. One of the primary goals of the NPC & The national organization is building a movement whose membership believes in its democratic mechanisms. Members should feel there is space & place for voices to be heard/respected. We must invest in deliberation, debate, consensus building & far more beyond just voting. When members believe in the democracy of our organization; then we truly can be greater than the sum of our parts. That's not suggesting eliminating opposition, but it's about building a DSA where we commit to taking responsibility for the campaigns/projects/work that we decide on collectively, even if our side lost the vote.

The NPC is where we can build trust between members & national. NPC members must actively act as political leaders. But they must lead from beside, equal members of our socialist project; building pathways between members & national representatives in open & exemplary ways, investing these practices in the membership.

Have you ever held a position within or on behalf of law enforcement (such as a police union organizer)? No

If you would like to share any links to articles you’ve written, a portfolio, or similar resources you feel will be useful for members to get to know you, do so here.

I used my professional background to help move my chapter to meeting again in-person when my chapter voted overwhelmingly to move to Hybrid Meetings. That work became part of the National Tech Committee’s Hybrid Recommendations: https://tech.dsausa.org/hybrid-meeting-technology-recommendations/

Ashik Siddique

Wilmington, NC (He/Him)

Are you running for an At-Large NPC seat or for one of the two Co-Chair seats (or both)? Co-Chair, At Large

Why are you running for NPC?

Over the first ever term as DSA National Co-Chair, I have had the privilege of traveling the country to talk to and work with countless DSA members across the country. In chapters big and small, strong and struggling, red state and blue, dense cities where members can take a train to a packed meeting and rural counties where you can only drive.

And what I have seen is that our core socialist belief is true. That there are more of us than there are of them. And that when we unite across differences and organize with the strategy, urgency, and creativity that history calls for, we can change the future of the world.

I wrote a longer form vision earlier this year, imagining how we can establish DSA as a mass party all across the United States over the next 5-10 years: http://dsaforall.com/letter.

After serving two terms since the 2021 convention, and as the only incumbent reelected in 2023, I’ve gained a lot of institutional knowledge about how DSA works (and doesn’t work). I’m ready to keep going to help unleash the full potential of DSA!

From organizing with comrades all over the U.S. I am convinced that the playbooks we have developed in strong chapters can adapt to pretty much any population center in the country.

I’m excited to run this year with the Groundwork slate, with comrades rooted in the experience of some of the most successful chapters across DSA!

I joined DSA after Trump’s election in January 2017. I served on Metro DC DSA’s Steering Committee from 2018-2019, and helped set up what became We Power DC, a campaign for energy democracy in the capital. I helped create national organizing infrastructure to support chapter work toward an ecosocialist Green New Deal. I served on the committee for DSA for Bernie Sanders in 2020, and was a core organizer of DSA’s campaign to pass the PRO Act to expand labor rights, before being elected to NPC in 2021.

I proposed DSA’s national income-based Solidarity Dues Drive in 2023, which I helped lead over the next year, and has since raised over half a million dollars in recurring annual income, with over 2,500 solidarity dues payers.

I am currently serving as co-chair of DSA, on my second term on the NPC. Over the past year I co-organized DSA’s presence at the March on DNC protests in Chicago in August 2024, and at Trump inauguration protests in DC in January 2025. I participated on behalf of DSA in Palestine solidarity actions from a hunger strike at the White House to national rallies demanding the release of illegally detained student protesters. I have represented DSA in a number of national coalition efforts, including with the Not Another Bomb campaign for an arms embargo against Israel with the Uncommitted Movement. I participated in international delegations to build relations between DSA and mass parties of the left in Brazil, Cuba, France, and Germany.

With Trump as president once again, this time with Elon Musk as an unelected billionaire tasked with stripping our government for parts, we are fighting the clock of climate crisis and rising fascism. It’s crucial for DSA to change from a patchwork of disconnected experiences to a democratic mass party that can reach as many people as possible, by proving we are credible fighters for working class demands to win state power against all the ruptures to come.

We have to campaign to address cost of living issues, and show working class people it’s possible to organize and win universal demands for expanded public goods — even as the oligarchy attacks services, and scapegoats parts of the population they isolate and make more vulnerable, like immigrants and trans people.

We need to develop and scale up our ability to elect socialists across the country, and DSA’s capacity to co-govern with them. NYC DSA has backed our organization’s most ambitious campaign yet, Zohran Mamdani for Mayor of NYC. Twin Cities DSA is supporting Omar Fateh for mayor of Minneapolis. These highly motivating campaigns arise from years of work to build local Socialists in Office (SIO) programs powered by the respective DSA chapters.

Right now relatively few DSA chapters have the capacity to organize this way, and national DSA does far too little to synthesize and share lessons learned, and support chapters who want to make the effort. We must change this, by nationally supporting SIO structure at every level of DSA.

Our national guidance on recruiting and retaining more diverse members to DSA must be based on assessing and building on what is demonstrably working — or not — across chapters.

Zohran’s campaign in NYC has very intentionally organized immigrant and especially Muslim communities, and focused on multilingual organizing especially in Bangla, Spanish, Arabic, and Chinese. Through going all out for this campaign, NYC DSA is on track to reach 10k members, with an increasingly diverse membership. DSA Los Angeles has been increasingly successful at multiracial recruitment that reflects local demographics, as a result of electoral campaigns that mobilize a diverse base, and a high density of union members because the chapter has prioritized labor organizing efforts.

DSA members often assume coalition efforts will promote more diverse recruitment, or will put DSA members (presumed to be white) in a position to materially support oppressed people of color. But there are many common challenges and pitfalls that people across DSA have experienced with this, often related to what the writer Olufemi Taiwo calls “deference politics,” which can be counterproductive to achieving shared goals.

DSA can facilitate more specific trainings around topics like this with chapter leaders, with case studies from chapter organizing experiences, and more discussions of relevant materials — for example, I helped draft an discussion guide on “Elite Capture” by Olufemi Taiwo, a book that many organizers across DSA have found useful in discussing dynamics around identity politics and organizing solidarity across racial differences.

What should the relationship between the national organization and local chapters look like--how should they engage each other and what role should NPC members take in shaping that relationship?

The role between national DSA and chapters should be much more mutually reinforcing, not so federated that many chapters are left isolated to sink or swim on their own, or replicating work that can be better consolidated to free up chapter organizers for more political work.

It should be the NPC’s role to work with chapter leaders and staff organizers to assess what practices are working well across DSA chapters, and transmit them more effectively across the whole organization through trainings. We hear from members all over the country that they would like support on org tools, guidance on best practices for member recruitment & engagement, or democratic processes to run the chapter effectively with strong buy-in from members — and many of these resources already exist. But with current capacity, we are limited in our ability to share ongoing guidance. More investment in full time organizers can give more qualitative support, as well as more cross-chapter in-person events and conferences that bring together members to learn skills and share organizing strategies.

NPC members currently spend too much time with national committees that are disconnected from chapters. We should take more active roles in communicating with chapters in structured ways, not just relying on caucus or personal relationships they already have with particular members. It would be a positive step to strengthen communication if we shift NPC members’ attention to instead become regional or chapter liaisons.

Have you ever held a position within or on behalf of law enforcement (such as a police union organizer)? No

If you would like to share any links to articles you’ve written, a portfolio, or similar resources you feel will be useful for members to get to know you, do so here.

Newsweek: “Anti-Trump Resistance Didn't Go Too Far. It Didn't Go Far Enough”

Feb 10, 2025 https://www.newsweek.com/anti-trump-resistance-didnt-go-too-far-it-didnt-go-far-enough-opinion-2028158

Newsweek: “We Democratic Socialists of America Will Not Apologize. We Stand for What Is Right”, Nov 21, 2024

https://www.newsweek.com/we-democratic-socialists-america-will-not-apologize-we-stand-what-right-opinion-1989801

The New Republic: “Democratic Socialists Are Deepening the Struggle for a Free Palestine”

November 17, 2023

https://newrepublic.com/article/176969/democratic-socialists-america-struggle-free-palestine

Terrain: “Ashik Siddique on climate organizing, long-term thinking, and building across differences” - interview with Matt Haugen

Nov 18, 2023

https://www.terrain.news/p/ashik-siddique-on-climate-organizing

In 2023 I spoke to Jacobin about DSA’s Palestine organizing: “Democratic Socialists of America Is a Key Player in the Fight Against Israel’s Assault on Gaza” https://jacobin.com/2023/11/democratic-socialists-of-america-is-a-key-player-in-the-fight-against-israels-assault-on-gaza

In early 2021 I wrote this article for the Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung about left prospects for organizing against the military budget during the Biden administration: “More Military Money, More Problems” (https://rosalux.nyc/more-military-money-more-problems/).

“Could Biden's Climate Policy Invite More Militarism?” In These Times, February 2021 (https://inthesetimes.com/article/biden-climate-change-american-militarism-russia)

I was on The Dig podcast in 2021 with Thea Riofrancos and my NPC comrades Sydney Ghazarian and Gustavo Gordillo to discuss our work on the PRO Act Campaign, and the work it took to organize a nationally coordinated campaign with strong buy-in from across our whole organization: https://www.thedigradio.com/podcast/organizing-dsas-pro-act-campaign/

Clayton Ryles

Los Angeles, California (They/Them, He/Him)

Are you running for an At-Large NPC seat or for one of the two Co-Chair seats (or both)? At-Large

Why are you running for NPC?

I’m running for NPC because I’d like to contribute what I can as an organizer to help build our national organization. We’re in a moment of extreme peril where our communities are suffering from an emboldened and empowered fascist movement. This is clearly seen in LA where even modest protest as compared to our history of collective action has been met with brutal state violence. If we don’t laser focus on building power now, and using that power to break fascism, we might lose our opportunity as the fascists cement their grip on government.

I’m hoping to use the skills that I’ve honed in DSA and UAW as an organizer to help build the national organization so that we can meet the moment. As a UAW organizer I have been extremely proud to help postdocs at USC form their union from the first days of the organizing committee to now when they are at the end of their first contract campaign and preparing for a strike vote. I have also been proud to help develop our political organizing apparatus with new locals in LA and helping other workers on the path to form their unions. I plan to bring my experience to the NPC by working with chapters on membership recruitment to build mass campaigns, developing leaders to take on roles organizing members and helping us build out our organizational structures, and collaborating with movement partners to build a united front against fascism and for the multi-racial working class.

