The nation’s biggest socialist group has developed grassroots methods to elect numerous radicals such as New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani, giving it a playbook for the 2026 midterms.
The Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) had 13 endorsed candidates win on Nov. 4 after it led nationwide campaign support efforts, while two others are headed to runoff races, election results show. DSA chapters utilized door-knocking, fundraising, get-out-the-vote operations, social media promotion and phone outreach to voters, according to the group’s social media posts, event announcements and webpages. (RELATED: Mamdani’s Socialist Org Makes Progress Flooding Local Offices With Radicals Across US)
🌹 Mamdani wasn’t the only candidate backed by the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) to win local office last night.
Others are coming to a city council near you. 👇 pic.twitter.com/dNWAq4aSRT
— Hudson Crozier 🇺🇸 (@Hudson_Crozier) November 5, 2025
Aside from Mamdani, the DSA helped deliver wins in city legislative races for Frankie Fritz in Greenbelt, Maryland, Denzel McCampbell in Detroit, Michigan, Kelsea Bond in Atlanta, Georgia, Danny Nowell in Carrboro, North Carolina, Ayah Al-Zubi in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Daniel Atonna in Poughkeepsie, New York. Jorge DeFendini and Hannah Shvets also won common council seats in Ithaca, New York, with DSA support, as well as Minneapolis City Council candidates Robin Wonsley, Aisha Chughtai, Jason Chavez, and Soren Stevenson.
Nowell, Wonsley, Chughta and Chavez were incumbent candidates.
Joel Brooks and Jake Ephros will have their runoff city council elections in Jersey City, New Jersey, in December. The DSA has a two-hour fundraising session scheduled for the candidates on Sunday.
After the runoffs were announced, the DSA’s North New Jersey chapter boasted that it had knocked on more than 50,000 doors and made 100,000 phone calls to help Brooks and Ephros before Nov. 4. “Over 200 volunteers came together to knock on doors, make phone calls, and engage in conversations with residents about high rents, property taxes, expensive childcare costs, pedestrian safety, and a broken trash collection system that needs to be brought back under the control of the people of Jersey City,” the chapter wrote.
The DSA also raised more than $106,000, surpassing a $100,000 goal, for its “Socialist Cash Takes Out Capitalist Trash” campaign in support of Wonsley, Stevenson, Schneider, McCampbell, Ephros and Brooks, its website says.
Young Democratic Socialists of America (YDSA), the DSA’s college campus arm, also conducted outreach for Shvets, who is a Cornell student and will be the nation’s youngest DSA-backed legislator.
The DSA had its candidates running in “at least thirty” races on election night, the group’s publication Democratic Left said Nov. 3 without providing a complete list. The group’s “Current Endorsements” list also does not include every DSA-backed candidate from that night. The DSA’s national chapter did not respond to the DCNF’s request for comment. (RELATED: Mamdani’s Socialist Group Backs ‘Death To Imperialism’ Summit Praising North Korea)
@CornellYDSA @IthacaDSA employed innovative outreach tactics to reach a highly transient electorate with limited canvassing opportunities. DSA campaigns like Hannah’s are designing winning models to reach masses of people, and sets a historic precedent for @YDSA_.
— DSA (@DemSocialists) November 5, 2025
Much of the group’s effectiveness comes from talking points about the economy, Chris Talgo, a research fellow for the conservative Heartland Institute, told the DCNF. Talgo tracked the success of socialist campaigns in 2024 and saw Mamdani’s rise coming a mile away.
“I do think that Mamdani had a really slick campaign,” Talgo said. “He used TikTok, he … used simple slogans that made socialism sound feasible, but then, when you really dig into those problems that he is supposedly addressing, you realize that the government is typically the genesis of the problem in the first place.”
History is on conservatives’ side when it comes to socialism’s failures around the world, Talgo told the DCNF. Aside from groups such as Turning Point Action, the right does not have enough organized efforts to compete with the DSA during election season, he said. Turning Point Action did not respond to a request for comment from the DCNF.
Nov. 4 was not a clean sweep for the DSA’s candidates. Prominent socialist Omar Fateh lost in Minneapolis’ mayoral race, along with Minneapolis Parks and Recreation Board candidates Adam Schneider and Michael Wilson, Somerville, Massachusetts, mayoral contender Will Burnley Jr., and city council candidates in Reston, Washington, Tacoma, Washington, and Fort Collins, Colorado,
The DSA’s full 2026 game plan remains to be seen, but its Los Angeles, California, chapter has already named five endorsed candidates for city council and school board and is soliciting volunteers to help put them in office, its online posts show.
Talgo echoed Republican Senate Majority Leader John Thune’s warning that the GOP must form a winning message on the cost of living before the midterms if they do not want groups like the DSA seizing more power.
“Unfortunately, the DSA, their candidates like Mamdani, they do address that,” Talgo told the DCNF. “It’s just that their solutions are totally flawed and make it worse.”
All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.
