The Big Idea: Winning

win·ning

verb

1 . to obtain by work 

2. to be the victor

What, like it’s hard?

Winning elections has, historically, been difficult for socialists in the United States. Less than 1% of Congress identifies as democratic socialists. Just two years ago, the Left suffered high-profile losses after a consortium of corporations and pro-Israel donors spent an unprecedented amount of money in congressional primaries to unseat former Reps. Cori Bush (D-Mo.) and Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.). So when on June 23, just six months into Zohran Mamdani’s tenure as mayor of New York City, his entire endorsed slate of democratic socialist candidates, including two now-likely congresswomen, won their New York primaries, the national press took notice, and many members of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) looked up from their billionaire-controlled social media feeds with a revelation. Winning feels great. Let’s keep doing it.

But isn’t electoralism pointless in our two-party system?

Let’s run the numbers. The day Mamdani launched his campaign in October 2024, the New York City chapter of DSA had 5,910 members. Today, there are more than 15,000— thousands more people willing to make dues payments to propel the socialist movement forward. 

The trajectory is similar for national DSA. Some 50,000 members in 2024 have grown to nearly 130,000 as of August, and over 12,000 of those members have joined since the June NYC primaries. The DSA chapter in Washington, D.C., meanwhile, gained more than 1,000 dues-paying members during Janeese Lewis George’s successful bid for mayor, and chapters in Denver, Colo. and Madison, Wis. have similarly surged in the process of backing Melat Kiros’s victorious Congressional primary campaign and Francesca Hong in her ongoing bid for governor, respectively. Winning means growing, and growing quickly. Plus, Mamdani has already proven democratic socialist governance can deliver non-electoral victories for working people. Most notably, in June, his coalition won a rent freeze for over 2 million NYC rent-stabilized tenants. That’s millions who can now say their lives were materially improved by a democratic socialist. So, why not win? 

Fine, winning rocks. When’s the next one? 

Democratic socialists are on the ballot from now until November — from Hong in Wisconsin to Oliver Larkin running for Congress in Florida to Nithya Raman running for mayor of Los Angeles. But perhaps Mamdani himself said it best on the eve of his slate’s decisive victory. ​“When does the race for 2028 begin?” Mamdani asked his growing army of DSA members. ​“It starts now.”