NYC-DSA is the largest DSA chapter in the country, with more than 14,000 members – more than double the size of DSA-LA, the next largest chapter, with roughly 5,000 members.

DSA launched its most ambitious – and successful – political experiment to date with the election of its member, Zohran Mamdani, as mayor of the most powerful city in the world. It was a decisive win, which energized NYC-DSA to reach for more, creating a template for national replication.

DSA’s agenda is not merely progressive reform. It’s not even what the name implies, “democratic socialism.” Most of its politicians are outright Marxists. Their agenda is nothing less than deliberate and total destruction of American norms as enshrined into law: prison decarceration, abolition leading to the ultimate dismantling of all prisons, defunding the police, “anti-imperialism” (i.e., alignment with hostile regimes such as Cuba, Iran and China), open borders, catch-and-release policies, DEI radicalism and the degradation of educational standards. These are not accidental outcomes. They are destruction by design.

Their candidates run on a carefully constructed narrative: Our politicians are authentic; the opposition is corrupt. Our candidates fight for working people; their opponents serve the billionaire elite. Our candidates are willing to get arrested, speak uncomfortable truths, and break the rules; their opponents defend a broken status quo that keeps ordinary people suffering.

This is not authenticity. It is manipulation.

Most of their candidates have records marked by extremism, hypocrisy and scandal. They often present themselves as champions of the working class while coming from elite institutions and privileged networks. They attack traditional Democrats – including progressives who were once their allies – because their worldview allows no middle ground. In their politics, anyone who is not fully with them is treated as the enemy.

This pattern is visible in various “progressive” candidates across the country – Mamdani in New York, Chris Rabb in Philadelphia, Adam Hamawy in New Jersey and Graham Platner in Maine. During their campaigns, serious scandals have emerged involving alleged connections to extremist organizations, support for terror, abuse, arrests, antisemitism and other disturbing conduct. This is a feature, not a bug.

How do we know this is true? These candidates do not respond to scandals the way traditional politicians do. They do not simply deny, apologize or move on. Instead, they absorb the scandal into their political identity. They treat it as proof that they are dangerous to the status quo. The scandal becomes a credential.

They signal to their base that the accusations matter less than the identity of those exposing them. They frame criticism as an attack by billionaires, Israel supporters, establishment Democrats or other supposed villains.

In doing so, they turn scandal into confirmation: Look, I belong. Look, the bad guys are trying to destroy me. Look, I am different from ordinary politicians. I alone will fight for you.

The pattern has a common narrative. Get arrested, as Mamdani and Avila Chevalier have, and the arrest becomes a story of integrity – proof of passion, of risk, of personal sacrifice for the cause. Carry a troubled past, as Platner and Hamawy do, and you simply wave the accusations away as trivial while redirecting attention to the billionaire money or Israeli money supposedly behind the exposé - which only confirms you're the real deal, because the villains are coming for you.

Hold the traditional Democrats in open contempt, as all of them do, and that, too, becomes a virtue: proof you're the one with the courage to change the guard and remake the party in a bold new image.

The central lie is that these candidates are “of the people” and “for the people.” They are not. They are disciplined ideological actors using scandal, outrage, and anti-establishment resentment to build power. Their controversies do not weaken their campaigns; they are folded into the campaign narrative itself. The scandal becomes proof of concept. It tells the base that the candidate is authentic, embattled and willing to fight the enemies they have been taught to hate.

It is a closed loop. Praise them, and they're authentic. Attack them, and they're authentic. Nothing can ever count against them – which is the surest sign that what you're looking at isn't authenticity. It's marketing.

That is the model. And it is now being exported as a nationwide template.

Key Findings

1. DSA is not running independent candidates; they're running a bloc. The "Socialists in Office" committee binds elected DSA officials to weekly meetings to "align their votes" and act as a "party within a party." Candidates say it out loud: "I'm not going in as myself." As one NYC-DSA leader said about Mamdani, "We wrote the platform with him."
   
2. NYC-DSA is a national template. With 14,000 members and 90,000 volunteers, NYC-DSA is the largest DSA chapter in the country by more than double (Los Angeles DSA has 5,000 members in comparison). It built the operation that elected Mamdani and is explicitly designed to be copied (see below the "a thousand Zohrans" strategy and the "inside-outside strategy"). NYC isn't just a chapter; it's the template.
   
3. The scandal-as-credential. Across the slate, arrests, deleted posts and terror-adjacent statements are treated not as liabilities to apologize for but as proof of authenticity. Claire Valdez lists her arrest as an achievement. Moreno posted proudly about hers. Mamdani "doubled down" on Avila Chevalier after 3,600 horrific deleted tweets surfaced.
   
