Democratic Socialists of America Are Seeing Surge in Membership

The leaders of Democratic Socialists of America chapters are seeing a boost in energy ahead of November’s midterms.

That momentum is on the heels of primary wins by New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani-endorsed candidates Darializa Avila Chevalier, Claire Valdez and Brad Lander in New York. Earlier this week in Colorado, Melat Kiros beat out another House incumbent, fueling speculation that this is the ascendant wing of the Democratic Party.

Chapter leaders say they’re feeling that energy on the ground. They’re getting interest from voters, new members, and people interested in running for office.

“We’ve been making the point for a decade that we need progressive fighters, and the Democrat party apparatus and leadership have been very, very resistant to that idea,” said Salem King, a co-chair for Land of Lincoln DSA in Illinois. “Since 2024, seeing the profound lack of action, the lack of effective care from the Democrat party leadership, has forced the vast majority of Democrats in this country to come to that realization that yeah, the Democrat party is wholly insufficient for the present moment.”

Several DSA leaders emphasized that an endorsement from the organization is not just adding a logo to a campaign poster. It gets a candidate access to an entire volunteer base of leaders, canvassers and door-knockers.

And the enthusiasm around some of their candidates is only growing that infrastructure.

Grace Mausser, co-chair of New York City’s DSA chapter, told NOTUS that the chapter gained about 500 members in the weeks after the primary election.

“As we grow, our capacity grows quite a bit. So with this last cycle running 10 races in New York City alone, and winning nine of those, we now have a crop of both seasoned organizers who have more experience than ever and new organizers who now have significant campaign experience, and can bring that into the next cycle,” Mausser told NOTUS.

On Tuesday, Kiros, a DSA-backed candidate, unseated a 15-term incumbent in a Denver-area congressional district.

The local DSA chapter helped the campaign grow to more than 6,500 volunteers who knocked on more than 100,000 doors and made more than 500,000 calls, a spokesperson for Kiros’ campaign told NOTUS.

“It’s more about the policies than the label,” the spokesperson told NOTUS. “And they are some really important DSA-backed policies, like Medicare for All, like universal child care, these kinds of universal, basic, fundamental programs that are just extremely popular with Americans, whether they identify as socialist or not.”

While the New York and Colorado races have been among the most high-profile, progressives have clocked several other wins this primary cycle. Janeese Lewis George won her primary in Washington’s mayoral race, state Rep. Chris Rabb won his primary for a House seat in Pennsylvania against state Sen. Sharif Street and City Council member Nithya Raman advanced to a runoff for Los Angeles’ mayoral race against incumbent Karen Bass.

The national DSA party did not answer questions from NOTUS. Some progressive and DSA-backed lawmakers on the Hill are enthusiastic about the results so far.

“It’s not complicated. Progressives and democratic socialists are winning elections because the vast majority of the American people understand that status quo politics and policies are not working,” Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) said in a statement after the results in New York City.

Bullish because of the recent wins, organizers are eyeing other seats across the country. High on the list of DSA candidates are Oliver Larkin, who is running for a House seat in a newly drawn Florida district against Rep. Jared Moskowitz, and Francesca Hong, who is running for the open gubernatorial seat in Wisconsin. These are the types of areas, leaders say, that could quash the belief that DSA can only win in blue cities.

“When we win in the areas that are easier for us to win, we get a chance to show what it’s like for a DSA to be in governance,” Joshua Sisman, communications coordinator for Boston DSA, told NOTUS. “And I think people can look at the examples that we have in the more metropolitan areas, and that builds that trust and it builds that interest in the areas that we still aren’t as strong in.”

Within the Democratic Party, DSA members face skeptics, who are worried that the energy for DSA-backed candidates will translate into a liability for candidates trying to win competitive seats.

Already, Republicans are attacking the candidates for trying to bring a progressive wave from metropolitan areas to other parts of the country that don’t share their worldview.

But organizers say it’s not DSA alone that brings leftist candidates to Congress, but the voters themselves.

“A lot of the things that are in our platform that we advocate for are supported by the broad swath of the Democratic Party, the Democratic Party voters. When we win these races, we are showing that that’s what the people, the voters, want,” Hadley Anthony, a steering committee member for Baltimore’s DSA, told NOTUS.