The Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) evolved from being a relatively small group of activists into a growing force within the Democratic Party over four decades.
DSA is on pace to field its largest congressional delegation in its history after several members won their primaries against establishment Democrats. The movement has entered the mainstream Democratic Party ecosystem and continues gaining political influence after recent primary wins in New York and Colorado.
The DSA was founded in 1982 following a merger of the Democratic Socialist Organizing Committee and the New American Movement, according to DSA’s website. It initially focused on pushing the Democratic Party leftward on welfare state expansion, union rights and social justice.
The movement consisted of about 6,000 members and intended to build a coalition of feminists, racial minorities, trade unionists and socialists to fight back against social conservatives and a so-called “pro-war” labor movement. (RELATED: Here Are The Voters Backing Democratic Socialists)
The movement focused more on activism than on winning major political offices. In the 80s’, DSA activists prioritized social justice abroad and at home, participating in anti-apartheid and anti-intervention marches in Washington, D.C., and San Francisco in 1987.
In the 1990s, DSA built a “single-payer” movement, also known as “Medicare for All,” as an alternative to then-President Bill Clinton’s plan to make private insurance more affordable, according to its website. Members of the movement went from advocating for “Medicare for All” to having congressional members co-sponsoring legislation that would enact it into law.
After 9/11, DSA expanded its activism to being anti-war by protesting the Iraq and Afghanistan wars during former President George W. Bush’s presidency.
DSA reached a turning point when independent Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders ran for president in 2016, though he was not a member of the DSA. During his candidacy, the movement surged from 6,000 to about 80,000 members, particularly as young people joined. DSA shifted its focus to addressing student debt, housing, raising wages and enacting socialized healthcare, all of which were widely supported by young liberals.
Sanders’ presidential bid opened the door for democratic socialist candidates to enter mainstream Democratic politics and serve in Congress. DSA’s electoral strategy became more aggressive by endorsing candidates like Democratic New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who became another central figure in incorporating DSA ideology into the Democratic Party after winning her congressional race in 2018.
Sanders also mainstreamed Medicare for All throughout his 2016 and 2020 candidacies.
Ocasio-Cortez and Democratic Massachusetts Sen. Ed Markey introduced the Green New Deal, a multi-trillion dollar proposal aimed at helping the U.S. achieve net-zero emissions within a decade.
The New York congresswoman co-sponsored Medicare for All, pushed for higher minimum wages and other far-left initiatives. Democratic Michigan Rep. Rashida Tlaib, who entered Congress at the same time as Ocasio-Cortez, also identifies as a democratic socialist.
DSA achieved more electoral victories in recent elections, most notably Democratic New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who defeated former Democratic New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo in the November 2025 mayoral election. Mamdani campaigned on implementing a $30 per hour minimum wage, government-run buses and grocery stores and abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez endorsed Mamdani ahead of the election.
Mamdani-backed candidates Darializa Avila Chevalier and Claire Valdez won their congressional races in late June. Young, college-educated voters in densely populated areas formed the core voting bloc for these candidates, an analysis of primary election data found.
(Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)
Chevalier deleted several tweets from 2020 through 2022, where she criticized libraries for lacking communist books, joked about anti-communist pop culture and reported a tweet criticizing capitalism for creating too much consumer choice.
Democratic Colorado congressional candidate Melat Kiros, a 29-year-old democratic socialist, defeated incumbent Rep. Diana DeGette in Colorado’s 1st Congressional District Tuesday. DeGette served in Congress for 29 years, first assuming office in January 1997.
DSA refused to endorse former President Joe Biden or former Vice President Kamala Harris during the 2024 presidential election cycle.
While early DSA leaders like Michael Harrington were pro-Israel, the modern organization became staunchly anti-Israel, accusing the country of committing ethnic cleansing and genocide in Gaza. The major shift came in the 2010s as left-wing groups like Black Lives Matter, Occupy Wall Street and others linked the Palestinian cause to social justice and imperialism issues.
Mamdani received backlash in 2025 for refusing to condemn the phrase, “globalize the intifada,” a pro-Palestinian phrase that is widely seen as a call for violence against Jews. A law firm in New York City fired Kiros in November 2023 after she published an open letter to law firms criticizing the state of Israel.
The House of Representatives censured Tlaib in November 2023 for using the phrase “from the river to the sea,” which has connotations of wiping out Israel. She criticized Biden for supporting Israel and attended several rallies organized by groups critical of Israel.
Many conservatives have rushed to belittle DSA, hoping that doing so will help Republicans win in November’s midterm elections. Former Trump advisor Steve Bannon argued they should take DSA more seriously.
“They’re a national power,” Bannon told Politico. “They have worked below the surface to perfect a ground game and a canvassing operation. It’s too late for the Democrats to recreate that. I told people in the Republican Party and it was dismissed [as] a flash in the pan, it’s clearly just a New York City thing.”
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