4. "Working class" candidates are often elites. Mamdani came from a wealthy family and was educated in private schools. David Orkin is "the scion of [a] famed… doctor" and was raised in a wealthy suburb. Darializa Aliva Chevalier went to undergrad at Columbia University and is currently working on a PhD at CUNY.
   
5. They're more extreme than they sound – and they've said it themselves. Behind the talk about affordability, the actual positions are radical: abolish ICE, the police, prisons and the border. One candidate, a public defender, said even rapists, child molesters, and murderers shouldn't go to prison – and that people who oppose prisons should get on juries and vote "not guilty" no matter what the evidence shows.
   
6. DSA’s first target is establishment Democrats. The slate is aimed at challenges to longtime Democratic incumbents, even radical progressives. The message: If you're not with them, you're the enemy.
   
7. The machine is built on expanding, not persuading, the electorate. Turning out low-propensity young, immigrant and Muslim voters was the strategy that elected Mamdani.

New York: The Model

Buoyed by the stunning win of Democratic Socialist of America (DSA) member Zohran Mamdani as mayor of New York City, the NYC chapter of DSA is pushing an ambitious slate of new candidates in the upcoming June 23, 2026 Democratic primaries.

These candidates – all running as insurgent challengers – are part of the organization's attempt to broaden DSA's base and influence in New York and its larger plan to take over the city and state's Democratic institutions.

It’s also a blueprint for the country.

What does that blueprint look like? An influx into the American political landscape of socialist ideology – from government intervention in the free market (housing, transportation, childcare) to, ultimately, the communist endgame of seizing the means of production.

In addition to traditional socialism (whose endgame is ultimately Marxism), the DSA brings its signature ideology of extreme anti-Americanism in the fold. The DSA’s contempt for the country, which it calls “Empire,” stems primarily from the perception of America as an imperialist world power and a racist persecutor of foreign and domestic minorities.

Who Is NYC-DSA?

In recent years, NYC-DSA has transformed from a small, peripheral group of activists into one of the most powerful and organized left-wing electoral operations in the United States. The chapter helped launch the political career of Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) and initiated the elections of the nine current New York State DSA legislators.

In These Times, a socialist magazine, reports that “the chapter says it has been able to mobilize more than 10,000 people into actions, phone banks and letter campaigns, including thousands of prospective members.”

According to Grace Mausser, co-chair of NYC-DSA, the chapter has 500 “field leads” (field leaders) and 90,000 volunteers. After hovering around 6,000 members for years, the chapter saw major boosts following the presidential campaign of Bernie Sanders, the reelection of President Donald Trump and Mamdani’s mayoral bid.

Membership in the chapter requires joining national DSA and paying monthly dues.

In These Times also noted, “This surge reflects the growing number of individuals who are seeking avenues to uplift the Palestinian cause, and who see DSA as a viable vehicle for this struggle.”

In fact, opposition to the existence of Israel has become DSA’s signature objective and driving force in recent years. As noted by Michael Arria, writing in the far-left, anti-Zionist site Mondoweiss, opposition to Israel is now perceived as an electoral plus:

“Zohran Mamdani’s mayoral victory over the pro-Israel Andrew Cuomo last year showed that previous assumptions about the issue had flipped. Up until that point, many still viewed Israel as a third-rail issue that would inevitably hurt a campaign. Now, many candidates understand that highlighting Palestinian human rights is viewed as a positive attribute by most voters.”

Deviation from even one of the conditions enumerated in DSA’s anti-Zionist platform precludes not only any endorsement from the organization but is also grounds for member expulsion.

Organizational Strategy: "A thousand Zohrans"

Post the Mamdani victory, where the newly elected mayor came from behind to pull off a stunning victory over the Democratic establishment, NYC-DSA’s strategy can be summed up by Marxist influencer Hasan Piker, who posted, “let a thousand zohran’s bloom. the countryside yearns for it.”

This is precisely the DSA’s plan. It has been a long time in the making.

As revealed by David Orkin, DSA candidate for New York State Assembly District 38:

“The reason why we’re able to have this electoral project is because of years and years and years of organizing that has happened outside of the electoral space.

“... a lot of people look at Zohran [as] this embodiment of this movement at the moment. And in so many ways, he is, and also he is an extension of the organizing that’s been happening across the city for years and years.”

NYC-DSA provides an army of volunteers mobilized to man phone banks, canvass and get out the vote. It operates under a hierarchical structure. Seasoned members are placed in key campaign staff roles to keep the campaign's political home deep within the NYC-DSA organization.

In addition, the chapter provides a community for young people, offering social events for a population often disaffected in the age of social media.

DSA’s targeted expansion into immigrant communities, especially tapping into the youth, has provided the organization with a broadened volunteer – and voter base – in the city.

DSA’s Control of Candidates Once in Office

Following the 2020 elections, NYC-DSA suddenly went from having one or two isolated representatives in Albany to a sizable number of legislators. To prevent the co-opting of their politicians by Democratic Party leadership, the NYC-DSA established the Socialists in Office (SIO) committee.

