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.
Keep up the good fight. We must never forget the celebrations in the streets of Gaza the day the Twin Towers fell!