I’ve been a member of DSA since 2023 and currently serving a second term on DSA LA’s steering committee. I'm working closely with our labor committee on implementing trainings to teach how to start or get more involved with unions. I've also developed new member recruitment strategies and implemented robust membership and leadership trainings. This has enabled both the growth of our chapter, a key to having the power to grow our political power and win more for working class Angelenos. This allows us in turn to strengthen our relationship with membership and our communities, and to mobilize folks at key moments to win on our priorities.

The largest challenge that I’ve encountered is due to the tragedies our communities have faced over recent months and years. The crisis of the fires that destroyed our homes, the crisis of ICE and the military invading and kidnapping in our communities, and the crisis of housing all are crises that I’m proud to say our chapter has showed up for and continues to make a difference in their outcome. It has been challenging to do the deep work of organizing stronger ties within our membership and communities while also constantly mobilizing members to put out the literal and metaphorical fires popping up seemingly every day. Despite the challenge our chapter has been successful: we’ve had robust responses to the major crises affecting LA as well as substantial chapter growth, and newly recruited leaders who I've had the pleasure of growing tremendously alongside.

The foremost challenge that we face is that we are in the midst of a slow regime change from a liberal-capitalist political order to a fascist-oligarchic order. I believe that our task is to assemble a broad multi-racial working class coalition with the power to stop this change. If we assemble this coalition under socialist leadership, and agitate the base around a socialist analysis of conditions and with socialist and social democratic policy solutions, we will also have the opportunity to push the country’s government and institutions in a more just direction along with defeating fascism.

As a black organizer this issue is very important to me. A version of what we say in the labor movement, “the workers are already organized” is also true of our minority communities. For example, the black community is certainly already organized, we have many leaders and institutions that are focused on addressing the issues of the black community. DSA should not be primarily organized around solving these issues and thus replacing the need for these organizations to exist. Instead, DSA should be organized around assisting these orgs in their missions through solidaristic actions, and having a distinct primary mission that leaders in the black community, people who are able to move large numbers of community members, feel is important in a shared struggle of the multiracial working class. Specifically, our organization has shown the most success and power through building a socialist political movement. That means running and supporting popular candidates from the community, having broad based issue campaigns that engage members around pushing for specific policies, and engaging our movement partners in that fight. That fight is such a tall order that DSA absolutely must focus on accomplishing that mission and constantly be marshalling our resources towards these goals. Our continued success and dialogue with community leaders can demonstrate the value of our project and increasingly encourage leaders to join our org and mobilize people around our goals.

What should the relationship between the national organization and local chapters look like--how should they engage each other and what role should NPC members take in shaping that relationship?

Real connections with members and member-leaders in DSA are developed at the chapter level. If we're to have effective campaigns at the national level, the NPC must take a leading role in creating a comprehensive issue based campaign with a reasonable chance of success that also advances the material interests of the multi-racial working class, of course with the buy-in of chapters. The national org should be working with chapters on mobilizing members to execute these campaigns in a way that isn’t siloed from the rest of chapter organizing, such that regular members have access to and are rallied behind a national DSA campaign as well as their local priorities.

We can work with burgeoning chapters with support to build structures, grow, and effectively organize members. To that end we should work with chapters on goals for new member growth, collect expertise on building effective and efficient chapter structures from across the country, and advise chapters with potentially effective options. We should help chapters train leaders in organizing basics and ensure that our membership has the tools and knowledge to bring their communities together around common goals.

Lastly the national organization should work with chapters to recruit leaders from their communities to run for national office. Growing our state power is a key to our success, and local chapters are in the best position to know who shares our vision for the future, has a chance to win, and is ready to take on the challenge of this political moment.

Have you ever held a position within or on behalf of law enforcement (such as a police union organizer)? No

Katie Sims

Ithaca, New York (They/Them)

Are you running for an At-Large NPC seat or for one of the two Co-Chair seats (or both)? At-Large

Why are you running for NPC?

I don’t like the way things are right now: our economy is deeply unfair, I don’t know whether I’ll be able to get healthcare when I need it, I worry about my friends getting evicted, and I’m pissed off about endless horrific wars. Democratic socialism is the right response to this, but I don’t want to just be right — I want to change things.

DSA has the potential to be more impactful than it currently is. Because I’ve seen us fail to meet the moment in the last two years: not taking a position on the Trump election, beefing with our allies and electeds, slashing organizing capacity with staff cuts. We’ve been too focused on debate and discourse, and not enough on action. Millions of people around the country are asking what they can do to fight the far right and the do-nothing centrist democrats, and the NPC has not had a strategy.

I’m running for NPC to help us meet the moment with coordinated, strategic action. As an NEC Steering Committee member, I’ve helped act as an organizer, meeting with chapters to help develop campaign ideas and plans. I’ve produced training materials that can help advise chapter leaders so they can adapt a strategy to their own area and run with it. We need to be more proactive and collaborative, more focused on organizing than orating. My experience in chapter and national leadership prepares me well to bring this kind of political leadership to the NPC.

I joined DSA in 2020, because my chapter was running a campaign about expanding tenants rights, and I was excited about the prospect of improving conditions for me and my community. We ended up passing that law last summer!

In the meantime, we ran 9 campaigns for city council (won 5), and I was involved in all of them. I ran as an independent ballot line candidate for mayor. We collaborated with our local tenant union and got involved with a statewide coalition, which included much more than just socialist organizations. Recruiting candidates, building volunteer teams, learning to govern, and lobbying in coalition have taught me how clear goals and strategy allow people to work together smoothly, and build excitement. And how a vacuum of goals, focusing on internal dynamics, or nitpicking allies undermines our work and diminishes our power. Developing DSA leadership in balance with successful coalition has been a focus of my experience.

I have been my chapter’s electoral committee chair since 2023. In 2024, I was elected to the steering committee of the National Electoral Commission, where I’ve created training programming and mentored chapters. Encouragement, training, and leadership development makes or breaks DSA work. Everyone joins DSA with a critique, but few join with an understanding of how we change the world. I’m grateful for the mentors who taught me, and we need much more of that support, all over the organization.

The hallmarks of rising fascism are passing in queue: laws are getting axed by the discretion of the president, unregulated police forces are detaining people illegally, including elected officials; media are normalizing the rapid loss of civil rights. DSA is growing back in numbers, as is the liberal resistance to Trump. Our challenge: how do we turn a sentiment into a strategy?

We need to unify our strategy through national political leadership, national bodies directing their focus to organizing and development, and organizing staff support. Every chapter should be running campaigns with clear targets, goals, narratives and timelines — and national political leadership should provide advice that makes it possible for every chapter to launch a campaign like this. Campaigns are how we move our opinions and our critiques to action. Candidate campaigns, just cause for workers, rent stabilization, raising the minimum wage, or enshrining trans rights are great examples that are also feasible in many chapters.

Our internal democracy is unique and powerful in DSA, because members get to decide what’s the best way to advance socialism. We should elect political leadership who offer strategy ideas, and the leadership should organize the membership around them. It would be a waste to turn our attention inward to long research or deliberation processes, when our enemies are hacking away urgently. We should also trust our membership’s votes and polls, and reduce barriers for members to participate in decisionmaking.

DSA needs to be focused outward on campaigns that speak to tangible problems in the working class with meaningful solutions, opportunities for people to play a role in changing their conditions, and with symbiotic collaboration. DSA chapters can fall into different traps like being inwardly focused and cliquish, lacking active work to motivate joiners, elitism and chauvinism.

I think ultimately what makes people join DSA is a feeling that they’re welcomed and that it can improve their lives. So to make people feel welcomed, we can host orientations which are fun to be at and where we have meaningful social interactions. If we’re introducing socialism, we should highlight the multicultural legacy of socialist thought and strategy. In Ithaca, we’ve worked with our Black community center to develop programming on Black socialist movements.

Having campaigns also opens up participation beyond meetings. Being able to join for door knocking, tabling, or a social event can feel more productive and welcoming. Even better when the campaigns bring about coalition work, expanding our socialist movement with other working class organizations. DSA leadership is good, but every coalition member has to participate in a give and take of humility for the partnership to work.

What should the relationship between the national organization and local chapters look like--how should they engage each other and what role should NPC members take in shaping that relationship?

The National organization should act like organizers: developing a shared strategy, communicating about it, and systematically making hard asks of members to participate. We should provide training and leadership development. As elected by the chapter membership, we should follow through on our strategy goals and we should seek feedback on how it’s going.

The NPC shares the role in organizing chapters, with the national bodies like the NEC and NLC, and the staff (which is good because it’s a lot of work!). But I think the NPC should take responsibility for being organizers: we should model that when things need to happen, it’s time to make calls.

Like any organizing relationship, there’s an element of choice and feedback among the person receiving the ask — I don’t think National should be unilaterally dictating how chapters should act. But it should intervene to create baseline standards for personal conduct in DSA spaces, and to keep chapters from acting in opposition to the whole organization.

Have you ever held a position within or on behalf of law enforcement (such as a police union organizer)? no

Ella Teevan

Seattle, Washington (She/Her)

Are you running for an At-Large NPC seat or for one of the two Co-Chair seats (or both)? At-Large

Why are you running for NPC?

I’m thrilled to be running for NPC on the Bread & Roses slate. My primary reasons are political: DSA is unique as the only major socialist organization in the US that can act as a party for the working class. Therefore, it matters that DSA has strong, politically coherent leadership that can orient us toward masses of working people and a bottom-up labor movement, without dissolving into the Democratic Party or remaining marginal. I’m excited to enact a vision of DSA that contests elections like a party would, takes political direction from elected member leaders, and builds strong relationships with rank-and-file workers and social movements, including for a free Palestine and against oligarchy. My secondary reasons are personal and interpersonal: based on my experience co-chairing my chapter in East Bay, and before that being East Bay’s first staff organizer, I believe I have the skills to help lead DSA in this moment. I am an experienced organizer, a strong communicator, a dependable mentor, a respectful comrade, and a hard worker, and I can stick to my political vision while being open to learning and changing my mind as material conditions change.