SIO is a support and accountability mechanism to bind DSA politicians to the grassroots movement. It also allows DSA to get strategic political information from the inside. The committee consists of the elected officials, their key staffers and leaders from NYC-DSA's branches and working groups. DSA lawmakers are expected to attend weekly SIO meetings to review upcoming legislation, align their votes and map out a coordinated strategy.

Because they answer to the socialist collective rather than party bosses or corporate donors, the bloc acts to absorb and withstand the political pressure that can be put upon individual lawmakers.

Unlike traditional politicians who operate as independent agents, SIO members explicitly agree to share legislative power with the DSA, operating as a unified "party within a party."

The legislators form a "Socialist Caucus" to vote as a bloc and to support each other and the DSA agenda.

As explained by Mausser, the SIO was formed "... at both the state and the city level …in order to execute what we call the inside outside strategy … the idea is that those of us on the outside of government can coordinate, take lessons, take strategic insight and information from people in the inside of government in order to make our tactics most effective.”

Mausser notes that Mamdani played “a major part of developing that strategy and this model … which is part of the reason we're excited that he's in office, too, because we know that he has experience and interest in bringing outside organizations with him into governance …”

“Let’s be honest,” says Orkin, a DSA candidate for NY State Assembly. “If you go in without the DSA, you have a staff of two people, maybe three people, and then you have all this work to do. And then there’s these lobbyists banging on your door, and the donors who fund them banging on your door, trying to do the work for you so they can have their way in the legislature.

“But [with] the DSA, you have this incredible resource … you have people who are doing research for you, helping you draft policy … and helping move the agenda forward.”

Orkin says, ultimately, it’s about “accountability ... every move I make in Albany is going to be supported and checked by them… such that I’m always moving in tandem with their priorities. [emphasis added]”

These sentiments were echoed by Aber Kawas, candidate for state senator, who said, "I’m not going in as myself … I’m bringing all those people with me into office, because they’re going to be the makeup of my office. They’re going to be the ones who help me figure out what my policy is, what the direction that I want to set is, and they’re going to be the people that I have those conversations with." [emphasis added]

How NYC-DSA Gained Power

Many of today’s NYC-DSA members came of age in the 2011 Occupy Wall Street movement, which deliberately refused to elect leaders or participate in traditional politics. The movement eventually fragmented when the physical camps were cleared.

Activists (and their funders) who cut their teeth in Occupy Wall Street learned from this strategic failure. They realized that to make lasting structural changes, they needed to transition from decentralized, horizontal protests to the construction of a durable, institutional infrastructure. This realization funneled a highly trained generation of NYC organizers straight into the DSA.

Five years later, the failed presidential candidacy of Bernie Sanders (who was popular with younger voters) provided the massive increase in membership that DSA needed to become a force to be reckoned with. Youth, disaffected with the Democratic Party, which they perceived as having strong-armed Hillary Clinton’s nomination, were ready for something new, something transgressive to challenge the American democratic system.

At the same time, Black Lives Matter activists were looking for a home, which many found in the DSA. Hamas’ war with Israel breathed new life into the campus Red-Green alliance of SJP and DSA youth activists, which was cemented with the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack.

The Trajectory: How Candidates Get Recruited to DSA

Most of the candidates now on DSA’s slate began as community and union organizers or political activists. Common among the candidates is their involvement with Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) or one of the other radical anti-Israel groups, such as Within Our Lifetime (WOL).

“DSA is very good at turning organizers into politicians,” says Orkin.

Darializa Avila Chevalier, for example, a congressional candidate, was a member of SJP at Columbia and an organizer of Columbia’s 2024 pro-Hamas encampments. After graduating, she embedded herself deep within the progressive infrastructure of Upper Manhattan and the Bronx, including DSA's Upper Manhattan and Bronx chapter – one of the fastest-growing DSA chapters in the city.

Avila Chevalier put in her time knocking on doors and organizing for high-profile socialist figures, including Mamdani in his bid for the mayorship. Now, she has a cadre of DSA volunteers doing the same for her.

Orkin, who currently works as an immigrants' rights and a “movement” lawyer, founded a Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) chapter in Tucson, Arizona. He built his connections to NYC-DSA by door-knocking for DSA state assembly candidates Samy Nemir Olivares and Claire Valdez in 2024, and by organizing a fundraiser for Assemblymember Phara Souffrant Forrest.

“There’s no way that I would run for office without DSA,” he says.

Claire Valdez, a union organizer turned congressional candidate, was a foundational supporter of Mamdani's political movement. Valdez was the only elected official to stand with Mamdani when he initially launched his mayoral bid. With the organizing muscle of the DSA behind her, Valdez is projected to win her primary, even though she faces a strong progressive challenger who is currently endorsed by the retiring incumbent who has held the seat for more than three decades.

