Michael Lachenmeyer is a 27-year-old from Springfield, Massachusetts, running for State House in the 12th Hampden District. While in college, he founded a chapter of the Indivisible Movement — the anti-Trump resistance network that organized mass protests after the 2016 election. After college, he moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma, where he led a hub for the “revolutionary climate-focused” Sunrise Movement.

Lachenmeyer is an active member of River Valley Democratic Socialists of America.

Lachenmeyer’s Anti-ICE Activism

On January 9, 2026, Lachenmeyer called on the Massachusetts State Legislature to “urge our Congressional delegation to abolish ICE” at a vigil for Renee Good, a woman killed when she was shot by an ICE officer. He wrote on Facebook, “I call on the Massachusetts State Legislature to urge our Congressional delegation to abolish ICE….”

One week later, on January 16, Lachenmeyer visited The Sweet Boutique in East Longmeadow—a bakery that used cookies to protest ICE—and posted on Instagram: “The Sweet Boutique in East Longmeadow took a clear stand this week by using their cookies to protest the most violent ‘law enforcement’ agency in modern American history.”

River Valley DSA Ties to CCP-Linked Groups

River Valley DSA, his local DSA chapter, endorsed Lachenmeyer in August 2026. National DSA also endorsed him. In a March 6 Instagram post, River Valley DSA promoted a March 7 “Stop the War on Iran” rally in West Springfield. The event graphic listed River Valley DSA as an endorser alongside the ANSWER Coalition, the Party for Socialism and Liberation’s River Valley branch, and CODEPINK.

The Party for Socialism and Liberation is a Marxist-Leninist communist party that split from Workers World Party in 2004. PSL has defended North Korea’s government, Syria under Bashar al-Assad, and Venezuela under Nicolás Maduro. The ANSWER Coalition was founded in 2001 and shares overlapping leadership with PSL. CODEPINK is a radical anti-war feminist group founded in 2002 that has disrupted congressional hearings, defended Venezuela’s Hugo Chávez and Nicolás Maduro, opposed sanctions on Iran, and sent delegations to meet with officials from adversarial regimes. CODEPINK co-founder Medea Benjamin has praised Cuba’s government and met with Iranian officials.

In June 2025, Republican members of the House Oversight Committee opened an inquiry into reports concerning billionaire Neville Roy Singham’s funding of PSL and his connections to a wider activist network that the committee said included ANSWER and CODEPINK. The inquiry was a congressional investigation, not a finding that the organizations acted on behalf of the Chinese government.

A separate House committee cited nonprofit records indicating that, since 2017, more than $1.4 million, approximately one-quarter of CODEPINK’s donations, had come from two Singham-linked organizations. Singham resides in China and is married to CODEPINK co-founder Jodie Evans.

On April 30, 2024, River Valley DSA posted on Instagram that it “stands with Popular University for Gaza at UMass.” The chapter also posted an image showing a “Democratic Socialists” banner carried alongside a sign reading “Fund Sex Change Defund Israel.”

River Valley DSA said in July 2026 that it had reached 500 members across Hampden, Hampshire and Franklin counties. In November 2025, two chapter-endorsed candidates won local races: Jill Brevik secured a seat on the Amherst Town Council, while Tom Hendrickson won reelection to the Agawam City Council.

The Race and Who Endorsed Lachenmeyer

Lachenmeyer has been endorsed by National DSA, River Valley DSA, UAW Region 9A, Act on Mass, Progressive Massachusetts, Progressive Voters Network, Run for Something and CAIR Action. CAIR Action describes itself as a 501(c)(4) affiliate of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, the alleged Muslim Brotherhood front group. CAIR Action allegedly illegally solicited funds tied to NYC DSA candidates

A September 1 victory would make Lachenmeyer the Democratic nominee for the 12th Hampden District. If he wins the November 3 general election, River Valley DSA would gain its first state legislator after electing two chapter members to local office in 2025.

His candidacy also places greater scrutiny on the chapter’s coalition activity, including its endorsement of a rally alongside PSL, ANSWER and CODEPINK, as well as Lachenmeyer’s backing from CAIR Action.

Meet Heather Deiner, a Clinical Trial Associate from Manchester, New Hampshire, running as a Democratic Socialist for the New Hampshire State House, District Hillsborough number 25. Deiner joined the Democratic Socialists of America in 2026.