I joined East Bay DSA in 2018. I was an active Bernie canvasser and a member of our Jobs Program, Political Education Committee, and Membership Engagement Committee, where I helped pilot our successful New Member Cohort that now onboards dozens of new members per quarter. In 2022-23, I served as East Bay DSA’s first staffer, where I increased our local dues revenue by 2.5x in 8 months and helped us secure an office. I also supported member development so that staff would add to the chapter’s collective capacity and experience rather than making the chapter dependent on staff. In 2023-24, I co-chaired the chapter as we responded in real time to Israel’s genocide, while democratically debating our role in the Palestine solidarity movement. I’ve supported several electoral campaigns, including as a canvasser for candidates from the Richmond Progressive Alliance, and as a canvass lead and trainer of other canvass leads for an Oakland School Board race. Finally, I’m a proud mentor to many DSA members; I see it as my role to develop people as independent Marxist thinkers and skilled leaders and organizers.

I used to work in nonprofits, and my experience there gave me a crystal clear view of why the nonprofit model cannot, and does not try to, change the world in the way that we want to in DSA. These organizations aren’t democratic; they have email lists of potential donors instead of members. I hope to help DSA avoid the pitfalls of this kind of organization.

We face a US working class that is arguably at its most disorganized – we have less than 10% union density, and there are tragically few democratically-run unions or political organizations. Moreover, we face a crisis of social isolation brought on by capitalism. Layered on top of these disorganizing conditions is an unprecedented threat to civil liberties, federally funded programs, and labor from the Trump administration and a do-nothing Democratic Party, with which regular people are increasingly disillusioned. However, masses of people are becoming politically active for the first time in response to Trump II and the genocide in Gaza. That means DSA has an opportunity, and an obligation, to provide a place to land for people who are looking for leadership. It matters that we orient toward a rank-and-file labor movement, especially with May Day 2028 emerging as a potential mass strike whose character we can shape. It matters that we empower members to lead, since DSA, outside of unions, is one of the only places that people can learn to be in a democratic organization before they bring that democracy to their unions and social movements. That means we need to pay our member leaders and clarify the role of staff as supporting the will of the membership and democratically elected leaders. It also means we need to have a clear vision for our electoral work where electeds see us as their political home, run on DSA slates, and have some accountability to DSA’s democracy.

We’ve been grappling with this dilemma for the whole seven years I’ve been in DSA. One challenge is that we still largely recruit from a pool of self-identified leftists in online spaces, who tend to be whiter and more college-educated than the average working person. I support DSA’s political leaders, especially co-chairs, spending most of their efforts reaching regular working people. I also think bridging the socialist movement with the labor movement is a long game. We are taking part in it by engaging in the rank-and-file strategy, which includes but also goes beyond placing individual socialists in workplaces. As we deepen our connection with rank-and-file workers (and with workers not yet in unions via our salting campaigns), DSA will grow, and, equally important, the broader left-labor ecosystem will grow as more multiracial workers develop into class-conscious organizers, even if not all of them join DSA. (To be clear, “left-labor ecosystem” is not a euphemism for “progressive ecosystem;” I don’t believe we should go out of our way to appeal to middle-class liberals that are more likely to have partisan loyalties to the Democratic Party and who often make up the donors and staff at establishment-friendly NGOs.) Finally, how we engage in elections matters. If we run candidates who speak to issues that are broadly and deeply felt among working-class voters, we can bring some of them into DSA; Zohran’s campaign will be a great opportunity to debrief how this worked.

What should the relationship between the national organization and local chapters look like--how should they engage each other and what role should NPC members take in shaping that relationship?

I believe DSA is not a federation of independent chapters; it is a national organization, and we should make the most of our national organization, especially if we want to move towards being a party. It’s quite easy to feel checked out of what’s going on in the national org, even as a chapter leader, but our national leaders, who are themselves part of chapters, are positioned to bring members into the loop. To combat this siloing, NPC members should have relationships with chapters (their own and surrounding ones geographically), and ideally make chapter visits, if they can, to connect local members to the work of the national organization. I hope to do these visits myself! It’s incumbent on the NPC to provide chapters with a compelling vision of what we can achieve through national coordination that is just not possible purely on the local level.

Have you ever held a position within or on behalf of law enforcement (such as a police union organizer)? No

If you would like to share any links to articles you’ve written, a portfolio, or similar resources you feel will be useful for members to get to know you, do so here.

You can check out my published writing in Jacobin (https://jacobin.com/author/ella-teevan), The Left Berlin (https://www.theleftberlin.com/author/ella/), The Call (https://socialistcall.com/2025/03/03/not-me-us-jesse-brown-and-his-constituents-take-on-the-democratic-party/), and Democratic Left (https://www.dsausa.org/democratic-left/review-from-ivy-league-to-assembly-line-an-organizers-story/).

Stella Templeton

Boston, Massachusetts (She/Her)

Are you running for an At-Large NPC seat or for one of the two Co-Chair seats (or both)? At-Large

Why are you running for NPC?

I’ve learned a lot from my experiences in local leadership in Boston DSA, which have included a couple of terms in leadership of my former university’s YDSA, a term as co-chair of the Boston DSA Electoral Working Group, and my current role, in my second term as chapter Clerk. Boston DSA has been the most energized when the whole chapter’s work can come together around a single campaign, like our cadre candidate Evan MacKay's 2024 candidacy for state legislature, which we lost by less than 50 votes. Because of Boston DSA’s long-standing siloing problems, the chapter didn’t fully come together behind the campaign until a couple months before the election. That’s the difference between a narrow loss and a win. In general, I think it’s vitally important for the NPC to orient DSA towards mass campaigning politics as much as possible, and to be strategically effective in how we run those campaigns, which includes bringing all of DSA together to build a path forward.

On a more detailed point, I believe that DSA often under-utilizes the communications platform that we have from elected officials, especially cadre elected officials. I think there would be pretty broad support in DSA for the idea of writing more newsletters with DSA-style framing about current events and promotion of the work DSA is doing, it’s just something that takes sustained effort to make happen, and it would be a project that I would personally focus on if I was elected to the NPC.

I got involved in DSA through Northeastern YDSA in Fall 2021, and served on its leadership as Parliamentarian for most of 2022. It was a great experience, our main campaign at that time was for more affordable meal plan pricing, alongside a parallel campaign alongside a broad coalition of student clubs and the dining workers union to get the dining workers a good 5-year contract. The meal plan campaign had mixed results, we won small reforms but not the wider overhaul we hoped for. However, the contract campaign was a clear success, the workers used a credible strike threat to get a strong contract. The broad coalition and labor action got the goods, even from a hostile university administration.

I got involved in Boston DSA on the electoral side of things, mostly canvassing for cadre candidate Joel Richards’ 2023 city council campaign. The campaign was well-fought, we made it into a runoff from a crowded field, but ultimately lost. I then served as co-chair of the Boston DSA Electoral Working Group from December 2023 to December 2024, during which our main campaign was to support cadre candidate Evan MacKay's candidacy for state legislature, which we lost by less than 50 votes. I have served as Clerk of Boston DSA since April 2024, mostly working on addressing siloing in our information structures, by centralizing our information in well-known and easily accessible areas. In national DSA, addressing information siloing is naturally even more difficult, but that also makes it even more important.

It has become clear that during the second Trump term, reactionaries will be using the state power they control to launch waves of attacks against liberals and leftists. DSA will be directly challenged by those attacks, and face the more subtle challenge of navigating decisions over how to relate to liberal forces during the course of fighting back. I would generally advocate for participating in events in coalition with liberals while promoting DSA and our socialist message. Participating in broader anti-Trump coalitions will allow us to reach larger sections of the politically inactive masses than we would otherwise, by directly interacting with them at events and indirectly raising awareness of DSA and our message through media coverage.

For example, I would have consistently voted to participate in the Hands Off / No Kings coalition during the NPC votes this year, some of which failed. In my experience, the No Kings protests are liberal, but their members are open to socialism: just recently, in Boston’s Pride march, a No Kings rally cheered the Boston DSA marchers as we walked by, and many of the rallygoers were excited to take Boston DSA flyers.

DSA should also use our connections to elected officials, especially DSA cadre elected officials, to fight back against the Trump administration’s attacks, and to spread our message to sympathetic members of the public who may see us as effective leaders of that fight, especially considering that the politically inactive public tends to focus their political attention on electoral politics.

For DSA to reach beyond the areas where we are already strong, average members of the multiracial working class need to know who we are, and believe that DSA is an effective vehicle to achieve their immediate needs. It can be helpful to participate in wider coalitions with organizations that already have the attention and trust of groups of people who DSA is weaker with, especially mass membership organizations like labor unions.

In general, NPC members should engage in discussions with chapters about what strategies they have used to reach the broader multiracial working class, especially chapters with demonstrated successes, to learn which strategies have been most successful, and try to bring information to other chapters about which strategies they could use.

In my experience in Boston DSA, we have been most effective at building a multiracial working class membership base in two main situations: 1) campaigns that have the potential to get direct material wins for the multiracial working class, such as the Northeastern YDSA campaigns for affordable meal plans and strong contracts for the dining workers, and 2) our electoral campaigns in majority-minority districts, in which we necessarily spoke to thousands of average people across differences of socioeconomic status.

What should the relationship between the national organization and local chapters look like--how should they engage each other and what role should NPC members take in shaping that relationship?

Right now, I think national DSA and local chapters are largely disconnected from each other, partially because of the heavy burden of work on NPC members. NPC members are theoretically in a perfect position to communicate with multiple chapters and share lessons about what strategies and tactics have been most effective for organizing, but it’s just very time-consuming work. I think the proposed expansion of the NPC would reduce the workload on NPC members, and free up more time for them to meet with local chapters to work on various projects that involve joint efforts across chapters and/or national DSA.

I also think the relationship between the national organization and local chapters could be improved by recruiting more members into national committees. In my experience, average members usually aren’t aware of what our national committees do on a day-to-day basis, and sometimes even aren’t aware that our national committees exist. I think NPC members could help bring more of that information to our members, both through national communications and by helping individual chapters, especially their own chapters, feel plugged into our national committees.

Have you ever held a position within or on behalf of law enforcement (such as a police union organizer)? No.

If you would like to share any links to articles you’ve written, a portfolio, or similar resources you feel will be useful for members to get to know you, do so here.