Diana Moreno, who took over and is now vying for Mamdani’s NY assembly seat, is a long-standing leader within the NYC-DSA in Queens and on the citywide steering committee. Moreno spent years coordinating local progressive and socialist campaigns before stepping in to run herself.

“In terms of my professional and political trajectory, I consider myself an organizer first and foremost,” she says. “... if it weren’t for the support and the infrastructure of DSA, what it offered me, incredibly dedicated, committed volunteers, the expertise of comrades who have done this before, I would not have felt [I could have taken] on all of it alone. And it was because of DSA that I did it, and it was because of DSA that I won.”

How the DSA “Movement” Works on the Ground

The “movement” Orkin refers to has optimized the following key components to create a winning model:

• Mass volunteer mobilization with the implementation of a hierarchical, iterative volunteer structure (canvassers, field leads, field coordinators)
• Expansion of the electorate to include non-voters, young people and immigrant communities (specifically Muslim and South Asian voters), specifically targeting undecided and low-propensity voters
• Highly effective communications operations utilizing high-quality video and social media content
• Deep organizational integration with NYC-DSA as the campaign's political home
• Recruitment of "cadre" DSA members for key candidate and campaign staff roles
• Strategic partnerships with labor unions and community organizations
• Optimizing rank-choice voting, which discourages candidates from "punching left"
• Utilizing public campaign matching funds

Why the Democratic Party

While not officially a political party, the DSA functions as such while running on the Democratic ticket. Piggybacking on the Democratic Party as a vehicle for ultimate political dominance versus advancing a more puritan, independent socialist party is an ongoing argument within the organization. These discussions reflect the tension between the more “election-focused” members and those committed to the “movement” at all costs.

Nevertheless, in function, NYC-DSA recruits its own candidates, staffs their campaigns, shapes their policy platforms and organizes massive volunteer canvassing operations.

Watch NYC-DSA member Daniel Goulden, a faculty member in visual and critical studies at the School of Visual Arts and a delegate at the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) National Convention, openly say, “The Zohran campaign was always eager to work with us… We’re like that [gestures closeness]. We wrote the platform with him. The team was so happy to work with us on this. And now he’s going to be mayor!”

Goulden also declared that "with Zohran, we’re in basically the best possible position to seize state power."

Endorsement Politics: Mamdani and AOC

At the state level, Mamdani has intentionally endorsed only five of the DSA candidates – those running in open seats to avoid damaging his working relationship with New York State Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, a powerful politician. Mamdani needs Heastie on his side for city budget and policy requests.

Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) doesn’t have such considerations at the state level, prompting her to pick up the mantle for the rest of the DSA candidates that Mamdani has refrained from endorsing.

However, AOC has a similar problem at the federal level. Thus, Mamdani is actively backing high-profile federal primary challengers, such as Darializa Avila Chevalier, who is running against Rep. Adriano Espaillat, a five-term incumbent who is also chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.

Not coincidentally, Mamdani and AOC released their primary slates simultaneously as part of this coordinated, complementary strategy.

Darializa Avila Chevalier — U.S. Congress District 13

Darializa Avila Chevalier, who is challenging five-term incumbent U.S. Representative Adriano Espaillat in New York's 13th Congressional District, has been the subject of headlines.

First, there was the shock when Mamdani, who reportedly promised Espaillat, the powerful chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, that he would endorse him, then gave his endorsement to Avila Chevalier.

Just days later, thousands of deleted Twitter posts written by Avila Chevalier were made public. The posts “express[ed] support for abolishing police, prisons and borders, as well as seizing private property and nationalizing major industries and call[ed] into question Israel’s right to exist,” according to CNN, which broke the story.

• “Seize the means of production,” she posted in 2019
• Speaking about the police, she posted, “F**k you. We’re gonna defund and abolish. You don’t get to water down our movements” and later, “... [end] policing full stop. Period. No more police at all ever”
• In April, 2020, she reposted, “This is for the DNC u big fraudulent white nasty status quo bitch why u took bernie off the muhfuckin race with ur trifflin dirty voter suppressing ass u holding elections during a pandemic ass bitc [sic]”

The posts also:

• Lambasted Black and Arab men for “fetishizing ugly colonizer women”
• Boasted about wiping her dirty hand on the American flag
• Called former President Joe Biden a “rapist”
• Commented, “f*** Kamala Harris”
• Demanded, “No more police at all ever”
• Asserted Mayor Bill de Blasio “hates Black people” and is “a piece of shit”
• Called American military veterans “child murderers” who are guilty of “war crimes”

Avila Chevalier also shared a post stating that “Israel doesn't exist.”

The deleted tweets, which numbered more than 3,600 and were dated between 2018 and 2022, were archived by Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine.