In July 2025, a year before launching her campaign, Deiner posted on Facebook accusing ICE agents of having "kidnapped a community member" outside the Manchester Courthouse, calling the federal enforcement action "a stain on our community and a hypocrisy of our own state motto, 'Live Free or Die.'" She was unanimously endorsed in July 2026 by the Southern New Hampshire DSA, a chapter that spent America's Independence Day quoting Vladimir Lenin, recommended in April that members read Lenin's "On Strikes" in preparation for a May Day general strike, organized a December 2025 boycott of a Manchester Jewish-owned bakery, and declares in its Instagram bio: "Abolish ICE! Free Palestine! No More Forever Wars!"

What Heather Deiner Believes

Heather Deiner is an active member of the Southern New Hampshire DSA, a Clinical Trial Associate, and a 2019 graduate of Elon University. In her Ballotpedia Candidate Connection questionnaire, Deiner wrote:

On July 23, 2025 — a year before announcing her candidacy — Deiner posted on Facebook about the detention of Jose Davila, a Peruvian national, outside the Manchester Courthouse:

“To all of my new friends in the Manchester, NH area, what looks to be I.C.E. agents, unconfirmed right now, have kidnapped a community member as of yesterday, 21Jul2025. Jose Davila was taken outside the Manchester Courthouse, and thankfully, was able to identify himself to a community member before being taken away. Please stay safe and be vigilant.

This behavior is a stain on our community and a hypocrisy of our own state motto, ‘Live Free or Die’.”

Deiner tagged the ACLU of New Hampshire, Indivisible New Hampshire, the New Hampshire Secretary of State, the New Hampshire Union Leader, and the City of Manchester in the post. She did not describe the incident as an arrest or detention by federal immigration authorities — she called it a “kidnapping.”

On criminal justice, she calls for an “End cash bail, mandatory minimums, demilitarize our police, and treat addiction as a health issue, not a criminal one.”

The DSA Chapter Backing Deiner’s Campaign

On July 14, 2026, the Southern New Hampshire DSA announced its endorsement of Deiner:

“BREAKING: We have officially endorsed @heatherfornh - state rep candidate for Hillsborough 25. Join the movement. Organize with your neighbors. Fight for the working class of New Hampshire. A better world is possible! #socialismorbarbarism #redwave #dsa“

July 4th, 2026: Lenin on Independence Day

Ten days before endorsing Deiner, the Southern New Hampshire DSA marked America’s 250th Independence Day by quoting Vladimir Lenin and describing the American Revolution as a ruling-class victory that perpetuated slavery. The post, titled “250 YEARS OF WAR: True Emancipation and the Working Class,” featured a Lenin quote:

“On the whole, capitalism is growing far more rapidly than before; but this growth is not only becoming more and more uneven in general, its unevenness also manifests itself, in particular, in the decay of the countries which are richest in capital.”
~ VLADIMIR LENIN ~

April 2026: Recommending Lenin for May Day

In April 2026, the Southern New Hampshire DSA, Deiner’s local DSA branch, recommended that its members read Lenin’s “On Strikes” in preparation for International Workers’ Day and a planned general strike:

“Since International Workers’ Day is almost here, we wanted to encourage our community to read On Strikes by Lenin to help emphasize the importance of participating in the General Strike planned for May 1st. This May Day isn’t a normal Friday - it’s a call to action - and any serious socialist organization should prioritize using the occasion to lift up our fellow workers! Take the May Day pledge!”

Abolish ICE Organizing

The Southern New Hampshire DSA organized an “Abolish ICE Rally,” announcing:

“Join SNHDSA this Saturday to demand an end to ICE terror! We will not stand idly by while our neighbors are kidnapped and innocent people lose their lives.”

After the rally, the chapter posted:

“Last Saturday, Manchester showed up to stand in solidarity with our immigrant neighbors and demand the abolition of ICE.”

Cross Currents found no public statement from Deiner distancing herself from those chapter positions or actions.

Southern New Hampshire DSA’s Alliance With ANSWER Coalition

The Southern New Hampshire DSA, which endorsed Heather Deiner, publicly partnered with the ANSWER Coalition — an anti-war group founded by the International Action Center, a project of the Workers World Party, and now led by the Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL), a self-declared Marxist-Leninist communist organization.

On January 4, 2026, the Southern New Hampshire DSA co-organized an “EMERGENCY ACTION: No war on Venezuela! Stop the bombings!” rally in Manchester with ANSWER Coalition and PSL. The announcement read: his violence is not in our names. We must refuse another endless war for profits!”