I generally support the Points Of Unity of Socialist Majority Caucus, which I am a member of: https://www.socialistmajority.com/pointsofunity

I wrote an article about DSA’s relationship with the Democratic Party and other social forces for a series of local caucus perspectives in Boston DSA. The series was ultimately not published because most caucuses did not submit a response (I was the second to submit and I did it only a couple of days before the November 2024 election, and then of course everyone became very busy), but I still think the article holds up pretty well. You can read it here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1G6oHyaBJ1IQQ9VgCNKU6EhLf73cAkp9CLtqiRQWYNXU/edit?usp=sharing

I co-authored a resolution about mass politics strategy that has been submitted for convention (alongside fellow members of Socialist Majority Caucus): https://discussion.dsausa.org/t/r24-to-defeat-trump-turn-toward-the-masses/43190

I independently authored an amendment to a different resolution about DSA communications (that resolution was written by members of Reform & Revolution, and I co-signed the original resolution as well, but I am not a member of Reform & Revolution): https://discussion.dsausa.org/t/r-a-newsletter-and-newspaper-support/46604

Andrew Thompson

Denver, Colorado (He/Him)

Are you running for an At-Large NPC seat or for one of the two Co-Chair seats (or both)? At-Large

Why are you running for NPC?

I am running for NPC alongside a group of comrades who authored the Springs of Revolution Platform to build and strengthen DSA into the socialist organization we desperately need to fight against the various crises facing the working class. I was asked to run by a number of dedicated organizers who have organized across the globe; organizers whom I have profound respect for, who believe in me as an organizer and leader.

In order to meet the challenge of building a member-driven mass organization, we must acknowledge the weaknesses of our org and how our organizing can resolve our weaknesses. The primary strength of DSA is the community-centered organizing that takes place in chapters across the county. I firmly believe that our organizing work cannot and will not be successful without orienting our local organizing work to be done directly with communities of color, immigrants, community coalitions and workers, insead of on behalf of them. My primary goal during my time on the NPC will be to continue to work with members across the country to transform DSA into an organization with a reputation of being deeply rooted in our local communities, empowering and inspiring members to fight for the world we are trying to win. Guiding our organization towards locally vested base-building efforts is necessary to build a successful and sustainable movement against imperialism, against zionism, against state repression to win socialism in our lifetime.

I came to DSA in 2021 radicalized through the lived experience of working for a wage since my childhood. I was raised in rural Wisconsin, where farming became a dying livelihood for my family. I struggled firsthand with poverty, witnessed my family endure life-changing workplace injuries while others were sent to die in Iraq and Afghanistan, and as a first-gen college student I worked 40+ hours a week to survive — crucial experiences that fueled my frustration with the exploitation of workers. I joined DSA to serve my community and teardown the systems that have victimized myself, my family, and so many across the world.

During my time in DSA I’ve knocked thousands of doors for endorsed candidates/iniatives, won collective bargaining rights for City employees, engaged community members as a leader of Uncommitted and No Votes for Genocide, walked picket lines, raised thousands of dollars for local abortion funds and our Palestine coalition, led the attempted repeal of our state’s anti-BDS law and the No Appetite for Apartheid campaign, and supported political education projects on topics such as Kashmir, Antideutsch, and Palestine.

The project I’m proudest to have led is our collaboration with the Colorado Palestine Coalition for our Shutdown Jewish National Fund campaign, one of the earliest zionist organizations created specifically to disposes Palestinains of their land, in a weekend of direct action, community education, and mobilization which was lauded by longtime community organizers as the largest coordinated anti-war action in Denver since the anti-Vietnam War demonstrations.

The number one perpetrator of fear and violence in the world is the United States; it must be stopped and our movement for socialism will be successful in doing so. In order to preserve the aspirations and protect peoples’ right to self-determination at home and abroad we must build a multiracial working class movement to defeat imperialism. US imperialism has wrought destruction across the globe for decades, and workers abroad and at home continue to pay the price; defeating it means standing in solidarity and alongside those fighting the modern fronts of facism like zionism and racist immigration policies that are necessary for the continuation of the highest stage of capitalism, imperialism.

Our movement must remain resolute in our convictions and commitment to combat zionism, neoliberalism, and the growing tides of facism back home. To successfully organize in this terrain we will need to empower our local organizing to build strong coalitions across the left, labor, and national liberation movements as well as continuing to form relationships and bonds of solidarity with partners across the globe. We must also deepen political education of new members, create a lasting commitment to international solidarity and migrant justice work within local chapters, and organize more directly within the labor movement across multinational supply chains. Ultimately,this organizing should be approached with a sense of humility and willingness to learn and struggle alongside movements around the world waging a similar fight.

As a first-gen college student, from a family whose lineage transitioned from farming into factory work and the trades, I have often found few people with a similar background, or connection to the struggle. But I have come to realize that people join DSA when they engage with us through organizing on issues central to them. Workers and union members join DSA if they see us or engage with members supporting workers on picket lines and/or in their workplace.

In order to have a broader muliracial working calls base we must also expand the horizons of our organizing to ensure that issues that many communities of color face like racism, imperialism, immigration control, and policing are equally important areas of radicalization/organizing as economic issues. Merely adopting these organizing frameworks is not enough; we must be organizing directly alongside the communities that are the most impacted by these systems of oppression. I have seen the success of this organizing first hand in my chapter as a leader in our internationalism committee, which has consistently been the largest multiracial space in our chapter. This is largely due to the robust, principled Palestine Solidarity organizing, that does not cater to our predominantly white membership base but instead operates in tandem with the expertise of our movement partners in our local Palestine coalition. In order to develop a broader multiracial base, we must demonstrate solidarity by organizing on the frontlines of the struggles that impact them the most!

What should the relationship between the national organization and local chapters look like--how should they engage each other and what role should NPC members take in shaping that relationship?

Our most impactful organizing happens in our local chapters. Local chapters, much like the mitochondria, are the powerhouse of our collective project. Developing chapters and their leaders should be the utmost priority of NPC members and our national organization. As a local leader, I am most proud of having been one of the first members and later Chair of my chapter’s Palestine solidarity working group, where I played an essential role in turning the working group into a robust local Internationalism Committee – one of our chapter’s largest, most active, multiracial committees – as well as being a founder and active leader of the Colorado Palestine Coalition. Being so deeply involved in the invaluable work of my chapter convinced me that local organizing and developing local leadership is the kind of work that we should invest in.

With the support of other national and chapter leaders I have grown into a leader of my own right, and I hope to likewise support the growth of the thousands of members across the country who are capable of becoming leaders and building and supporting hundreds of chapters. There is a wealth of organizing experience produced at the chapter level and through the creation of bottom-up national structures we can build a sustainable, expert-informed organization of organizers.

Have you ever held a position within or on behalf of law enforcement (such as a police union organizer)? Technically yes, for roughly 3 months I worked in my state’s Attorney General’s office, in a consumer protection role, as a student and private education loan regulator, which was classified as a law enforcement officer position.

However, I resigned fro

If you would like to share any links to articles you’ve written, a portfolio, or similar resources you feel will be useful for members to get to know you, do so here.

Testimony in support of the repeal of CO’s anti-BDS law (HB24-1169): https://docs.google.com/document/u/1/d/e/2PACX-1vSZvLA_06gdSkrQ578uUAXHcWcw8S6JCBOgWjJVThWDp3EeLHDVdbtyp3-uvSLn3RhYImrbvIwlrt4Z/pub

Chapter Statement on Palestine authored by Andrew T, et al.: https://denverdsa.wordpress.com/2023/10/14/denver-dsa-stands-with-palestine/

“Uncommitted” Organizers Support “No Votes for Genocide” Campaigns: https://www.dsausa.org/blog/uncommitted-organizers-support-no-votes-for-genocide-campaigns/

My favorite family of birds is the Picidae family, sorry that is as specific as I can get, briefly.

Cara Tobe

Metro Detroit, Michigan (She/Her)

Are you running for an At-Large NPC seat or for one of the two Co-Chair seats (or both)? At-Large

Why are you running for NPC?

I’m running for a second term on the National Political Committee because I believe we can create DSA into the party of millions of working class people that we need to win, and I believe that I can help make that happen. My experience over the past two years on the body has shown me that we need to take building the party seriously. We’re fighting the clock and the future is ours for the taking. To do this, we must continue to develop internal structures and relationships between individual members, chapters, the national organization, to the global movement for socialism, organize external-facing campaigns that elect socialists to office and win material gains for the working class, and create a propaganda arm for DSA to reach the masses and show the world how the socialist alternative is here, and it’s time to join us. I believe my work on the NPC has shown that I am dedicated to making sure this happens, and I want to continue to follow through on expanding the National Communications Committee as Communications Chair. In addition, it is critical that we strengthen our relationships with our socialists in office, especially those in federal positions. As a member of Metro Detroit DSA, I’m looking forward to strengthening the relationship the national organization has with Rep. Rashida Tlaib, and defending her in her upcoming reelection campaign in 2026.

I joined DSA spring 2020 while living in Louisville, KY during Bernie's second run and the uprisings after the murder of Breonna Taylor. I dove head first into organizing with the local chapter. I served as chapter labor committee co-chair for two terms, followed by a term as co-chair of the chapter. Throughout, I helped lead strike solidarity campaigns, develop chapter communications, and created the chapter's transit campaign--Get On The Bus--alongside ATU Local 1447. Nationally, I was on the Green New Deal Campaign Commission steering committee, and as its co-chair, launched the Building for Power campaign. I moved to Detroit in April 2025 where I’m supporting endorsed candidate Denzel McCampbell for Detroit City Council and the chapter’s transit campaign.

Last convention, I was honored to have been elected to the National Political Committee. I proudly serve as our National Communications Chair, where we’re expanding the committee to bring in more member-leaders. As Communications Chair, I developed and emceed the organization’s largest mass call following Trump’s election in November. I also led DSA’s communications for Socialism Conference 2024, March on the DNC, and Trump's Inauguration. I also liaise between the GNDCC, NLC, Editorial Board, Abolition WG, and the Trump Admin Response Committee. Throughout my term, I prioritized ensuring resolutions passed at 2023 National Convention were implemented, including the creation and election of the National Co-Chairs positions and Editorial Board. I also participated in the delegation to Cuba in October 2023 and a bilateral exchange with La France Insoumise in September 2024.

The quote by Gramsci is true today: "The old world is dying and the new world struggles to be born: now is the time of monsters." DSA can and should be the force to bring in this new world.

We must support our members to organize where they are, and if they are able and willing to, in strategic sectors–for a mass, democratic, militant, labor movement with high union density and participation levels. Meanwhile, DSA should also build strong institutional relationships in and with aligned unions in ways that will further our goals, like preparing for the 2028 General Strike.

Additionally, we need to grow the numbers of socialists in office not only at the state and local levels, but also at a federal level so that we can bring our vision and demands to the broader population. We also must defend Rashida in 2026 against the zionist AIPAC.

