Zohran Mamdani’s mayoral win in New York forced many political observers to think, for the first time, of Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) as a serious and potentially formidable force in American political life.
For the more than one hundred DSA members who assembled in New Orleans for the third How We Win conference last weekend, that fact has long been clear. First organized in 2023 by the DSA Fund, the event has become a key annual gathering of socialist elected officials, legislative staffers, and organizers that showcases the breadth and depth of DSA’s growing political heft.
“To me, it’s a given at this point that the power of this movement can’t be underestimated,” says Willie Burnley Jr, the two-term Somerville city councilor coming off an unsuccessful mayoral run in the Massachusetts city. “It’s being seen locally, statewide, and across the country.”
It’s also being seen well beyond the coasts that commentators have often claimed socialists’ appeal is limited to. Among those milling about the Hilton Riverside Hotel’s St Charles ballroom last weekend were elected officials from the Mountain states, the Midwest, New England, the Pacific Northwest — even, most notably, the South, not exactly a region traditionally friendly to socialists.
Texas alone fielded three DSA elected officials, all from their respective city councils: Mike Siegel from Austin, elected in 2024; Sylvia Campos from Corpus Christi, reelected last year; and newly elected Ric Galvan from San Antonio, who did not personally attend but whose office was represented by his chief of staff.
Georgia’s second-ever socialist official, Kelsea Bond, weighed in on a debate about how socialists in power should approach the issue of law enforcement, while the only two socialist elected officials in all of North Carolina offered insights into working within what the conference’s programming termed “hostile” states — where the GOP dominates electorally and…
Auteur: Branko Marcetic