The post directed participants to “answercoalition.org/venezuela to learn more.”

ANSWER Coalition was founded in 2001 by the International Action Center, a project of the Workers World Party, a Marxist-Leninist organization that has historically defended the governments of North Korea, Syria under Bashar al-Assad, and Serbia under Slobodan Milošević. ANSWER has longstanding organizational ties to the Party for Socialism and Liberation, a Marxist-Leninist organization: “We are communists.” ANSWER has actively defended the government of Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela.

Who Is Backing the Campaign

In addition to the Southern New Hampshire DSA and the national DSA, Deiner has been endorsed by:

• Progressive Voters Network — a left-wing voter-mobilization group

• Rights & Democracy (RAD-NH) — a Bernie Sanders-aligned grassroots organization that has endorsed Sanders and other democratic-socialist candidates

• American Federation of Teachers New Hampshire (AFT-NH) — the state teachers’ union

• Run for Something — a national progressive PAC that recruits young candidates; Deiner was featured in its August 2026 endorsement class

Deiner’s campaign has trained 12 new canvassers and conducted door-to-door outreach throughout Manchester Ward 5. She has not reported campaign finance data to OpenSecrets or the FEC; donations are processed through ActBlue.

What a Win Would Mean

A Deiner victory would put a Southern New Hampshire DSA-backed candidate in the State House and seat in Concord a candidate who has accused federal immigration agents of “kidnapping,” endorsed by a chapter that spent Independence Day quoting Vladimir Lenin, and campaigns under the slogan “Abolish ICE!” And it would validate the same organizing model — DSA canvass infrastructure that produced Zohran Mamdani in New York and is now being tested in New Hampshire.

The Democratic primary is September 8, 2026. The general election is November 3, 2026.

On September 1, 2026, Cambridge Democrats will decide whether to send Evan MacKay — a 29-year-old, Harvard PhD-JD candidate and self-described democratic socialist — to the Massachusetts State House. MacKay is Boston DSA’s only endorsed state-level candidate in the 2026 cycle. His platform calls for outlawing fossil fuel combustion in Massachusetts, defunding new prisons, ending life without parole, restoring voting rights to incarcerated felons, opening state-sanctioned drug injection sites, providing “abortion on demand,” and ending Massachusetts cooperation with ICE.

Who Evan MacKay Is

MacKay is a 29-year-old, “they/them” Harvard JD-PhD candidate in Sociology and Social Policy, where his academic work focuses on “the carceral system, youth justice systems, policing, and social disadvantage.” He is an active member of Boston DSA — the chapter’s own endorsement page describes him as such — and he identifies openly as a democratic socialist. On his campaign bio, MacKay writes: “As a democratic socialist, I am proud to be part of the same movement as Bernie Sanders, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and Zohran Mamdani.”

MacKay grew up in what he describes as “a conservative part of Florida” and moved to Cambridge at 18 to attend Harvard. At Harvard, he helped organize HGSU-UAW Local 5118 and later served as union president. During the Cambridge Day debate, Rep. Marjorie Decker stated MacKay had been registered as a Republican “as recently as six years ago”; MacKay said closed Florida primaries had forced the registration. He has been previously linked to the Pro-Palestine protests in his area as well.

What Evan MacKay Believes

In his Progressive Massachusetts questionnaire, MacKay wrote: “I do not believe in healthcare, education, or housing for profit... Progressive Except for Palestine has allowed organizations like AIPAC to grow unchallenged and undermine the progressive movement.”

On climate, MacKay pledged to pursue “an immediate halt to all fossil fuel projects and a commitment on the part of the legislature to outlaw extraction and combustion of fossil fuels in Massachusetts” and “an immediate transition to 100% publicly owned renewable energy.”

On immigration, MacKay called it "shameful that MA is the only blue state with a voluntary 287(g) agreement with ICE" — a federal program that allows state and local law enforcement to partner with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to identify and detain illegal immigrants in state custody, particularly those with criminal records. MacKay pledged to end all state cooperation with federal immigration enforcement.

On police and prisons, MacKay wrote: “Instead of allocating more and more money to police and creating a new prison to incarcerate women and girls in Massachusetts, we should fund universal childcare, youth jobs for every child... violence interrupters, restorative justice and healing circles.” He pledged to “end all life without parole” and “end all mandatory minimums.” He supports a moratorium on new prison construction, ending qualified immunity for police, and restoring the vote to incarcerated felons — writing: “We must have universal suffrage.”

