Each map below shows the share of the vote received by the DSA-endorsed candidate as a percentage of the total vote cast for DSA’s candidate and the most successful non-DSA candidate. Each endorsed election gets two maps: one showing the actual boundaries of the voting districts used to report the results and one with a circle for each precinct, scaled according to the number of votes cast.
Increasing the Minimum Wage in Renton, Washington
Seattle DSA and South King County DSA played a crucial role in a coalition to secure the nation’s highest minimum wage in Renton, Washington, a southeastern suburb of Seattle. The nationally endorsed ballot initiative passed in February with 58% of the vote, reinforcing minimum wage increases in Seattle and other Seattle suburbs.
Protecting the People’s Voice in Johnson City, Tennessee
Voters in Johnson City, a town of a little more than 70,000 in east Tennessee, voted in August on a series of Chamber of Commerce-backed amendments to the City Charter that a coalition including Northeast Tennessee DSA campaigned against on the grounds they undermined democratic accountability. For a summary of the four measures, check out the campaign website.
The first measure, reducing required advertising notifying residents about proposed city budgets, failed narrowly, 51-49. The remaining measures failed 59-41. In all of the elections, opposition clustered around the campus of Eastern Tennessee State University in the southern part of Johnson City.
I believe these ballot initiatives bring Red Atlas up to date with all the nationally endorsed campaigns so far in 2024 — with one exception. Marek Broderick, a leader of University of Vermont’s YDSA chapter, won a seat representing Ward 8 on the Burlington City Council in March. The race is interesting because Broderick defeated a Democratic Party backed incumbent with the support of the Vermont Progressive Party, a third party that contends with Democrats for control of Burlington city government.
There is, however, only one precinct in the 8th Ward, so I’m going to leave this visualization as a project for the reader. You can find Ward 8 here. On the scale between DSA black and DSA red used to create these maps, Broderick’s 57.19% of the vote would be represented by the hex code #fcdbdd. Use your imagination!
Delaware DSA unseats incumbent
Delaware DSA expanded its endorsed representation on Wilmington City Council with the election of Coby Owens, a former member of the chapter’s steering committee, by a very narrow margin in the Democratic primary in September. Another endorsee, Shané Nicole Darby, overcame a primary challenge to keep a seat she was appointed to in 2020. A third Delaware DSA-endorsed candidate, James Dahlke, failed to advance to the general.
Delaware DSA endorsees also maintained their presence in the Delaware State House, with Rep. Eric Morrison seeing off a challenger and Reps. Madinah Wilson Anton and Larry Lambert running unopposed.
Delaware DSA’s endorsed candidate for New Castle County Council president, Val Gould, came third in the Democratic primary with 20% of the vote (it was a crowded field — the lead candidate won with 27% of the vote).
Wayne County
Detroit DSA endorsed two candidates for the state house in bordering districts west of Detroit in Wayne County: incumbent and “Red for Ed” teacher strike organizer Dylan Wegela and Layla Taha, a staffer for U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaid. Wegela won reelection with 74% of the vote. Taha lost to incumbent Peter Herzberg 54-32.
New York State
A well-funded primary challenge failed to unseat Rep. Sarahana Shrestha, the only up-state member of the growing socialist slate in Albany. Shrestha, endorsed by Mid-Hudson Valley DSA, won with two-thirds of the vote.
DSA-LA Defends Nithya Raman, Advances Challengers to General
Los Angeles City Council has the biggest municipal legislature districts in the country, with a population of about a quarter million each. DSA-LA-endorsed incumbent Nithya Raman confidently saw off a concerted challenge, winning 50.6% of the vote and the absolute majority necessary to avoid a top-two run-off in the general.
DSA-LA also backed tenant’s rights attorney Ysabel Jurado’s challenge against incumbent Kevin de León. De León is an influential California politicians made newly vulnerable after audio leaked of his participation in a conversation about redistricting with other politicos where participants made disparaging remarks about a remarkable variety of racial and ethnic groups (and plotted against DSA-backed candidates Raman and Council-member Hugo Soto-Martínez). Jurado led the field with 24.5% of the vote and will advance with de León, with 23.4%, to a run-off in November.
A locally endorsed candidate for the school board of Los Angeles Unified School District, the largest school district in the country, also advanced to a run-off. Endorsee Karla Griego led runner-up Graciela Ortiz 37-29.
Coming Up
These California races provide a natural lead-in to the next project in the series: mapping out general election results. In general, DSA candidates run in blue districts where a Republican opponent, if they exist, are unlikely to be a threat, making the results less interesting — but top-two primaries mean DSA-LA’s endorsees that did not break 50% will have meaningful general elections. Further up the California coast-line, San Francisco DSA will be working to defend San Francisco Supervisor Dean Preston and elect Jackie Fielder to the Board of Supervisors in the face of a tidal wave of Silicon Valley cash.
Once ballots are counted and the data is available, we’ll summarize the results from DSA’s results on Nov. 5. As always, if there are locally endorsed races I have missed, please let me know at [email protected].