By Chelle Kramer, Founder and Host, CHELLESHOCKED™ STUDIO
Three letters keep popping up in the news: DSA. They stand for the Democratic Socialists of America. Its members now include New York City’s mayor, and its endorsed candidates have won congressional primaries across the country. So who are they, what do they believe, and where are they going? I’m going to let them answer in their own words, and you can decide for yourself.
Facts at a glance
- Founded: March 1982, in Detroit, under Michael Harrington.
- Size: AP reported 126,000 members on Oct. 8, 2026. DSA said it passed 120,000 on July 4, 2026.
- Platform: “Workers Deserve More,” written in 2026.
- Big goals: “draft a new constitution,” “abolish the Senate,” “Abolish ICE.”
- Strategy: run as Democrats now, with a planned “dirty break” to form their own party later.
- Next test: the Nov. 3, 2026 general election.
Who they are
DSA’s own history page says delegates from two groups “met in Detroit in March 1982 to form Democratic Socialists of America,” sharing “Michael Harrington’s perpetual optimism that corporate irresponsibility would give rise to popular demands for democratic control over the economy.”
They aren’t small anymore. On Oct. 8, 2026, the Associated Press reported that “nationwide DSA membership more than doubled to 126,000 in the past two years” (AP via the Seattle Times). On July 5, DSA posted on X: “On July 4, 2026, Democratic Socialists of America passed 120,000 members, making us the largest socialist organization in United States history” (Daily Signal).
They chose to announce that on our nation’s 250th birthday.
DSA is run by a National Convention, and between conventions by a National Political Committee. Its constitution calls the committee “the collective leadership and the highest decision-making body of the organization between meetings of the Convention.” It also has a youth wing, YDSA, which describes itself as “more than 150 chapters and OCs.”
What they believe, in their own words
You don’t have to guess. Here’s DSA’s own website, on its “What is Democratic Socialism?” page:
“Capitalism is a system designed by the owning class to exploit the rest of us for their own profit. We must replace it with democratic socialism.”
The same page says, “We want to collectively own the key economic drivers that dominate our lives, such as energy production and transportation.”
Their constitution says: “We are socialists because we reject an economic order based on private profit.” It calls for “popular control of resources and production, economic planning, equitable distribution.”
Their 2026 national program, “Workers Deserve More,” spells out the details. A few planks, word for word:
- Business: “Establish public ownership of the largest corporations and essential industries.”
- Taxes: “Enact aggressive wealth taxes on the richest individuals and corporations.”
- Police: “Demilitarize police departments, disempower police unions, and redirect funding to public services as steps towards fully abolishing the police and prison system.”
- Immigration: “End ICE detention and deportations… Legalize migration, grant amnesty for all immigrants regardless of status.”
- Voting: “Extend full voting rights to all permanent U.S. residents.”
- Israel: “End all military and economic aid to Israel.”
- Health care: “Guarantee universal healthcare at no cost to individuals, including complete access to reproductive and gender-affirming care.”
The end game
This is the part most people miss. The program doesn’t stop at policy. It goes after the structure of our government:
“Abolish the Electoral College. Replace the President and Supreme Court with an executive and judiciary chosen by and subordinate to Congress.”
And:
“Replace the two-party system with a multi-party democracy. Expand the House of Representatives, implement proportional representation and ranked choice voting in all elections, and abolish the Senate.”
The program also states its final goal plainly: “We are workers fighting to transform society: to win the battle for democracy, draft a new constitution, and create a democratic socialist republic.” It adds that “complete victory will require building a new society from the ground up.”
To be fair, not everyone in DSA describes it as a demolition job. The co-chair of the Austin chapter told the AP, “Abolish is not ‘get rid of this and start from scratch.’” And AP reported that national co-chair Megan Romer acknowledged that “some of the proposals, like abolishing borders and prisons, would be considered parts of a long-term plan” (PBS/AP).