On drugs, MacKay supports the legalization of “overdose prevention centers,” state-sanctioned drug injection sites, and “reparations for the war on drugs.”

On abortion, MacKay supports “free and fully supported abortion on demand.”

On race, MacKay supports “reparations from our state for the state-sponsored expansion and deepening of systemic racism” and Native American land claims: “I support #LandBack.”

Who Is Backing the Campaign

Boston DSA announced MacKay’s endorsement in January 2026: “Evan was UNANIMOUSLY endorsed at every step of the way, by hundreds of DSA members. They are one of our best.” The chapter has grown to 2,600 members and treats an endorsement as “a commitment from the Electoral Working Group to design a door-to-door campaign rostered by members” — the same DSA canvassing model that produced Mamdani in New York.

CAIR Action, the political arm of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, endorsed MacKay as part of its Massachusetts primary voter guide highlighting “pro-Palestine candidates across the state.” MacKay publicized the endorsement: “The Council on American-Islamic Relations is a powerful voice for the Muslim community.” CAIR has long been alleged to operate as a Muslim Brotherhood front group and was named by the Department of Justice as an unindicted co-conspirator in the 2008 Holy Land Foundation terrorism financing trial — after which the FBI suspended all formal contact with the organization.

Massachusetts Peace Action, on whose board MacKay sits, endorsed MacKay as “the peace candidate in this race.” The organization has spent years lobbying to “divest our state from genocide in Gaza” and organizing against U.S. military aid to Israel.

Our Revolution Cambridge, the local chapter of the Bernie Sanders-founded successor organization, also endorsed MacKay. Our Revolution has nationally backed Mamdani, AOC, and Rashida Tlaib.

Other endorsers include UAW Region 9A, Progressive Massachusetts, Act on Mass, Progressive Victory, IBEW 2222 AFL-CIO, and Progressive Democrats of Massachusetts.

Boston DSA’s Alliance With ANSWER Coalition

The chapter MacKay actively belongs to has publicly partnered with the ANSWER Coalition, an anti-war organization founded and led by the Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL), a self-declared Marxist-Leninist communist organization. In a public post on X, Boston DSA encouraged “our members and all people of conscience to attend the RALLY being held TODAY by the ANSWER Coalition” — a “Hands Off Venezuela” demonstration opposing U.S. pressure on the Nicolás Maduro regime. Boston DSA promoted the rally alongside its own logo and directed its members to gather at the Boston Common Visitors Center before joining the ANSWER protest.

ANSWER was founded in 2001 by the International Action Center, a project of the Workers World Party, a Marxist-Leninist organization that has historically defended authoritarian regimes including North Korea, Syria under Bashar al-Assad, and Slobodan Milošević’s Serbia. PSL, ANSWER’s operational leadership, has openly declared, “We are communists.” ANSWER has actively organized in defense of Maduro’s government against U.S. sanctions and military pressure.

MacKay did not publicly distance himself from Boston DSA’s ANSWER partnership.

The Money

According to Massachusetts OCPF records, MacKay has raised approximately $204,000 in the 2026 cycle through Committee filer #18680, processed through ActBlue.

The campaign emphasizes it has not accepted “any money from corporate special interests, unionbusting CEOs, and real estate developers” and has signed the People’s Pledge refusing lobbyist contributions above $200. MacKay’s early 2026 fundraising exceeded his entire 2024 cycle by the end of January.

What a Win Would Mean

A MacKay victory would give Boston DSA its first state legislator and a fourth DSA-endorsed officeholder in the Cambridge-Somerville corridor. It would install in Cambridge — home to Harvard’s campus, where mass Jewish member resignations occurred under MacKay’s union presidency — a legislator committed to ending Massachusetts’ ICE cooperation, divesting state funds from Israel, defunding new prisons, and moving toward single-payer healthcare.

It would seat on Beacon Hill an active member of a DSA chapter that publicly marches with a Marxist-Leninist coalition defending the Maduro regime. And it would validate the same organizing model — DSA canvass infrastructure, an Islamist and anti-Israel activist coalition, and public-sector unions — that produced Zohran Mamdani in New York.

The 25th Middlesex primary is September 1. The socialist is on the ballot. Voters will decide.