Despite the posts, Mamdani doubled down on his support for her, effectively converting the scandal into credentials.

In March, while attending Friday prayers at the Al Khoei Islamic Center in Queens, she accused her opponent of being “bought by the Israel lobby to stay silent” in an address to the congregants.

The center is linked to the Alavi Foundation, which has been cited by the DOJ as an Iranian regime front. During the prayer, the imam prayed for the Mahdi to kill the infidels by his sword.

In April 2026, she was arrested at a protest coordinated by Jewish Voice for Peace calling on Senators Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) and Chuck Schumer (D-NY) to vote against selling weapons to Israel.

Avila Chevalier’s platform includes abolishing ICE and ending military support for Israel, which she cites as motivating her to run for Congress.

“I am running for Congress because I see the links between the violence that Palestinians face under Israeli apartheid and the violence Black communities face from American law enforcement,” she posted.

She openly promotes the Deadly Exchange conspiracy theory against Israel, accusing American police of being trained by Israel to enact racist policies.

Avila Chevalier is a Dominican-American and convert to Islam who was one of the leaders of the pro-Hamas encampment at Columbia University. She is an investigator at Neighborhood Defender Services of Harlem, a public defender’s office in New York City, a current PhD student at CUNY.

Her race is being viewed as a test case of Mamdani’s power and his bid to expand DSA’s political control.

Claire Valdez — U.S. Congress 7th District

Claire Valdez is a deeply entrenched DSA member and activist. In August 2025, while serving as a first-term state assembly member, Valdez was arrested at a JVP anti-Israel protest outside the Manhattan offices of U.S. Senators Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand. In September 2025, she was arrested by DHS agents at an anti-ICE protest in Lower Manhattan.

Valdez’s congressional campaign launch featured Mahmoud Khalil, a controversial SJP (now CUAD – Columbia University Apartheid Divest) and JVP leader and organizer of Columbia’s pro-Hamas student encampment who is slated for deportation.

In fact, a bio given out to campaign volunteers to introduce her listed one of her big “achievements” as an assembly member was signing onto a letter calling for the release of Khalil, who had been detained by ICE. (The three other “wins” on her bio were that she rents an apartment, is a member of a union and was an early backer of Mamdani’s mayoral bid.)

After joining NYC-DSA in 2019, she climbed the organizational ranks to serve on her local branch's Organizing Committee, the city-wide Steering Committee and as a leader for major DSA initiatives like the "Tax the Rich" and "Union Power" campaigns.

Valdez’s priorities include abolishing ICE, fighting for a “free Palestine,” ending all weapons sales and military aid to Israel and a host of big government socialist programs, including “affordable” childcare and healthcare for all.

While in the NY State Assembly, she co-sponsored the anti-Israel "Not on Our Dime" act, which removes the tax-exempt status of non-profit charities if they are deemed to be supporting “illegal settlements” or military operations in Israel that violate “international law.”

Valdez is locked in a race against progressive Antonio Reynoso, who has been the Democratic Party's Brooklyn borough president since 2021. Her primary race has been characterized “as testing the emerging strength of NYC-DSA against the more institutional [non-DSA politicians] left in the city,” according to an analysis by City and State NY.

The Times quotes Michael Lange, a writer with ties to both factions, who says that, “This is the new battle line in New York City and urban politics.” Lange coined the term “Commie Corridor” to describe the district’s overwhelmingly young and left-leaning electorate.

It also has the city's largest concentration of socialists, with more than 2,600 active NYC-DSA members.

Diana Moreno — NY State Assembly District 36

DSA candidate Diana Moreno is running to hold on to Mamdani’s former State Assembly seat, which she won in a 2026 special election by 74 percent against the opponents she faces today.

On October 20, 2023, two weeks after Hamas’ massacre of Israelis, Moreno was arrested at an anti-Israel rally in NYC. The next day, she posted proudly, “Last night I was arrested alongside 100+ New Yorkers demanding the bare f**king minimum: Ceasefire NOW! Our government is complicit in the genocide of Palestinians…and complicit in aiding and abetting the genocidal Israeli regime…”

Moreno also participated in the illegal anti-Israel encampment at New York University (NYU) and supported the encampment at Columbia University.

On June 26, 2024, she posted, “Fuck @AIPAC.”

Moreno is virulently anti-ICE and NYPD, and advocates for restricting the role of police.

She is a social organizer and a DSA leader in Queens, as well as a member of the DSA city-level steering committee.

While in Albany, she reintroduced the “Not on Our Dime” bill, which removes the tax-exempt status of non-profit charities if they are deemed to be supporting “illegal settlements” or military operations in Israel that violate “international law.”

The bill was originally proposed in 2023 by Mamdani, then a state assembly member, but failed to pass. Moreno led a coalition of Democratic legislators who reintroduced the bill in May 2026.

