Of all the democratic socialists who piled into a Manhattan church on Wednesday evening, none had the cachet of the man handed a microphone toward the meeting’s close.
Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani offered some pleasantries — “Hello friends, Zohran, he/him, Queens D.S.A.” — before launching into his mission: torpedoing the candidacy of a left-leaning ally, Councilman Chi Ossé, who is attempting to unseat Representative Hakeem Jeffries, the top House Democrat.
The remarkable scene was both a reflection of the tricky political calculuses Mr. Mamdani confronts as he prepares to take office next year and the egalitarian nature of a group that served as the grass-roots organizing machine of his political success.
The main factions of NYC-DSA, Socialist Majority and Groundwork, are more moderate and electoral focused, they will do whatever Mamdani says. Chatter among left caucuses is much more divided. We aren’t getting upset about the decision to not endorse Osse, but the non endorsement is not a defacto endorsement for Jeffries.
Looking at the huge bump in energy from the Mamdani campaign, running another candidate in a high-profile race would likely provide another bump. And defeating Jeffries with a more progressive candidate would be good.
However its hard to gauge what his commitment to DSA principles are. He left the org 5 years ago and is coming back now like we have always been chill. Chi has inflamed some controversy last few years with some of his positions. There’s def a lot of room for development of Chi as a cadre candidate but that development hasn’t happened as he rejoined very recently
Here is the SMC article justifying the non-endorsement, for more context. https://www.socialistmajority.com/theagitator/chi-osse-endorsement
I think there is some realpolitik-ing going on behind the scenes. But the DSA left have not come out with a strong criticism of Mamdani’s appeal, that I’m aware of, and there are prominent left caucuses that will make hay wherever there is grass. Seems like internally DSA isn’t real divided though there are def some lingering questions around the non-endorsement that aren’t concrete.
NYT has been publishing back to back hit pieces on DSA, which is another factor to keep in mind also
Thanks for this detailed context