The Democratic Socialists of America aren’t hiding anymore. They passed 120,000 members on July 4, 2026. They’ve won 63 primaries this cycle. Their new platform calls for abolishing the Senate, drafting a new constitution, and prosecuting U.S. leaders for “genocide in Gaza.” And with chapters in all 50 states and a live election dashboard tracking 171 candidates — 64 who have already won their primaries, 53 still running, and 54 who lost — the DSA has transformed from a fringe group of 6,000 members in 2016 into what they call "the largest socialist organization in United States history."

This November, that organization will test whether self-described socialists can win not just in deep-blue districts, but in battleground states like Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Colorado. This new Cross Currents is profiling every major DSA-backed candidate running in 2026—documenting who they are, what they believe, how they’re funded, and what their platforms actually say. From Congress to state legislatures to city halls, self-described socialists are on the ballot across America, many with a real chance of winning. This is not commentary. This is the documentary record.

What They Actually Want

The DSA published its governing platform in June 2026 under the title “Workers Deserve More.” It’s not a moderate document.

Under “A Real Democracy,” the platform calls for a “new political system” and proposes to “abolish the Electoral College” and “replace the President and Supreme Court with an executive and judiciary chosen by and subordinate to Congress.” The next section, “A Democratic Congress,” goes further: “abolish the Senate.”

On immigration, the platform demands: “Abolish ICE. End ICE detention and deportations and punish federal agents’ brutality. Legalize migration, grant amnesty for all immigrants regardless of status, provide a path to citizenship for all permanent residents, and end visa caps and quotas.”

The foreign policy planks are equally direct. “Free Palestine” demands the “right of return, the right to resist military occupation,” ending “all military and economic aid to Israel,” and prosecuting “U.S. and Israeli leaders responsible for the genocide in Gaza.” Another section, “End The U.S. War Machine,” calls to “defund the Department of War” and “end all foreign wars and close overseas military bases.”

Domestic policy includes “public ownership of the largest corporations and essential industries,” a 32-hour work week, universal rent control, and steps toward “fully abolishing the police and prison system.”

The platform describes these as demands to “end capitalist oligarchy” and build “a democratic socialist republic.” Their dashboard’s tagline reads: “Don’t call it a party…” — but functionally, that’s what they’re building.

Inside the Big Tent

The DSA describes itself as a “big tent” organization, but that tent now shelters explicit communists alongside democratic socialists. The organization operates through competing internal caucuses that range from reformist to revolutionary—and the revolutionary wing is gaining ground.

Red Star, a Marxist-Leninist caucus, states its goal is to “abolish capitalism” and “cohere a vanguard party.” The caucus’s official platform declares: “A capitalist society will not be reformed into a socialist one... it must be overthrown and replaced.” The Communist Caucus identifies as “a caucus of communist organizers” working to “rebuild class organization and supporting the struggle against capital.” Marxist Unity Group focuses on orthodox Marxist theory and wants DSA to “behave like an independent political party” rather than the left flank of Democrats.

Emerge, a “catchall communist caucus,” advocates for police abolition and signed onto statements demanding New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani fire his police commissioner. The Libertarian Socialist Caucus and other far-left factions push DSA toward more radical positions on everything from abolition to anti-imperialism.

On the other end, caucuses like Socialist Majority focus on electing DSA members through Democratic primaries and passing legislation. Groundwork emphasizes ecosocialism and public ownership of utilities. Bread & Roses pursues labor organizing. But former DSA members have told NewsNation that “communist-aligned caucuses” have gained influence as the organization grew, and the “Workers Deserve More” platform reflects that shift.

The caucuses compete for control of DSA’s National Political Committee and fight over candidate endorsements, whether to censure elected officials, and how hard to push on issues like Israel-Palestine. Springs of Revolution, the most committed anti-Zionist caucus, has called for “red lines” and pushed to censure Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez over her votes on Israel funding. When asked about being described as DSA’s “right wing,” the reformist caucuses bristled—but the label stuck because, within DSA, supporting gradual reform through Democratic primaries is considered conservative.

This internal ideological war shapes what voters see on the ballot. The candidates profiled in this series represent different points on that spectrum—some aligned with the revolutionary caucuses, others with the reformist wing, and some trying to navigate between them.