Aber Kawas — NY Senate District 12

Aber Kawas, a Palestinian-American anti-Israel activist running for NY’s 12th State Senate District in the upcoming Democratic Party primary, is a close ally of NYC Mayor Mamdani.

Kawas has stirred controversy by dismissing the severity of the 9/11 attacks, saying, “The system of capitalism and racism and white supremacy and Islamophobia have all been used to colonize lands, to take resources from other people, so this is a long trajectory and we're just seeing the manifestations of that continuation with 9/11.”

“The idea that we have to apologize for a terror attack that a couple people did,” she continued, “and then there is no apologies or reparations for genocides and for slavery, et cetera, is something that I kind of find reprehensible.”

As reported by the Jewish Insider, in a series of now-deleted blog posts, Kawas expressed solidarity with a man convicted of providing material support to al-Qaida as well as the Holy Land Five, all of whom she called “imprisoned heros.[sic]” The Holy Land Five were Muslim Brotherhood-associated operators in America convicted in 2008 of sending $12.4 million to Hamas through the Holy Land Foundation in the largest terror-funding prosecution in U.S. history.

In 2026, at an anti-Israel rally built around the message, “America is not our friend,” she was filmed wearing a Hamas headband while leading a chant, “Stand up, fight back!”

Kawas’ resume reads like a who’s who of anti-American and anti-Israel organizational and personal affiliations. As of August 2023, Kawas was a member of the steering committee of the U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights (USCPR), formerly the U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation (ETO).

Kawas credits Linda Sarsour, well-known anti-Israel activist and strategist, for her entry into politics and for being her mentor.

USCPR is a coalition of radical, American-based anti-Israel organizations (including CODEPINK, JVP and SJP chapters) that promote the BDS movement and lobby the U.S. Congress to adopt anti-Israel policies and end government support for Israel.

As of November 2024, Kawas was affiliated with the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR).

Kawas first met Mamdani in 2017 “to discuss centering Palestine in electoral politics – it’s what brought us together years after that to build the Not on Our Dime Campaign."

“Not on Our Dime” is a bill introduced in the New York State Assembly by Mamdani that removes the tax-exempt status of non-profit charities if they are deemed to be supporting “illegal settlements” in or military operations in Israel that violate “international law.”

Kawas is locked in a highly competitive race against Steven Raga, a fellow DSA member who has spent over 20 years working in the community and then representing it as a state assembly member in an overlapping district.

However, whereas Raga is perceived as a reform-minded institutional player, Kawas (who just moved into the district) is viewed as a socialist insurgent, which is likely why she received Mamdani’s endorsement.

David Orkin — NY State Assembly District 38

NYC-DCA wants to replace incumbent Jenifer Rajkumar, a moderate Democrat and a critic of the progressive left. DSA member David Orkin, a lawyer for the George-Soros-backed immigrant rights group Make the Road New York and long-standing anti-Israel activist, is their man.

Despite promoting himself as a “working class” candidate, “Orkin is the scion of famed tush doctor Bruce Orkin and grew up in the wealthy Maryland suburb of Rockville,” reports the New York Post. “The lefty candidate, who is white, wrote his senior thesis analyzing “whiteness” at a Poughkeepsie farmers market.”

Orkin is a down-the-line DSA ideologue. He wants to pass the “New York for All Act,” which includes provisions to ban informal cooperation between local law enforcement and ICE. Orkin’s platform also includes raising the minimum wage to $30 an hour by 2030.

His anti-Israel activism also borders on expressions of support for terrorists. In a post, he applauded the release of Mohammed al-Qahtani, a Saudi national who was accused by U.S. authorities of being the intended "20th hijacker" in the September 11, 2001 attacks.

While at CUNY Law, he signed a letter of support for the terror-supporting group Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP).

He also founded a chapter of the anti-Israel group Jewish Voice for Peace in Tucson, Arizona, before moving to NYC. If elected, he intends to pass the “Not on Our Dime” bill, which removes the tax-exempt status of non-profit charities if they are deemed to be supporting “illegal settlements” or military operations in Israel that violate “international law.” The bill was introduced in the NY State Assembly by Mamdani, then an assembly member.

Orkin knows he’s in it for and with the DSA. “Let’s be honest,” he says, “… [with the DSA] you have people who are doing research for you, helping you draft policy … and helping move the agenda forward … I’m always moving in tandem with their priorities. [emphasis added]”

Conrad Blackburn — NY Assembly District 70

DSA recruited Conrad Blackburn, a lawyer for non-profit group The Bronx Defenders, to unseat one-term incumbent Jordan Wright, who was just named head of the Manhattan Young Democrats. Wright’s father, Keith, previously held the seat and is now chairman of the Manhattan Democratic Party.

Blackburn’s candidacy marks the NYC-DSA’s first foray into the political landscape of Harlem.