Some of our fights must be waged legislatively. We must prevent the attacks on the lives of our neighbors both in the US and abroad, create better workplace and living conditions, and allow us the ability to create the conditions we need to build the future we know is possible.

To win, we need to be an organization in the millions. We need to prioritize recruitment and retention–growing by running external-facing campaigns while also developing a propaganda machine, creating more social content and earned media which reaches the masses and popularizes democratic socialism even more.

The success of DSA relies on becoming an organization which consists of the multiracial working class. I believe we can accomplish this through intentional leadership development, ensuring that we are supporting our comrades of color are getting the support needed to grow into organizing machines. We should bring back the Multi Racial Organizing Committee (MROC) and the MROC Conference and run trainings so upcoming leaders in our organization are equipped with what they need to succeed as organizers. In addition, we should be running external-facing campaigns which speak to, impact, and are based in multiracial communities, whether through pressure campaigns to protect and expand public goods, organizing workers and tenants, as well as running candidates for public office. We can develop our leaders through running these campaigns, since after all, a great way to learn is by practicing! The best organizing meets people where they’re at.

What should the relationship between the national organization and local chapters look like--how should they engage each other and what role should NPC members take in shaping that relationship?

The national organization would be nothing without its chapters, and chapters have so much to gain from working with national bodies. However, the NPC has historically been very disconnected from the membership and this must change. Over this past term, we’ve experimented with fireside chats, town halls, and showing up on regional calls with field organizers. Nothing seemed to stick as well as direct outreach and helping connect chapters through campaigns and actions, and by gathering input from rank-and-file members across the country on national decisions. When chapters can connect on joint actions, such as campaigns against zionist lobbies or statewide ballot measures, or running socialists for public office or winning protections for workers, they are also developing relationships amongst each other, sharing tips and resources, both for the campaigns they are working on and for broader chapter engagement. The national organization has a role to play in helping support these types of campaigns, and supporting and facilitating connections between chapters as best as possible, providing the space and resources that are required. NPC members should be proactive in ensuring this happens and connect with chapter leaders and national committees regularly.

Have you ever held a position within or on behalf of law enforcement (such as a police union organizer)? No. In fact, I have been actively organizing against police “union” power over the past 5 years. I’ve spoken on two separate panels hosted by the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law about my work fighting against police “union” power in Louisvill

If you would like to share any links to articles you’ve written, a portfolio, or similar resources you feel will be useful for members to get to know you, do so here.

https://inthesetimes.com/article/democratic-socialists-america-gaza-palestine-israel-ceasefire

https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2023/11/the-anti-israel-pro-palestinian-left-is-booming.html

https://democraticleft.dsausa.org/2025/03/24/dsa-at-inauguration-weekend/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X5DU8hIhBaw&t=1s&ab_channel=DemocraticSocialistsofAmerica

https://truthout.org/articles/fossil-fuel-giants-with-most-emissions-paid-1-18-billion-to-ceos-in-last-decade/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/02/03/brett-hankison-trial-breonna-taylor-justice/

https://www.lpm.org/news/2023-04-19/lmpd-490-project-settle-lawsuit-over-access-to-complaints-against-officers

Hazel Williams

San Francisco, California (She/Her)

Are you running for an At-Large NPC seat or for one of the two Co-Chair seats (or both)? At-Large

Why are you running for NPC?

I’m running to build DSA into a revolutionary socialist organization capable of building a socialist future. In my years as a DSA leader at the city & state level I helped turn DSA into a more effective organ of the working class. If elected, I will contribute to the strategic direction of DSA at a higher level, ensuring it becomes a disciplined, democratic, and effective organization that can cohere a party for the working class.

I want to address the limitations within DSA, such as uneven political education, over-reliance on a small core of organizers, and the lack of political cohesion and institutional knowledge. I will work to strengthen DSA’s democratic structures, expand its capacity to represent the working class, and orient its efforts toward the most productive arenas of struggle. I will foster a culture of self-criticism, scientific analysis, and disciplined organizing within DSA.

My experience under capitalism as a tenant, a worker, and a trans woman solidifies my view of DSA as an opportunity to tap into the working class' array of experiences and unite our struggles towards a revolutionary horizon.

Empowering and developing chapters will be a central goal for me. During my time on DSA’s Growth and Development Committee (GDC) I have made the body easier to join resulting in an explosion of growth, opened its Steering meetings and tools to the membership, and developed widely accessible tools and trainings for chapters based on their concrete needs.

I joined DSA in 2018 and got involved in homelessness mutual aid work for 2 years making headlines across the city calling attention to the need for social housing.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, I ran mutual aid efforts including PPE and mask distribution, and founded my chapter’s Tenant Solidarity Working Group to organize tenants and connect them to resources.

As a leader on the Education Board I led the development of the chapter’s first organizer and leadership training courses which have continued to develop socialist leaders in San Francisco.

As Co-Chair of DSA SF I led the organization as it won the largest vacancy tax in the country and successfully elected a socialist to the Board of Supervisors.

I also drove forward Palestine solidarity work including student encampments and the No Appetite for Apartheid campaign.

As California DSA Co-Chair and Treasurer I represented thousands of organizers across the state, strengthened statewide coordination, and ensured financial compliance. I am now a member of the National GDC Steering Committee, leading the State of DSA Reports campaign and helping build up local chapters.

One common challenge in DSA is navigating the complexities of interpersonal and political conflict. I learned the importance of direct communication, ensuring robust democratic decision making processes, and developing a strong socialized environment. My time in DSA has been deeply rewarding, and I remain committed to advancing the organization’s mission of building a socialist future.

The US is facing rising fascist threats. These crises create fertile ground for socialist organizing as more people become disillusioned with the status quo and seek alternatives. The GDC should be a key implement of seizing this moment. This means ensuring locals have trainings, are able to foster a strong sense of protagonism and democratic agency, and are developing political education programs to politicize members who are eager to learn about socialism.

DSA can win battles in municipalities and even statewide, but only with strong chapters supported by the national organization. DSA must support chapters in their fights against eviction, in their fights alongside unions, in their fights for trans peoples’ access to medical care, and in their fights to run for office against liberals who refuse to fight back. DSA must support chapters as they develop members in these fights, first through the resources of the GDC, and second through the work being done at the national level.

DSA should begin active partnership with groups locally and nationally that are focused on issues we care about and contain groups we want to bring in and share decision-making with. For example, many diaspora groups focused on opposing US empire would be great partners for future work opposing the war machine that Trump is supercharging. National should also be giving out guidance and toolkits for chapters to coordinate strike support with local unions. Above all, people in the United States are tired of the Democratic party not actually representing them - we should show those people that there is another way and that other way is working together under one big roof like DSA.

What should the relationship between the national organization and local chapters look like--how should they engage each other and what role should NPC members take in shaping that relationship?

The national organization should right now be focused on building resources for chapters to use, and spreading DSA’s influence by creating chapters in areas we currently have none. DSA National shouldn’t be trying to run national legislative campaigns, these aren’t winnable for us (yet!) and demoralize versus grow our membership. National should be cohering chapters and strengthening them as they are where the vast majority of our work happens, rather than trying to act as its own national chapter dashing itself on the rocks of Congress.

Have you ever held a position within or on behalf of law enforcement (such as a police union organizer)? No.

If you would like to share any links to articles you’ve written, a portfolio, or similar resources you feel will be useful for members to get to know you, do so here.

Here is a link tree containing political and organizing work inside and outside of DSA including news articles based on my journalism exposing criminalization of poverty in San Francisco: https://linktr.ee/HazelNPC

One of the most impactful projects I worked on was the Trans Privacy Bill, which will protect the privacy and rights of approximately 220,000 transgender adults across California.. I learned through this work that while important but modest reforms are achievable, pushing for more transformative changes often meets significant opposition. I also won a Society of Professional Journalists award for my writing on homelessness and criminalization in San Francisco.

Amy Wilhelm

Seattle, Washington (She/Her, They/Them)

Are you running for an At-Large NPC seat or for one of the two Co-Chair seats (or both)? At-Large

Why are you running for NPC?

I’m running for NPC to grow DSA into a mass party. Not a party in the sense of an organization legally entitled to spend on and run in elections, but in the sense of a place for workers to join together and sharpen their politics while working together to change the world. To do this we need political independence and to put our politics first - we can’t rely on a strategy that tries to ride the coattails of a capitalist party or to capture the capitalist state for our own purposes. We have to debate our politics openly before members and the masses, so that we can understand each other better and find the best way to work together. And when we decide on what we stand for, we need to stand for it through all of our work.

One thing that I think fits this for DSA is trans liberation. This is something DSA stands on and for, and it’s non-negotiable. It sets us apart from other national political organizations and parties, in a good way. I think this sets a positive example of a consistent principled stance working in our favor, and where abandoning or hiding it would be destructive.

I also want to continue helping our National Tech Committee build our own tools. Right now DSA is highly dependent on Democratic Party-affiliated tech platforms, some of which place limits on our ability to organize and some of which… we can’t trust their owners to keep them running.

I joined DSA in early 2022, after taking a break from organizing during the early days of COVID, and was elected as a Seattle chapter co-chair in June 2022. I was reelected in that role in March 2023 and remained in the position until a few months after my election to the 2023-25 NPC term. I’ve also served on the NPC Steering Committee during this term, as well as serving as chair of the Personnel Committee and National Tech Committee.

During my time in Seattle DSA I’ve participated in labor solidarity actions and canvassed for a number of our electoral campaigns - Gallardo, Scott, Westgaard, I-135, and Raise the Wage Renton (RTWR) - and volunteered as a shift lead for RTWR. In the 2022 term the Seattle Local Council faced some challenging legal situations after high leadership turnover, having to re-incorporate and navigate hiring. As co-chair I took lead on navigating these, making sure our documents were in order and we had the state registrations and services we needed.

The elephant in the room is of course Donald Trump and his administration. Round two is far more vicious and activist than his first term, with intensified attacks on immigrants and queer people and gutting of what remains of the American civil state. But I think it is important for us to recognize that even with the blatant politicization of core functions and executive branch intransigence against the judicial branch, this administration represents more of a continuity than a rupture with the American project.

As I write this there are expanding immigration raids, military deployments to put down protests, a metastasizing reign of terror by the premier American client state in the Middle East, and ongoing imprisonment and torture overseas of alleged terrorists with no hope of trial. I phrase those carefully; none of these are new. The American state has operated this way for decades.

