CHICAGO—The Democratic Socialists of America sent a clear message to Democrats during its biennial convention: We’re in charge now. Zohran Mamdani’s surprise win wasn’t an anomaly, delegates said, but rather the start of the DSA’s rise to power over the Democratic Party.
Roughly 1,200 DSA members gathered over the weekend at McCormick Place, Chicago’s convention center, to solidify the party’s platform. Tickets for the three-day convention, attended by the Washington Free Beacon, cost $225 and required party membership. Attendees were also required to submit proof of a negative COVID test prior to arrival. A convention live-stream was exclusive to registered DSA members. In-person attendees, primarily delegates elected by their local DSA chapters and a few observers, were requested to keep the convention center’s location confidential. Only delegates could deliver two-minute speeches supporting or opposing resolutions, which required a two-thirds majority to pass. Most speakers identified themselves only by their first name, last initial, and home chapter.
Delegates celebrated Mamdani’s win. More importantly, they said he served as a template for future candidates.
“We need to run campaigns that win. Campaigns like Zohran Mamdani, which put forward a bold vision of a socialist society,” Nate K., a delegate from Atlanta, said during a speech Saturday morning debating a resolution on whether to put forth a socialist candidate in 2028. “Zohran shows that Palestine is a winning issue. That socialism is a winning issue.”
“The time for protest campaigns and messaging is over. The time for winning is now,” he continued. “We can win the Democratic primary in 2028. There’s polls now that show that a majority of the Democratic primary electorate supports Palestine and would want a Democratic socialist to win the presidential primary in 2028.”
Another delegate, Jesse B. from central Indiana, suggested during a speech on the same motion that the DSA has the opportunity to seize power with the Democratic Party’s favorability ratings in the tank.
“The Democratic Party is dying. They have less support than the Republican Party,” he said.
Indeed, the Democratic establishment has slowly but surely begun recognizing and praising Mamdani. While some top Democrats were reportedly gripped by “absolute panic and fear” following his victory, Mamdani earned an endorsement from Massachusetts senator Elizabeth Warren, praise from Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer, and a meeting with House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries.
DSA delegates passed a number of resolutions to amend the party’s platform while periodically waving Communist Party flags. It was the DSA’s first convention since Oct. 7—the party addressed Hamas’s terrorist massacre by adopting an anti-Israel resolution between “Free Palestine” and “Death to the IDF” chants.
One resolution made “organizing in solidarity with the Palestinian cause a priority until Palestine is free.” It also affirmed the DSA’s commitment to “al-Thawabit,” a foundational creed the Palestine Liberation Organization created in 1977 “to which all Palestinian factions must pledge fealty.” The principles include the “right to resistance,” the “right to self-determination,” the designation of “Jerusalem as the capital” of a Palestinian state, and the “right to return.”
Under the resolution, any members who violate those principles, including Mamdani, would be subject to expulsion from the party.
Socialist “Squad” member Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D., Mich.) delivered Friday’s keynote address on “fighting fascism.” She denounced her congressional colleagues who support Israel as a Jewish state.
“There will be a reckoning for these monstrous crimes and excuses of war criminals and genocide funders, and cheerleaders will not save them from the justice that they will see in their communities,” Tlaib said.
Following the speech, the convention hosted a conversation between Tlaib and Twitch streamer Hasan Piker, who once said “America deserved 9/11” and denied Hamas’s atrocities during Oct. 7.
“Zionism is an exterminationist ideology built around ethno-religious supremacist values,” Piker told Tlaib during the interview.
The convention also provided special programming sessions, including one on “winning campaigns” led by Jeremy Cohan, a steering committee member and the former chapter co-chair of NYC DSA. He said he and the NYC chapter were “deeply integrated” with the Mamdani campaign.
“The whole kind of campaign operation is integrated into DSA. The data collection, the staff, the field leads … they are not the same, the campaign and the DSA, but they are like deeply, deeply integrated, where it’s not just showing up once in a while, but developing a kind of a full organization building as well as campaign winning a program,” Cohan said.
“I do believe that the foundations for a Zohran exist in all of our chapters. But that is not like easy to figure out,” Cohan added. He also dismissed any attempts from Mamdani to publicly moderate, saying the mayoral hopeful is not just anti-ICE but wants to abolish the agency altogether.
“Zohran has this amazing platform about abolishing ICE, and Zohran [has] confronted Tom Homan,” Cohan said.
Other NYC DSA members during the convention made bold claims about Mamdani’s platform. During a Sunday morning panel debriefing Mamdani’s win, one chapter member said Mamdani was committed to disbanding the New York City Police Department’s Strategic Response Group, a special operations unit tasked with handling mass shootings.
Another said that while the DSA was committed to abolishing the NYPD, attempts to do so will outlast Mamdani: “We’re not abolishing the NYPD on day one, or probably in his term. That’s a long term project.”
