Democratic Socialists scored a landslide victory in New York’s primary on Tuesday, as two members of the Democratic Socialists of America failure Democratic establishment elections in parliamentary primaries, and several others won in the state parliamentary primaries.
The victory suggested that the election of DSA member Zohran Mamdani as mayor of New York City last year was no fluke. Democratic socialism has become a real force to be reckoned with not only in New York – but in several cities across the country.
In Washington, DC, DSA member Janeese Lewis George won a resounding victory in the Democrats’ mayoral primary last week, making him sure to be the next mayor of the district.
In Seattle, Mayor Katie Wilson, who defeated incumbent mayor Bruce Harrell last year, is a self-identified democratic socialist. And in Los Angeles, city council member Nithya Raman, a member of the DSA, advanced to the November runoff against Mayor Karen Bass.
DSA has also elected several members of the city councils of New York, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, Chicago, Portland (Oregon), San Antonio, and more. And they have elected a handful of state legislators in many states – most of them from urban districts.
But winning beyond blue-collar urban areas — in the suburbs, rural areas, and in statewide contests — is a bigger challenge.
That’s true even in New York, where on Tuesday, establishment-backed Democrats easily swept left-leaning opponents in the race of the ruler of the state and in the most competitive state of the GOP held Home district. (DSA did not endorse it in any of those races – probably in part because they thought they had little chance of winning.) Mamdani’s favorability ratings statewide. not particularly interesting or, considering New York is a blue state.
So what are the main reasons why DSA has worked in big cities – and what do those reasons tell us about whether it can continue elsewhere?
A discredited establishment, an empowered opposition, and a left-leaning base
Cities, of course, have long voted heavily for Democrats. But the rise of democratic socialists is a more recent phenomenon – occurring gradually over the past decade or so, before its explosion last year.
In many cases, the takeover followed a pattern – there was a deteriorating Democratic establishment that had been in power for some time, and which had come out with concerns of its increasingly left-leaning base.
“The institutions of the Democratic Party that have traditionally been responsible for providing goods and services and representation to the people have failed,” said Asad Dandia, a public historian from Brooklyn.
As the party machines seemed empty, the DSA tried to fill the void by organizing – something they were very successful at in New York.
“The NYC DSA is the crown jewel of all the DSA networks around the country,” interviewer Adam Carlson told me. “My understanding is that it’s just as much of a joke – they’re out in the community, they’re talking to people.”
This led to some DSA successes in the late 2010s, such as the election of Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) to Congress. But the years of the Biden administration brought excitement to the party.
Then, in the last few years, a confluence of political changes revived the hopes of socialists – discrediting the Democratic establishment in the eyes of many of its voters. Israel’s war with Gaza has become a moral test for many on the left. And the party’s failure to prevent Trump from returning to power — followed by his crackdown on immigration and other crises — fueled a desire for change.
All this happened amid the issue of affordability and the cost of living in the post-Covid economy – something millennials and boomers living in expensive cities felt keenly. And many came to see the establishment of the party as representing the status quo.
“DSA is largely made up of young people – people in their 20s and 30s – who are mostly university educated and renters,” said Dandia. “I fit myself into this category. We don’t have access to the resources and the wealth and our needs to achieve the American dream. We’re stuck being permanent renters. We’d like to move forward in life, just like everyone else has, and we haven’t had the opportunity to do that because of this inequality.”
So in several cities now, democratic socialists have fielded young, progressive “reform” candidates who have channeled the discontent of many voters with Democratic institutions in their cities and nationally — and promised something new, while an increasingly out-of-touch establishment was defending the past.
“You have a very strong network of left activists who know how to put together an underground game, where on the moderate side there is a vacuum,” said Jordan Weissmann of the Progressive Policy Institute (who has sympathy for moderates). “What left-wing organization should give any kind of weight to the DSA? None.”
But can it play elsewhere?
Democratic socialists have won mayors of major cities and parts of city councils, and will have several members of Congress. But winning elsewhere will be more of a challenge.
“Possibly, our election victory is so close to blue cities and blue states, that’s not surprising,” DSA national co-chair Megan Romer told me. “We are not blind to this. It is something that is being worked on.”
Suburbs and rural areas are less Democratic than cities, but even Democrats there are older and typically less left-leaning, and different issues matter to them – for example, they’re more likely to own a home. “Homeowners don’t want to rock the boat too much,” Carlson said.
“We talk a lot about housing rights and housing policy, and that has more to do with people living in apartment complexes and with multiple homeowners,” Romer said. “We have to figure out, okay, what policies do we have that can work here?” He pointed to opposition to data centers as one possibility.
Carlson also mentioned the logistical difficulties of planning outside of cities, in areas where the population is very small and many people are concentrated: “I won’t say it’s impossible. But as it stands right now, without some kind of national unity force behind it, like a presidential campaign, or maybe a nationwide campaign – it’s hard to see.”
Even in the cities, there is a big question about how socialists will survive in the long run, as they move from the opposition group to the leading group. Can they really handle the cost of a life crisis and prove they can handle the snow hills the next time a blizzard rolls through?
Mamdani is well aware of the stakes of the broader leftist movement in how well his city is doing now that it is in the spotlight. He identifies himself as a “sewage socialist” – a term for elected members of society in the early 20th century who emphasized their competence in providing basic services such as sanitation and health care over a larger ideological struggle. And he has been very prudent in his administration, including keeping his predecessor’s police chief.
So far, it’s working, but there are recent examples of local governments electing well-intentioned developers and failing to deliver. Weissmann pointed to San Francisco, which had a left-leaning government for years, as one example where “administrators took the time to prepare and build a coherent vision for responding to the city’s problems” — and then regained power. Mayor Daniel Lurie has maintained his popularity since winning in 2024 – his approval rating was in the 70s one vote this year – while emphasizing public safety and new housing affordability initiatives.
It’s one thing to be a “reform” group capitalizing on voter dissatisfaction with the establishment. It is a completely different challenge to keep those voters happy, and to solve their problems, once you are an institution. If socialists hope to succeed outside the cities, the first step is probably to prove that they can govern the cities well.