Blackburn is a radical decarcerationist. “Even if, like, the client is guilty as f–king sin, I still don’t think that the punishment, like, meets what happened,” he said on “Brothers In Law,” a podcast which he co-hosts. “I still don’t think that person deserves to be thrown in a cage and locked away for the rest of their life.”

“...It’s like cool, this person did maybe … something bad to somebody,” he continued. ”But, like, what are we gonna do about that? … I don’t think it’s prison.”

In a March 2025 episode, Blackburn intimated that criminals who shoot and kill innocent bystanders during gang-related feuds also shouldn’t automatically be tossed in prison. “I think what we envision is some sort of separation from society,” he said. “One that doesn’t have to look like a cage … Maybe community supervision, right? Included in that [are] classes for this individual to understand why what he did harmed society.”

In the same episode, he advocated for “prison abolitionists” to take part in jury duty so they could vote to acquit, regardless of evidence.

Based on a January 2025 episode, the Post reported, “Blackburn claimed society’s ‘appetite’ for ‘abolishing police’ is stronger than its desire to abolish prisons, [but] thinks the general public is more ‘open-minded’ about getting rid of jails than most people think.”

Blackburn also considers every criminal, including rapists, redeemable – except racists. In March 2024, he said, “We're talking about rapes, like predatory sexual assaults of children and homicides … I think everybody is a redeemable person, except racists and people in power who are racists.

“… I think there are people that have issues that aren't their fault; they were born with whatever is going on inside of them, or they developed it from some sort of trauma. So, even your predatory sexual assault or sexual assault of children client, it's not like a lot of those times these people are choosing, in the sense of the word 'choosing', to do these things…”

Blackburn is a union organizer, which motivated his run for public office. “So the only way we could protect union rights is by getting socialists elected into office. That really solidified my view that [the] time is now to run for office and that DSA was my political home in addition to UAW,” he says.

Blackburn, who identifies as a “racial socialist,” has also expressed reverence for Karl Marx and Che Guevara.

On April 27, 2026, Blackburn was featured on a panel at the People’s Forum NYC, a Marxist organization, alongside Hasan Piker (who canceled) and Mohsen Mahdawi titled,

“Columbia & Palestine: A Test of Democracy — Featuring Hasan Piker & Guests.” Mahdawi has since been slated for deportation.

Blackburn also made a promo video with Hasan Piker, who he calls his “homie [slang for friend].”

As per Mamdani’s political strategy, he has refrained from endorsing Blackburn because of the elder Wright's enormous influence.

Christian Celeste Tate — NY State Assembly District 54

DSA is running Christian Celeste Tate to unseat Erik Dilan, a moderate Democrat, 10-term incumbent and a leader of the Puerto Rican and African American communities.

In January, Tate, a community organizer who got his start in the Black Lives Movement and continued with the DSA, was arrested at a protest against ICE.

Like Mamdani, Tate is deeply rooted in socialist principles, believing that government should play a larger role in guaranteeing basic needs. He is anti-development, pro-rent control and plans to pass the “New York for All” bill to prohibit state agencies from collaborating with ICE.

His platform also includes:

• Healthcare guarantees
• Free “universal” childcare
• Free Buses
• $30 minimum wage
• Fighting the “fossil fuel lobby”
• Decarceration
• A Free Palestine

Tate has made Palestine a “local issue,” claiming that “the oppression, violence, and displacement we are fighting against here at home are part of the same power imbalance we are witnessing across the world.”

Tate is committed to passing the “Not on Our Dime” act, which removes the tax-exempt status of non-profit charities if they are deemed to be supporting “illegal settlements” or military operations in Israel that violate “international law.”

Tate also believes in the Deadly Exchange conspiracy theory, vowing to “end training collaborations between the NYPD and Israeli Occupation Force.”

Like Mamdani, Tate supports decriminalization for sex work and pro-prostitution policies. “Sex work is work!” he wrote in a candidate questionnaire.

DSA has repeatedly tried to unseat Dilan. They came closest in 2022, when Samy Nemir Olivares lost by five points (about 200 votes) in the Democratic Party primary.

Even though Tate is a Mamdani ally who worked as a field coordinator on the mayor's campaign, Mamdani has not endorsed him, as per his political strategy of refraining from endorsing DSA insurgents challenging incumbents like Dilan to maintain allies in Albany.

However, he has been endorsed by AOC.

Eon Huntly — NY State Assembly District 56

Eon Huntly got his start in socialism during the 2011 Occupy Wall Street protests. His next boost came in 2016 with Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign.

He claims he wants to “resist war and imperial oppression,” yet protests in favor of Hezbollah-controlled Lebanon and the Iranian regime. Of his June primary, he says, “Palestine is on the ballot.”