It is not enough to fight the Trump administration. As federal assaults on queer people intensify, Democratic stars like Newsom are turning on us and even the first transgender congressperson, Democrat Sarah McBride, tells us our rights are a distraction. In the dying days of the Biden administration, Democrats pushed an immigration package that was practically a carbon copy of first-term Trump policy.

DSA is in a unique position, as Democrats increasingly tack right, to consistently stand for democratic rights for all our neighbors. We must lead the fight not only against the current administration but against the undemocratic state that produced it.

DSA often struggles to find footing in working-class communities, especially majority-minority communities. Some of this is the background of many members, myself included, as middle class. It does not help that most DSA members are white, but I don’t believe this is insurmountable.

We need to be going into these communities to build lasting relationships, not just to stand on their side in conflicts or solely to recruit. I think this is where we can make the most of mutual aid work - efforts like brake light clinics are inherently political, centered on the issue of policing, and cookouts or community meals can be a way to form social bonds and discover existing social organization.

We should seek to help people organize, without demanding control or allegiance. We can sponsor and help cohere organizing efforts like labor and tenant unions, bring communities together into popular assemblies, and help to amplify their efforts through our own work.

By being a consistent and reliable presence, as partner rather than savior, we can demonstrate through practice what we fight for. I believe that is the best way to bring members in.

What should the relationship between the national organization and local chapters look like--how should they engage each other and what role should NPC members take in shaping that relationship?

I think DSA still often suffers from acting like 200 chapters in a trenchcoat. That said, over the last few years I’ve seen chapters forming stronger fraternal bonds. I don’t claim that the NPC has had a huge hand in this, but I see it as encouraging.

Chapters do a lot of good work and it often becomes a point of chapter pride, but it can sometimes become a source of conflict between chapters. I’d like to see work lifted up out of parochialism, for the national organization to not just be something that sits above chapters but for it to be a place members can exchange ideas and experience and help build our work across chapters. I think the changes in NEC over the last couple of years are a positive example of this, bringing in members involved in electoral work across DSA and building out programs like the electoral academy to help socialize their experience.

NPC members can help with this by bridging across areas of work just like chapters do. I think NPC members can also help to cohere DSA by directly helping connect chapters to national bodies. I don’t want to replicate or replace the work that our regional organizers do, but I know that co-chair chapter visits have been a very positive experience and I’d like to explore ways that at-large NPC members can work as connective tissue.

Have you ever held a position within or on behalf of law enforcement (such as a police union organizer)? No.

If you would like to share any links to articles you’ve written, a portfolio, or similar resources you feel will be useful for members to get to know you, do so here.

I wrote a few short articles titled “Democracy is More Than Voting” on how the parliamentary democracy we practice is a model of participatory democracy not only for DSA but a way to involve people in the democratic process beyond the ballot box: https://www.marxistunity.com/light-and-air/democracy-is-more-than-voting-1

I also recently wrote a more personal piece originally for the MUG bulletin on what comradeship means to me and why I believe trust is an important thing to DSA and socialism: https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vSMNaH2Xf1RBQle7g3ZM8kJ-L0Aii1SwoWYgm4KbWQ3va4ZAWmZuVudL6xvOqFPY-iyhAO1RNOa0bFa/pub

Though it’s not my writing, comrade Shane L interviewed me in March this year: https://shanelevett.substack.com/p/socialism-is-the-real-solution-to

Seth Woody

Troy, New York (They/Them)

Are you running for an At-Large NPC seat or for one of the two Co-Chair seats (or both)? At-Large

Why are you running for NPC?

DSA is the single most important socialist, power-building, membership organization in the country and it must be disciplined in playing its role. We have the potential to have an enormous impact in the current crisis of capitalism and of the working class but are failing to meet the historical moment; we’re simultaneously recoiling from disciplined action to build a united front against fascism while irresponsibly and erratically driving the organization away from its core principles for no discernable good reason. As an organizer, I have spent over a decade experimenting with and leading social-movement organizations at scale, training leaders to run and win effective campaigns in their communities, while building deep relationships with grassroots leaders in the social-movement left. Our organization is unnecessarily isolated in a historical moment that necessitates united front politics while also lacking critical leadership experience and skills amongst its highest leadership body. As an NPC member, I am prepared to bring relationships, experience, and a disciplined work ethic to the work of leading as an NPC member. The opportunity for DSA to lead is here; I believe the experience and relationships I have are needed to fully realize that opportunity.

I joined DSA in 2019 but became a more active member starting in 2022. I am currently a Troy DSA member and an active participant in our ongoing good cause campaign. I also have experience early in my time in DSA being in Boston where our local chapter was able to elect socialists to the city councils of Boston, Cambridge, Medford, Somerville, and a local State Rep. Winning real improvements to working class people’s lives like good cause protections while electing champions from our communities are exactly why I believe in DSA. My most recent major leadership role was as the field and organizing director of the “Uncommitted” and “Not Another Bomb” campaigns; engaging DSA chapters across the country in a massive distributed organizing infrastructure that won over 800,000 votes against the genocide in Palestine and cohering an antiwar voting bloc. DSA members, alongside Muslim and Jewish community organizations, were the primary volunteer infrastructure of the campaign and often the backbone of the state infrastructures we relied upon. Part of the reason I felt compelled to run for NPC was the frustrating experiences we encountered trying to work with the current NPC majority to expand and deepen the campaign across national DSA.

The regime will escalate its efforts to generate self-justifying crises to further consolidate their position and entrench authoritarian rule. It is likely they will attempt to preempt, nullify, or undermine by executive coup the results of the midterms. Internationally, the disastrous expansion and escalation of Israel's genocidal campaigns will continue to draw the global powers closer to outright war. Meanwhile, the "leadership" of the Democratic Party will continue failing to cohere a meaningful opposition capable of defeating the regime politically. In that context, DSA will face renewed and aggressive legal challenges and repression. It is likely that the organization will face legal dissolution. We must prepare for that threat while simultaneously stepping into political leadership where the Democrats will fail in order to support the emergence of a united front capable of opposing the regime. In the face of the regime’s attempt to consolidate full authoritarian rule, DSA must emphasize our commitment to building a popular front that can defeat it. Crucially, we must redouble our efforts to elect socialists at all levels of government to establish the socialist flank that can lead (or drag) the popular front conflict with credibility and a vision of the future. As the international crisis deepens, it is vital that DSA continues to emphasize the link between imperialism abroad and authoritarianism at home. We must be the principled flank of the popular front that can articulate an antiwar politics that is morally correct and politically popular with the working-class majority of this country.

We have to address and improve the organization's entry points and newcomer experiences. Chapters are usually the main entry point for newcomers to our organization, and what happens in chapters has consequences for our collective power building and leadership development. I want to build a DSA where chapters across the country have strong and welcoming onboarding, where members can feel comfortable joining and engaging in the life of the chapter regardless of how many theory texts they have read. Leadership and political development comes through campaigns, and I want a DSA where all chapters are leading strong campaigns that engage working class bases to win material change in their lives and communities. My experience leading Uncommitted and engaging DSA members in the process showed me just how important this dual emphasis is for engaging the multi racial working class. We hosted dozens of volunteer events and phonebanks in which DSA members were working alongside unaffiliated muslim community members who had never heard of DSA. Their shared experience of working on a campaign brought thousands of new working class people into contact with DSA and showed them how hard we fight and how much we share their values.

What should the relationship between the national organization and local chapters look like--how should they engage each other and what role should NPC members take in shaping that relationship?

I believe there needs to be a well-understood reciprocal relationship of power between the national organization and local chapters. A visible and politically relevant national organization gives incredible leverage and credibility to local chapters. Likewise, strong local chapters that consistently win campaigns are the backbone of credibility to the national organization. Both need each other to keep growing and winning. Local chapters are not capable of playing a national role in the formation of a united front against facism. Likewise, the national organization has little influence or capacity to make the difference in local campaigns. Hostile relationships in either direction undermine the effectiveness of both. The national organization needs to exert and articulate its power to set national priorities, form national alliances, and engage the entire membership in critical campaigns. Local chapters need the power to make executive choices about the kinds of campaigns they run and how they engage in the political landscapes they are embedded in. I believe the NPC has a crucial role in communicating about the need for this reciprocal relationship to be healthy while supporting it by facilitating relationships both ways. The NPC has a crucial role to play in this relationship as visible leaders within DSA and externally. The NPC must champion the deepening of trust between local chapters and national, while leveraging the power of both to move the project of winning socialism forward.

Have you ever held a position within or on behalf of law enforcement (such as a police union organizer)? No

Co-Chair Candidates

Questions -

What resolutions and debates do you believe are most important at the 2025 convention, and how do these issues inform your candidacy and program for an NPC term?
What is the role and purpose of DSA in the United States today? Where do you see DSA five or ten years from now?
How is organizing in 2025 the same or different to Trump’s first term and how can DSA survive it? What should be the role of coalitions? How should our strategy and tactics change?
What would you prioritize when responding publically to a political crisis? (ie. Roe v Wade / Palestine)? How do you think the organization should mobilize in these moments? What messaging do you think is important to send a clear signal to the masses?
The NPC is a notoriously contentious body, what would you do to navigate and lead through political and interpersonal disagreements? How do you view conflict in relation to the org?
How do you envision the co-chair role operating and how would you prioritize your time and capacity? What skills or message do you want to leave with members and chapters? What about National DSA?
We are possibly entering into a period of growth for DSA. What will be important for DSA to maintain growth and hold onto members? What lessons have you learned from DSA’s previous years?

Alex Pellitteri

New York City, New York (He/Him)

What resolutions and debates do you believe are most important at the 2025 convention, and how do these issues inform your candidacy and program for an NPC term?

Oftentimes, debates at DSA convention are framed as “DSA should” such as “DSA should have a workers party”, “ DSA should be democratic” etc. We end up debating broad ideas rather than specific tactics. But the theme this year is slightly different: the questions we are facing are not just “should we?” but “how should we?” The NEC consensus resolution helps us answer “How should DSA build a political party?” and the guest organization section helps us answer “How should DSA prepare for May Day 2028?” We need political leaders who can not just win the battle of ideas, but also implement what is democratically passed at convention. I believe my experience as a YDSA chapter founder, NYC-DSA leader, campaign manager and at-large NPC member give me the experience to make concrete steps towards our goals.

