Since 2016, NYC-DSA has built one of the strongest socialist projects in the United States within the last century. That’s resulted in a small but mighty Left bloc in the city and state legislative bodies. In 2019, Julia Salazar, our first elected state senator, helped pass historic tenant protections alongside a statewide housing movement; a few years later we passed the Build Public Renewables Act to make New York state commit to building significant green energy.  State Senator Kristen Gonzalez, former member of our tech action working group’s organizing committee, collaborates with that same working group to craft legislation to regulate artificial intelligence. The organization also hosts sports clubs, game nights at unionized stores, protests for a ceasefire in Gaza, and repeatedly stands with Amazon, Starbucks, and UPS workers in their labor struggles. Our organization is still less than 0.1% of New York City’s eight million people, but if a working class person is seeking community and a way to build political power, NYC-DSA offers both.

The robustness of organizational life is reflected within our electoral working group’s rigorous multi-step endorsement process. Mamdani’s mayoral campaign received 80% support across our geographic branches and nearly 90% at our bi-annual convention. That consistently high level of support within the organization represents thousands of potential volunteers and reflects democratic strength hard to find within any electoral campaign in the U.S. This collective decision to endorse forces our timid progressive peers to reconsider their pivot to the center and provides an opening for new organizers upset with the city’s political status quo to enter into our struggle. This is not a protest campaign where getting 3% could be considered a success. The opportunity is in front of us to establish a credible socialist, not merely “populist,” politics, within the Democratic Party. 

Six months from the primary election, the campaign’s already gotten off to a stronger start than many, even internally, imagined. Mamdani raised over a third of a million dollars, completed a successful round of media interviews, and went semi-viral by talking to democratic voters who either voted Trump or declined to vote altogether. Mamdani’s plans for a rent freeze, free buses, and universal afterschool programs address economic concerns of working class voters directly. They are credible demands for which he, or whoever wins the mayoralty, can be held to account. 

After the defeat of Kamala Harris by Donald Trump, Democratic media figures and voters are now in their regularly scheduled post-election identity crisis. While pundits debate who should be the chair of Democratic National Committee, and the Left harangues Democrats about their loss of working class voters, NYC-DSA has seized this moment of growth on the Left to see if we can put a pro-working class socialist in Gracie Mansion. Anyone on the Left interested in breaking beyond this political noise and wanting to contest power should keep a close eye on Mamdani’s campaign and NYC-DSA. 

It’s within the Democratic Party primaries that NYC-DSA’s won over ten local races the last six years, but we aren’t simply handing them over to the city or state Democratic Parties. Through our Socialists in Office committees and internal structures we collaborate with our electeds. And while working within the Democratic Party primary system isn’t without bumps and disagreements, it hasn’t limited the organization’s ability to engage in labor and tenant struggles. Hundreds of members across the city hit doors for Mamdani on a cold December Saturday. Less than a week later, people were standing on the picket lines with striking Amazon Teamsters and Starbucks baristas. The independent power we’ve built will allow us, no matter the outcome, to take the lessons and successes and spread them throughout the rest of the organization’s work. 

There is rightfully a lot of anger at the “Democratic Party” and “Democrats” after the loss of Kamala Harris. But that shouldn’t be conflated with their base, especially in New York City where registered democrats vastly outnumber Republicans or independents. Mamdani is letting his bold economic agenda create the daylight between him and his peers, hoping to show, as Bernie’s campaigns did in 2016 and 2020, there is a desire for working class politics within this coalition of voters. Liberals, with their influence in civic institutions and unions, will be a core part of any coalition that holds city power. An overzealous rejection of Democratic voters would leave us proselytizing towards uninterested, if not hostile, parts of the electorate while saying to the largest organized parts of the city’s working class that we don’t need them. That cannot be a path for any kind of mass politics in this city or country. 

NYC-DSA will be a major force in this campaign as it develops, but it won’t be the only one. This should be comforting, not frightening, as we see an opportunity to build beyond our growing minority movement. Our orientation towards this race should remain committed to victory, strengthening our organization, and identifying what working class organizations and strongly knitted communities are receptive to our message. This race gives a key opening to orient the Democratic primary base, and hopefully, the general electorate, toward socialist politics beyond 2025.

Signed articles express the opinions of the authors and not necessarily those of DSA as an organization.