He claims he wants to “resist war and imperial oppression,” yet protests in favor of Hezbollah-controlled Lebanon and the Iranian regime. Of his June primary, he says, “Palestine is on the ballot.”

DSA is running Huntly, a retail employee and corporate fashion designer, for the second time against establishment Democrat Stefani Zinerman, who has the endorsements of U.S. House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries and state Attorney General Letitia James.

During the last election, which Zinerman won by a narrow margin, Huntly was lambasted for living outside the district in a fancy condo that received developer tax breaks, a policy he opposed. He has since moved into the district.

Huntly’s platform is long on giveaways but lacks a plan for funding them. He supports:

• Free childcare
• Free CUNY and SUNY
• Free buses
• Free healthcare and “reproductive rights”
• Expanded rent control
• $30 minimum wage

He also supports a Green New Deal for New York, an end to “new fossil fuel infrastructure,” funding for climate “resilience,” no utility rate hikes and gender-affirming care.

If elected, Huntly has vowed to pass the:

• “New York for All” act, which would end NY’s cooperation with ICE detention, and
• “Not on our Dime” act, which removes the tax-exempt status of non-profit charities if they are deemed to be supporting “illegal settlements” or military operations in Israel that violate “international law”

While Mamdani has refrained from endorsing him (to keep his influence in Albany), Huntly has endorsements from Bernie Sanders, AOC, the Working Families Party and Jews for Racial and Economic Justice (JFREJ). He has also done a promo with far-left influencer Hasan Piker, who has himself expressed support for terror.

Samantha Kattan — NY State Assembly District 37

Samantha Kattan is a long-standing DSA member and tenant organizer running for the seat vacated by Claire Valdez (a fellow DSA member and now congressional candidate).

Kattan’s journey within the DSA is a premier example of a grassroots activist rising through the ranks of the organization – from a volunteer to a strategist, a legislative staffer and ultimately a candidate.

Kattan joined NYC-DSA in 2017. She was the first research co-chair of NYC-DSA’s Electoral Working Group, where she volunteered on Julia Salazar’s successful 2018 state senate campaign. Upon entering the chapter, she immediately plugged into its media and organizing apparatus, helping to found “The Thorn,” NYC-DSA's prominent chapter newsletter.

Kattan recruited Phara Souffrant Forrest, a nurse and activist, to run for office. Forrest has been a DSA assembly member since 2021. Between August and December 2023, Kattan served as her deputy chief of staff and her chief of staff.

Kattan also helped mobilize the massive socialist field operation that pressured Albany to pass the 2019 New York Rent Laws expansion, a legislative package that radically overhauled New York's landlord-tenant laws.

In addition to the DSA, she has been endorsed by Mamdani, Bernie Sanders, the Working Families Party and JVP Action.

She has done a campaign promo with far-left influencer Hasan Piker, who himself has expressed support for terror by framing the actions of U.S.-designated terrorist groups – including Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis – as legitimate forms of "resistance" against Western imperialism and Israel.

Her published platform follows the standard DSA talking points, such as free childcare, taxing the rich, anti-ICE (which is a central part of her campaign) and railing against “threats from a fascist federal regime.”

Kattan faces a challenge in the primary from Pia Rahman, a former DSA member who says she wants to bring “stability” to the district. (Rahman accuses DSA members of using the district to launch their political careers.) Kattan is also being challenged by Melissa Orlando, a former Chamber of Commerce president.

Illapa Sairitupac — NY State Assembly District 65

Illapa Sairitupac, who describes himself as a “housing” and “anti-ICE organizer,” is a key player in the NYC-DSA’s organization and its electoral strategy.

He served as co-chair of candidate recruitment, a position from which he resigned when he decided to run for office himself. He also recently served as co-chair of NYC-DSA Electoral Working Group.

In a 2021 interview, Sairitupac explained that before joining DSA, he volunteered for different activist organizations, including the Release Aging People in Prison campaign. After attending a Lower Manhattan DSA branch meeting and hearing a presentation about political power, he felt he had found his "political home."

He then attended a meeting of the NYC-DSA Ecosocialist Working Group and became deeply involved, citing climate change and indigenous perspectives on protecting "Mother Earth" as major motivations for his activism. He later served in other DSA roles, including:

• NYC-DSA's Ecosocialist Working Group
• The Anti-War Working Group organizing committee
• NYC-DSA's "Latino Socialistas" group (which he co-founded)

In 2022, Sairitupac ran for the seat with endorsements from NYC-DSA and the New York Working Families Party, but lost the election by 14 points to current Assembly Member Grace Lee. Lee is now running for state Senate, leaving the seat open.

Sairitupac has been endorsed by Mamdani, who won 65 percent of the district over Cuomo in the last Democratic primary. However, Sairitupac faces two serious rivals, Jasmin Sanchez and Mariama James, who are both community activists leaning into housing affordability in their respective campaigns.