Zohran Mamdani’s victory in the Democratic Party primary of New York City amounts to nothing less than the annunciation of a new historic phase in the socialist movement in the United States. Being branded a ‘socialist’ is now no longer a political death sentence in major races, but a legitimate component of a winning electoral strategy in the most progressive parts of the country. A generation ago such a development would have been an unthinkable dream. Today Wall Street trembles at the inescapable reality of it. Socialism is going mainstream.
In Seattle Katie Wilson has ridden her own wave of popular upsurge in her campaign for Mayor, proving that the electoral field is wide open for socialists to take it by storm. Socialists in Seattle—right here, right now—have the unprecedented opportunity to show the country, the world, what socialism can achieve.
Already more DSA members are volunteering in Katie’s campaign than any other single group. Making this support official by means of an endorsement would allow SDSA to rightfully claim its share in her victory. This could put it in a position, after the election, to absorb much of her campaign’s volunteer capacity and energy, and to keep up the momentum of her campaign to go on to win further electoral victories. If done skillfully, this could enable SDSA to win an ambitious ballot initiative in 2026, which could set it up to win a socialist majority on the Seattle city council in 2027. Imagine the national and global implications of a socialist mayor and a socialist city council! Seattle DSA could become a socialist beacon to the world. This will only be possible if it takes the first step, and anoints Katie Wilson with an SDSA endorsement.
If SDSA officially sits on the sidelines of the biggest and most thrilling socialist electoral campaign in Seattle in a century, it is not likely to be taken seriously by anyone in the electoral arena for a very long time. This would be a massive setback not just to SDSA, but to the socialist movement in Seattle, to DSA as a whole, to American socialism, and to the global working class. We cannot let this happen. It is just too important.