How They Got Here

The DSA’s roots trace to 1982, when Michael Harrington unified two socialist groups after breaking from the Socialist Party of America. Harrington had resigned as National Co-Chairman over the Vietnam War—he wanted immediate withdrawal while the party majority supported U.S. presence to back anti-communists. He also criticized what he called the party’s “obsessive anti-communism” and pushed for diplomatic engagement with the Soviet Union.

For decades, the DSA remained marginal — 6,000 members before 2016. Then Bernie Sanders ran for president calling himself a democratic socialist, and the floodgates opened. Membership hit 24,000 by 2017. When Sanders ran again in 2020, it kept climbing. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s 2018 upset victory, she went from bartending in the Bronx to Congress as a DSA member, proved the model could work.

Zohran Mamdani’s mayoral campaign turbocharged growth further. Membership surged from roughly 50,000 in October 2024 to over 90,000 by December 2025 during his race. When he won and was sworn in as New York City mayor on January 1, 2026, it validated the entire project. By July 4, the organization announced it had passed 120,000 members—”the largest socialist organization in United States history.”

What changed wasn’t the ideology — it was the branding. Sanders reframed socialism as Scandinavian social democracy rather than Soviet authoritarianism, making the label safe enough for mainstream politics. The DSA built the infrastructure to capitalize: local chapters in all 50 states, candidate recruitment pipelines, internal caucuses, and a National Political Committee that now approves a governing platform and coordinates national endorsements. What started as a marginal movement has become an organized electoral apparatus.

The Infrastructure

The DSA's 64 primary wins didn't happen by accident — they came from organizational sophistication built over the last decade. The group operates through a decentralized structure: local chapters in all 50 states handle on-the-ground organizing, while the National Political Committee sets national strategy and approves major endorsements. The live dashboard tracks all 171 nationally endorsed candidates in real time, showing wins, losses, and races still running—a level of coordination that didn't exist before 2016.

Internal caucuses function like parties within the party, running slates for leadership positions and whipping votes at the biennial national conventions. The Muslim Caucus, founded in 2020, frames Islam as “a unifying ethos, an orientation towards solidarity and justice” rather than mere identity. The caucus explicitly centers anti-racism and connects Muslim faith to socialist organizing. The dashboard uses the tagline “BUILD DSA WITH US HABIBI”—an Arabic term of endearment—alongside donation appeals, signaling the organization’s effort to build a multiracial, multi-faith socialist coalition.

Funding for individual candidates comes from multiple sources. While the DSA organization itself operates on relatively modest revenue, DSA-aligned candidates have attracted significant outside money. NewsNation reported that groups like Way to Win and donors tied to the Soros family have backed DSA-aligned candidates. Federal Election Commission data shows some candidates receiving majority funding from out-of-state donors funneled through super PACs.

What Comes Next

President Trump told Fox News in August that DSA-backed candidates “will ruin our country” and that cities “taken over by the socialists and the communists” are “filthy, dirty, disgusting.” National Republicans have made the DSA a central target, running ads emphasizing candidates’ “socialist” credentials — ads many viewed as efforts to boost them into general elections, calculating they’d be easier to defeat than moderate opponents.

But the movement isn't slowing down. With 53 of those candidates still running (and 57 who lost their primaries), November's general elections loom as the ultimate test. The DSA has positioned itself as a parallel infrastructure inside the Democratic Party— one with a published program that calls for abolishing core American institutions and a membership base willing to knock doors for it.

The stakes are concrete. Abdul El-Sayed’s (a DSA-backed candidate) Senate race against Mike Rogers in Michigan could determine which party controls the Senate. Nithya Raman’s November runoff in Los Angeles would put a DSA member in charge of the second-largest city in America. In New York, multiple DSA-backed candidates are headed to general elections for Congress after defeating establishment Democrats in primaries. Zohran Mamdani’s first seven months as New York City mayor will serve as a test case for whether DSA governance can work in practice — or whether it collapses under the weight of its own contradictions.

The question isn’t whether socialists are running anymore. They are, and they’re winning primaries. The question is whether they can win general elections in purple states, govern effectively in major cities, and turn local victories into national momentum.

Over the coming weeks, Cross Currents will profile these candidates one by one: who they are, what they’ve said, where their money comes from, and what their wins would mean. Not every DSA candidate shares identical views. Some have distanced themselves from the national organization. But the pattern is clear enough to document.

The socialists are on the ballot. Voters deserve to know exactly what they’re voting for.

Editors Note: The statistics and number of races (won or lost) throughout this piece reflect the numbers at time of publish on August 20, 2026.