What is the role and purpose of DSA in the United States today? Where do you see DSA five or ten years from now?

DSA's most urgent tasks are to build a new political party and bridge the socialist and labor movements. These ambitious goals should inform the political work we do. DSA's work also must meet the political moment. Right now millions of people are deeply unsatisfied with the Democratic Party and workers all over the country are revolting against their boss and forming unions. This is a clear opening for us to recruit thousands of new people to DSA and make significant movement toward our goals. We must spend the next 5-10 years taking concrete steps towards our goals and running confrontational campaigns that challenge the Democrats and investing in comrades organizing in their unions.

How is organizing in 2025 the same or different to Trump’s first term and how can DSA survive it? What should be the role of coalitions? How should our strategy and tactics change?

The biggest difference between Trump’s first and second term is his use of state violence. Trump has cracked down on immigrant communities and kidnapped elected officials and political leaders in an attempt to suppress working class movements. DSA must continue to be a leader in the movement against Trump while preparing for state repression both through police violence and lawfare. DSA leaders must thread the needle between standing strong and not opening ourselves up to unnecessary risk. Furthermore, DSA should work in coalition to support protests against the Trump administration that align with our values. While we must recognize that we have different goals than many progressive groups, we should seek to be the socialist pole of the movement against Trump while maintaining our autonomy and independence. In doing so, we can polarize people against the liberal establishment which has failed to provide a viable alternative to the far right.

What would you prioritize when responding publically to a political crisis? (ie. Roe v Wade / Palestine)? How do you think the organization should mobilize in these moments? What messaging do you think is important to send a clear signal to the masses?

DSA needs to do better on both comms and protest rapid responses. The NPC needs a clearer, efficient process for quickly releasing statements during moments of crisis. When the NPC has quickly drafted statements in the past, it often devolved into an unnecessarily complicated, contentious and exhausting process. As the only paid, full time political leaders in DSA, the co-chairs should take more of a responsibility in rapid response comms. In addition to statements, the co-chair should post videos on social media with the socialist responses to political crises, continue to draft op-eds and proactively reach out to media outlets and offer to provide quotations. This past term, multiple DSA chapters massively turned out, oftentimes on just a few hours notice, for the UAW strike, protests after October 7th, during the Palestine Solidarity Encampments, protests against the Trump inauguration and against the abduction of Mahmoud Khalil. National DSA should strive to provide chapters with the resources, mentorship and legal knowledge to be able to call and mobilize to a protest with just a few hours notice. Furthermore DSA should have more coordination between national leaders, elected officials and local chapters to ensure responses to crises complement each other and do not create disorganization.

The NPC is a notoriously contentious body, what would you do to navigate and lead through political and interpersonal disagreements? How do you view conflict in relation to the org?

For the last two years, NPC members in my caucus, Bread and Roses, have worked closely and productively with members of every other caucus. In fact, we have often been the ones to mediate conflict between other tendencies on the NPC. While we have worked to resolve differences in a principled way, we do not avoid conflict – it is a normal and healthy part of being in a political organization and is often inevitable when making political decisions. We have been on the losing side of many votes, so we know how to make the political case for our views, accept the loss, and then move on. However, when we are the deciding vote, we have to consider factors beyond our own narrow preferences, such as the impact our decision might have on the big-tent functioning of the organization. I’m proud that we led the NPC to a compromise decision on important debates such as the AOC endorsement, the anti-Zionist resolution, and staff funding. As co-chair, I would adopt a similar approach of preserving the big-tent nature of DSA and finding solutions that as many people as possible can be proud of.

How do you envision the co-chair role operating and how would you prioritize your time and capacity? What skills or message do you want to leave with members and chapters? What about National DSA?

I think the primary role of the co-chair should be to be an external figure for DSA. This requires frequent chapter visits, attending mass protests, participating in strikes and canvassing events, writing articles and representing DSA in various forms of media. Throughout my term on the NPC, I was proud to participate in historic events such as the Palestine Solidarity Encampments and the Zohran Mamdani campaign that is radicalizing thousands of people and growing the socialist movement. If elected co-chair, I would continue the same strategy of being highly present in movements and events that create energy for socialism and working-class power. I would also make changes to DSA’s media strategy. We often wait for media opportunities to approach us, but our co-chairs should be proactively searching for media opportunities and expand our scope to podcasts, TikTock shows etc. Further, the co-chairs should make an attempt to publically debate our right wing enemies and produce content that explains fundamentals of socialism and responds to current events that can easily be shared. As the only full-time paid elected leaders, co-chairs should represent DSA in coalition work and contribute to organizing mass protests across the country.

We are possibly entering into a period of growth for DSA. What will be important for DSA to maintain growth and hold onto members? What lessons have you learned from DSA’s previous years?

DSA has historically grown as a result of external political events such as the Bernie campaign, Black Lives Matter, the Trump election, or Palestine Solidarity Encampments. We should capitalize on these moments of struggle by being active participants in these movements and distinguishing ourselves from other liberal and progressive groups. We must make clear that while individual actions are important, joining DSA and engaging in mass political organizations is necessary for a long term change. In my experience, recent DSA members become more involved when they can easily plug into exciting organizing work. As a YDSA leader, we were able to grow our chapter because we ran an active campaign for free tuition where students were able to attend multiple weekly meetings, protests or canvasses. In addition to having inspiring projects, DSA members become more committed to the organization when they participate in the political deliberation and get ideological training through debates and study groups. Creating opportunities for new members to participate in political growth and learning must be a priority.

Megan Romer

At-Large, New York (She/Her)

What resolutions and debates do you believe are most important at the 2025 convention, and how do these issues inform your candidacy and program for an NPC term?

I think it’s exciting to see so many resolutions digging into the question of member democracy and member power. We know that democracy is about more than just voting, but developing the processes necessary for all of us to have meaningful roles in our collective work is a key task – especially for the vast majority of us who grew up steeped in the individualism of capitalist society. Our external work is critical – it’s how we grow our organization, develop stronger levers of power, and chip away at capitalism, but if we’re building upon weak, un-democratic foundations internally, we are dooming ourselves to failure. What does it mean to be a political party in a country where parties don’t really exist? How can we codify and standardize work so we stop reinventing the wheel while also supporting necessary assessments of local conditions? How do we ensure that our members – 80,000 and growing – have room and resources to develop the mass protagonism that is desperately needed as capitalism decays further into fascism? We’re tackling these questions in myriad ways but I think all of the proposals will bring about robust critique and debate; the marrow in the bones of our nascent party’s skeleton.

What is the role and purpose of DSA in the United States today? Where do you see DSA five or ten years from now?

With the exception of a handful of particularly democratic unions, DSA may well be the only formalized body in the USA that is building and practicing democracy on a mass scale. We know that we grow rapidly in moments of crisis, and the coming years will only bring more frequent and terrible crises, and our task is to turn these waves of power and energy and interest directly toward the capitalist class. Right now, this work is happening most effectively at the chapter level, and that local strength will continue to hold fast as chapters become more deeply entrenched in their local communities. When a not-yet-unionized worker in our town is fighting with their boss over wage theft or a tenant on our block is being evicted, we want DSA to be the ones they call for guidance and help. We want candidates for office scrambling to match and exceed our basic program in order to get the coveted DSA endorsement and all the might that comes with it. DSA should be the home for this organizing for any serious socialist in the country, and we should be reaching people whose politics are less developed or coherent (and the millions of working class people who have been told – and believe – that politics is not for them) and turn them into the protagonists in the class struggle. With the power of hundreds of thousands, and even millions, of engaged organizers, we can and will win the whole ball game.

How is organizing in 2025 the same or different to Trump’s first term and how can DSA survive it? What should be the role of coalitions? How should our strategy and tactics change?

Trump’s second term is more organized, more coherent, and more connected to a through-line of decades of right-wing power-building across the country. Our task is to fight fire with fire, at the most accelerated pace we can manage, building deep community networks everywhere, connecting broadly with oppressed people (particularly racialized minorities and the LGBTQ+ community) and find ways to demonstrate that DSA is a viable vehicle through which to identify and express grievances with the existing system and turn them into the fight for collective liberation. We must not pre-compromise with the Trump administration in advance; history teaches us that laws become very flexible under fascist governments, and poor people and especially communities of color know all too well that laws suddenly cease to exist when a police officer has trained his gun on someone. When we enter coalitions, we must prioritize expressing our solidarity with oppressed and marginalized people. Trump wants us to cower, to stand divided, and to protect ourselves at the end of the day, and while there may be comfort in coalitions with groups bearing politics that lean toward capitalist answers to capitalist problems, we know that there is no liberation there; uniting those who have been rendered voiceless and powerless under our socialist umbrella is necessary, now and always.

Socialist messaging should never equivocate; we must clearly identify the cause of the misery we find ourselves in (the capitalist system and the police and other state forces that it uses to violently oppress working people) and clearly identify a way out (organized, strategic mass action). We should be encouraging innovation on these fronts, and prioritizing identifying exciting and paradigm-shifting work that happens anywhere in the organization and ensuring that it is bubbled up to the national level, cohered into tools and resources that are usable anywhere, and disseminating it among the body of chapters and members. We are strongest in responding to crisis when we are well-organized to begin with, so continuing to put capacity behind developing new leaders everywhere is critical, not just for this crisis, but the next crisis that comes our way.

The NPC is a notoriously contentious body, what would you do to navigate and lead through political and interpersonal disagreements? How do you view conflict in relation to the org?

It’s genuinely difficult to navigate political disagreement between two people or two “sides” when both believe that their standpoint is critical for the literal survival of the working class. But when we are able to lean into this conflict in healthy, constructive ways, leading with our politics and remembering that at the end of the day, we’re all in DSA for a reason, we find that iron sharpens iron – we are all stronger for it, and the organization is, too. Dialectics in action! As co-chair, I’ve learned that sometimes you need to bob and weave and other times you need to take it on the chin, but even when facing behavior that is actively toxic, I have made efforts to turn the conflict back to a constructive place. And when that doesn’t work, I still try to show up in every space with a smile and a positive attitude, because that’s what a co-chair should do. I also remind myself (and others – how many chapter leaders have heard me say this?) that it is important to enter every conflict with the flexibility to change your mind when presented with new information or a better argument. Sometimes your opponent is right, and recognizing this is not just healthy but critical for our development of each other. Through this practice, we forge ourselves collectively into better organizers and better socialists.

