A network of Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) members seeking to build support for a 2028 presidential campaign by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez organized a series of phonebanks for Michigan Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed, explicitly linking the effort to preparations for a potential White House bid.
The initiative, called DSA for AOC, advertised three volunteer phonebanks for El-Sayed between October 20 and November 1, alongside a fourth supporting Florida Democratic Senate nominee Angie Nixon. The organizers described the Senate races as important to their political objectives and called on fellow socialists to assist the campaigns in an effort to “help lay the track for an AOC Presidential Run.”
The organizing effort provides a direct link between El-Sayed’s Senate candidacy and a broader movement of socialist activists seeking to build toward 2028, even as El-Sayed maintains that he is neither a socialist nor a DSA member.
Turning the Midterms Into a Launchpad for 2028
The campaign, titled Meeting the Midterms Moment: Solidarity Phonebanks, scheduled El-Sayed phonebanks on October 20 and 29, followed by a final get-out-the-vote session on November 1. A separate October 28 phonebank was organized for Nixon.
Rather than simply encouraging supporters to volunteer independently, DSA for AOC invited participants to join a separate Zoom gathering where they could connect with other members of the initiative while participating in the Senate campaigns’ phonebanking efforts.
The group describes itself as a network of DSA members organizing to support Ocasio-Cortez’s potential 2028 presidential candidacy. Its September 1 national call invited members across the country to organize within their local chapters and advance resolutions supporting a future presidential endorsement.
Its broader political petition advocates Medicare for All, a Green New Deal, an arms embargo and a Third Reconstruction, alongside a goal of expanding DSA into a mass socialist organization with one million members.
The movement has already attracted attention beyond its own membership. At an August DSA gathering in Chicago, national electoral organizer Katie Sims publicly discussed preparations for a possible Ocasio-Cortez presidential campaign, reflecting growing interest among some DSA organizers in using the 2028 election to expand the organization’s national political influence.
The decision to concentrate the latest phone banking initiative on El-Sayed and Nixon is particularly notable because both candidates have received substantial financial support from Ocasio-Cortez herself.
In October, Ocasio-Cortez directed $1 million toward El-Sayed’s Michigan Senate campaign and personally joined him on the campaign trail. On October 30, Axios reported that she had directed another $150,000 toward Nixon’s Senate candidacy in Florida.
For El-Sayed, however, receiving organized support from DSA activists is hardly a new development.
El-Sayed’s Longstanding Relationship With DSA Organizers
El-Sayed’s relationship with Detroit’s socialist movement dates back to his unsuccessful 2018 gubernatorial campaign. He addressed a Detroit DSA membership meeting in April 2017 and subsequently participated in multiple chapter events, including its October 2019 Douglass-Debs fundraising dinner alongside Rep. Rashida Tlaib.
According to the national DSA’s own publication, the dinner drew approximately 300 attendees and raised $10,000 for the chapter.
That same month, a photograph circulated showing El-Sayed alongside Katherine “Kat” Brezler, a longtime Bernie Sanders organizer and co-founder of People for Bernie Sanders.
On October 27, 2019, Brezler posted the photograph with a message attributing to activist Linda Sarsour a description of El-Sayed as Detroit DSA’s newest member.
The chapter’s official account responded, “Welcome to the team comrade @AbdulElSayed!” It also congratulated an organizer using the handle @OrganizerJess36, writing, “you did it!”
The exchange was previously reported by the New York Post. Brezler subsequently described the membership reference as an internet joke, while El-Sayed’s campaign maintained that he had never been a DSA member.
Brezler herself was independently identified as a DSA member in July 2020 by The Examiner News, which quoted her participating in a DSA-organized demonstration in White Plains, New York.
The organizer congratulated in the 2019 exchange was also apparently Jessica Newman, according to the New York Post. Newman was already co-chair of Detroit DSA’s Electoral Committee in July 2019, as documented in the chapter’s newspaper.
Her relationship with El-Sayed has continued into the current election cycle.
In September 2026, The Guardian reported that Newman was volunteering approximately ten hours weekly for his Senate campaign. In an October questionnaire, Newman, who serves on the Ferndale school board, identified both El-Sayed and Metro Detroit DSA among the endorsers of her reelection bid.
The overlapping relationships extend beyond Newman. Detroit DSA’s July 2019 newspaper also documented how Brian Stawowy, later a DSA-backed mayoral candidate in Ferndale, first became involved with the socialist organization while organizing for El-Sayed’s gubernatorial campaign.
By February 2020, El-Sayed was again appearing in DSA programming. A chapter newsletter advertised a University of Michigan–Dearborn event featuring El-Sayed, organized with the Sunrise Movement to promote Bernie Sanders’s Green New Deal proposals.
These connections illustrate a longstanding relationship between El-Sayed’s political activities and DSA organizers, although they do not establish formal membership.
An Electoral Strategy Extending Beyond DSA Membership
The latest phonebank initiative also reflects a broader approach to electoral organizing openly discussed within Detroit DSA.
In a June 11, 2026 article published in The Detroit Socialist, two chapter organizers argued that DSA should build political influence by developing relationships with elected officials and candidates, including those who do not initially embrace the organization’s complete ideological program.
Written in support of endorsing congressional candidate Donavan McKinney, the article described electoral campaigns as opportunities to expand socialist organizing, strengthen the chapter’s membership and build a larger national political movement.
The authors also included a photograph of McKinney alongside El-Sayed and Sanders at Detroit’s Mumford High School.
Their argument represented a position within the chapter’s internal debate rather than a formal policy statement or evidence that El-Sayed was being recruited. Nevertheless, it illustrates how some DSA organizers envision using electoral campaigns to expand their organization’s reach beyond existing members.
That approach is now visible in DSA for AOC’s national phonebanking initiative.
El-Sayed, who has repeatedly rejected the socialist label and denied DSA membership, is receiving publicly advertised campaign support from a network of DSA members seeking to translate the 2026 midterms into momentum for a possible Ocasio-Cortez presidential campaign.