A long-term plan is still a plan.
How they’re doing it
Running as Democrats, for now. DSA candidates use the Democratic ballot line, but they don’t plan to stay. A Rochester DSA account of their 2025 national convention says: “A future ‘dirty break’ from the Democrats is core to DSA’s identity.” Delegates passed a resolution committing DSA “to the goal of becoming an independent mass socialist party.” They also resolved to “identify, recruit, and support a viable democratic socialist candidate for President” in 2028.
Inside unions. DSA’s “Rank-and-File Strategy” says “without a large, confident, well-organized working class movement, we cannot get close to socialism,” and calls for socialists to “foment badly needed class struggle.”
Door to door. AP’s look at the Austin chapter describes a meeting that “started with detailed training on how to observe and take video of immigration enforcement.” The chapter “knocked on roughly 7,000 doors” for a city council candidate.
A litmus test on Israel. At their 2025 convention, DSA passed a resolution called “For a Fighting Anti-Zionist DSA.” The Cleveland chapter lists its “red lines” for endorsed candidates, starting with “Public support of the BDS movement.” Middle East Eye reported that it passed “with a 56 to 43 percent vote” and “makes supporting Israel an expellable offence.”
Where they’re winning
New York City. Zohran Mamdani, now mayor, said in his victory speech: “I am a democratic socialist. And most damning of all, I refuse to apologize for any of this.” His Rent Guidelines Board then voted to freeze rents on stabilized apartments at “0% for one-year leases and 0% for two-year leases” (amNY).
Congress. According to Ballotpedia, “Across 107 primary elections in 2026, DSA-endorsed candidates… won 61 elections (57%) and lost 46 (43%).” Primary winners include Melat Kiros in Colorado, Donavan McKinney in Michigan, and Darializa Avila Chevalier and Claire Valdez in New York. Vox describes Avila Chevalier as “a DSA member who argues that deportation is wrong and supports prison abolition.” Not everyone won: former Rep. Cori Bush lost her Missouri primary (Missouri Independent).
Big-city mayors. D.C. Council member Janeese Lewis George won the D.C. mayoral primary in June. In Los Angeles, the LA Times reports that “Nithya Raman and city attorney hopeful Marissa Roy, both democratic socialists, are heading into the Nov. 3 general election.”
AOC. DSA confirmed Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez rejoined “in August 2026” after her membership had “lapsed, in 2019” (City & State). DSA chapters are now passing resolutions urging her to run for president in 2028 (Jacobin).
Remember: those primary wins aren’t seats yet. The general election is Nov. 3.
The fights inside and out
Even their biggest win comes with friction. After ICE shot and arrested a man in Marble Hill this month, NYC-DSA put out this statement: “ICE is a terrorist agency that must be expelled from New York City and abolished… If the commissioner can’t put a stop to these injustices, she must be fired.” Mamdani’s office answered, “Jessica Tisch is the police commissioner and there are no plans to change that” (Gothamist).
Inside the organization, some members warned the Israel resolution’s ambiguity could “be used for politically motivated expulsions” (Rochester DSA).
On the right, House Speaker Mike Johnson wrote, “Communism is no longer a far fetched threat. It is here on our SHORES!” (PBS/AP). Some Democrats are pushing back too. Former DNC chair Jaime Harrison wrote, “if you hate the Democratic Party, then please don’t run for our nomination.”
Why it matters
Polling shows this isn’t a fringe idea anymore. AP reported that “about one-quarter of U.S. adults consider themselves a supporter of democratic socialism.”
So here’s my bottom line. You don’t need to exaggerate what DSA wants. Just read it. They want public ownership of the largest corporations, no Senate, a president and Supreme Court picked by Congress, and “a new constitution.” That isn’t a tweak. It’s a different country. Whatever you think of it, you deserve to know it before you vote on Nov. 3.
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Chelle Kramer, Founder and Host, CHELLESHOCKED™ STUDIO
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