How do you envision the co-chair role operating and how would you prioritize your time and capacity? What skills or message do you want to leave with members and chapters? What about National DSA?

In our first term, we were essentially developing our jobs around ourselves; building the proverbial plane as we flew it. A job description existed, and the resolution that created the co-chair positions in the first place, but many of the prescriptions were largely vague and we experimented a bit with how to best fulfill our mandate with very little oversight from the rest of the NPC. Our own organizing styles and capacities largely informed what work we’d take on, and I regret not pushing back more on the amount of administrative load that fell on me – managing (and nagging non-participating NPC members about) the vast majority of our asynchronous votes, answering emails from members, handling 1:1 outreach about upcoming events and trainings, etc. In my second term, I would like to prioritize more external-facing comms work (I have professional strategic comms experience), but remain committed to working hard to specifically connect with chapters about our shared project as much as possible. We have such an incredible body of members who are ready to be turned into organizers and organizers who are ready to be turned into leaders; prioritizing the political side of that work will always be where I gravitate.

We are possibly entering into a period of growth for DSA. What will be important for DSA to maintain growth and hold onto members? What lessons have you learned from DSA’s previous years?

We grow DSA through campaigns that meet the political moment and reach our communities, but without a strong retention and activation cycle, we will continue to see a predictable roller-coaster trajectory of member numbers. We now have some hard data that shows us that members who are quickly brought into the life of the chapter – learning how to engage in organizing work, practicing democracy collectively, having extensive opportunities for political education – are dramatically more likely to stick around after their first year. It is an urgent task to ensure that every chapter leader understands this and every chapter has some form of onboarding pipeline built and maintained. It’s not just enough to get wins, or to be the organization that’s the loudest when people get mad about the news: mass absorption is inevitable but mass protagonism must be carefully developed.

Ashik Siddique

Wilmington, NC (He/Him)

What resolutions and debates do you believe are most important at the 2025 convention, and how do these issues inform your candidacy and program for an NPC term?

I particularly hope we pass these resolutions that commit DSA to serious outward-facing campaigns to organize mass politics:

— “Fight Fascism, Build Socialism,” which would turn this NPC’s ad hoc Trump admin response efforts into a focused national campaign, with a clear mission to fight the right.

— “Unite Labor & the Left to Run a Socialist For President,” which would build a left-labor coalition for the 2028 presidential primary, and downballot candidates.

It’s necessary to pass the Democracy Commission’s slate of reforms, as a first step toward addressing major gaps across DSA’s structure that have been identified but unaddressed for many years. This represents a high degree of consensus from members through years of work.

I also believe it’s critical for the 2025 convention to expand internal democracy through the “One Member One Vote” (1m1v) proposals. These would allow all DSA members to give structured feedback on hot button issues, and feel invested in national leadership.

The NPC has often made contentious decisions on a small body, who are elected by delegates representing our chapters — most of whom do not hear from us again in any coherent way between conventions. Some of the most contentious decisions have been around federal electeds we endorsed (or not).

DSA’s leadership and federal endorsements should be decided by our full membership, not just delegates or officers, who often end up perpetuating DSA as the domain of insiders. 1M1V puts these powers in the hands of ALL members, inspired by reforms which recently revolutionized the UAW.

What is the role and purpose of DSA in the United States today? Where do you see DSA five or ten years from now?

Our role is to become an even more effective party surrogate in the United States, and learn from the successes of our comrades in mass left parties around the world in countering the rise of the far right, like MORENA in Mexico, La France Insoumise (LFI) in France, Die Linke in Germany, and the Workers’ Party (PT) in Brazil.

Within 5 years, I would like DSA to have developed core elements of a party apparatus, with fully independent organizing infrastructure that can co-govern with elected socialists at multiple levels of government—including a congressional slate of DSA cadre. This is within reach, if we continue extrapolating from what is working in the best developed Socialists in Office and electoral bloc formations in DSA, and particularly developing our own expertise in staff and fundraising operations.

Within 10 years, major strikes with mass participation from labor unions with socialist leadership will have won materially consequential, highly visible, and explicitly politicized victories toward a Green New Deal — like social housing, public power, and free public transit in major cities across the country. Many DSA chapters across the country will have such sustained blocs of Socialists in Office able to drive agendas in local government, that they meaningfully enact “sewer ecosocialism” agendas. These 5- 10- and 20-year programs transform cities into thriving working class havens that have great quality of life for growing local populations, resilience to climate shocks and massive internal migrations that are underway across the United States and around the world.

How is organizing in 2025 the same or different to Trump’s first term and how can DSA survive it? What should be the role of coalitions? How should our strategy and tactics change?

I've seen a thousand flowers bloom in DSA... and I've seen many of them die. Now it's time to tend the garden and grow some crops.

We now have 8 years of experience since DSA’s rapid growth in 2017 to learn from successes across our chapters to transform our whole organization. During Trump’s first term, many of us were new to organizing and in a mode of “let anyone do anything.” That often led to siloed work without a lot of follow-through, that did not sustain or keep engaging new members over time. We often ended up tailing coalitions led by foundation-funded nonprofits, or self-selecting activist groups without mass bases or democratic structures.

At this point, many of our chapters have enough confidence and strong enough internal democracy to set coherent strategies for outward-facing campaigns, leading politically with strong electoral programs and a deeper base in labor unions, so other organizations with aligned goals gravitate toward our power.

If we want to make it beyond 2028, and eventually contest federal offices with the full power of DSA, not just as junior partners in a coalition, DSA must support more chapters to build local proto-party organizations that bring together electoral, labor, and legislative organizing efforts, that organize to win on cost of living issues.

Using everything we’ve learned since Bernie’s first run in 2016, we can cultivate dozens of Zohrans nationwide, using media power to popularize our democratic socialist vision, and political power to bring it closer to reality.

Our ability to respond publicly to political crisis moments is a product of having strong baseline operations. We have to wage ideological warfare at the level of a national party, cutting through the scapegoating tactics that divide the working class and pointing outrage at where it belongs: capital.

At a baseline, our propaganda operations have to include highly produced social media and video content, digital publications that celebrate our organizing efforts and wins, a media team regularly securing hits in mainstream media, and highly consistent internal e-mail/texting operations that ensure our members are well informed and proud of DSA’s exciting wins across the whole org and always motivated to make the case to coworkers, family members, and neighbors to plug in. We have to define DSA on our terms not just to politics-followers, but the general public we must reach.

If we change DSA to build up these capacities, in moments of crises it will be much easier to mobilize action from masses of people in highly systematic ways. Our program “Workers Deserve More” has strong messaging as a basic platform, that includes much that could be adapted in crisis moments. We need to build up the comms apparatus to make sure masses of people actually hear parts of it in ways that resonate.

The NPC is a notoriously contentious body, what would you do to navigate and lead through political and interpersonal disagreements? How do you view conflict in relation to the org?

The highest political leadership body of DSA should aim for as much strategic unity and cohesion as possible. On the NPC, I’ve worked nonstop behind the scenes, and when needed in the spotlight, to build and represent consensus across DSA.

There has to be room for constructive disagreement in political leadership. Ideally, disagreements can help sharpen analysis and test each other to develop stronger organizing strategies. When conflict on the NPC has become highly pitched, usually it is because there was an accumulation of previously unaddressed issues that were not well communicated.

On the NPC we should be straightforward about the goals we’re trying to achieve, emphasize where we agree and can build consensus, and when we disagree, identify as clearly as possible where and how we disagree. Are the disagreements things we need to resolve now one way or another, in order to be able to follow through toward our goals? Or can we defer the disagreements until later on to meet more immediate shared goals? If we disagree on some things, can we still work constructively on other things we agree on?

The more we can clearly communicate on a leadership body, and keep checking in about where we align or disagree as we go along, the better we can work through conflicts while continuing to build our collective power.

How do you envision the co-chair role operating and how would you prioritize your time and capacity? What skills or message do you want to leave with members and chapters? What about National DSA?

As co-chair this past term, I’ve done all I could to publicly represent DSA at mass organizing events like the DNC and Trump inauguration protests, and mass rallies for Palestine. I also prioritized chapter visits to talk about DSA’s political leadership.

We must structure the roles to better prioritize representing DSA as media spokespeople, and regular internal communications highlighting our members’ active campaign work.

We have to constantly organize members into the vision:

Democratic Socialists are the ruling class’ worst nightmare — an ever-expanding, organized, militant mass movement turning the socialist horizon into America’s reality.

We’re passing transformative legislation that beats back the right and makes the center look like the joke it is, each hard fought campaign setting the stage for the next.

We’re seizing state power, kicking capitalists out of office by putting hundreds more socialists into office, who multiply our outside strength into increased power and tangible results.

We’re driving a revitalized, socialist labor movement, redefining what is possible for workers in the US to organize collectively.

We’re running multifaceted campaigns that unite all three.

How? Because we’re hundreds of thousands of members strong, and counting. Because our propaganda machine shatters expectations and makes the truth of DSA’s analysis undeniable. Because as Marx said, it’s not enough to understand the world. The point is to change it.

Not every socialist agrees on everything, but we can all agree on this: Socialists Must Lead. As Co-Chair, I’ll keep doing whatever it takes so we can lead together.

We are possibly entering into a period of growth for DSA. What will be important for DSA to maintain growth and hold onto members? What lessons have you learned from DSA’s previous years?

DSA has to move beyond laissez faire socialism: the passive fundraising, reactive recruiting, and overall comms chaos that defines us by our loudest moments instead of our best.

With much stronger mass communications and active recruitment drives, we can recruit many thousands of members to more than double over the next two years, beyond 150,000 DSA members across the country.

This is within our reach, and we should commit to transforming our capacity: with expanded labor and electoral organizing departments supporting strong campaigns across DSA; more full time organizers can be force multipliers to support DSA member-led organizing campaigns in chapters, particular regions, and perhaps statewide organizations; and seriously investing in building out our communications operations to hype our wins and inform and motivate our base — all to keep organizing in new DSA members at every level. We can keep strengthening how our strongest chapters operate, and raise the floor for how all chapters organize across the board.

Our current membership has the motivation to level up. Despite limited planning and less staff capacity from 2024-2025 compared to previous years, our solidarity dues drive and new member recruitment have resulted in over $1.4 million in new income for this year. With more dedicated planning, we are fully capable of raising millions of dollars to more than double our budget — so we can much more proactively keep recruiting, and collectively support a much larger range of the work to build the party. Socialist cash beats capitalist trash!