As progressive candidates scored wins across the country last week, a historic number of socialists swept into power – in Congress, in state legislatures and at the helm of American cities.
Democratic Socialists of America members Nithya Raman and Janeese Lewis George were elected to lead the second largest US city – Los Angeles – and the capital – Washington DC respectively. Two other young DSA members, David Morales and Yousef Rabhi, were elected mayors of Providence, Rhode Island, and Ann Arbor, Michigan. They will join a handful of socialist mayors in smaller cities, including Burlington, Vermont, and Irvine, California – as well as Zohran Mamdani, the democratic socialist mayor of New York, the largest city in the US.
Mamdani, who grew up politically within New York City’s DSA chapter and has become the insurgent leftist group’s best known representative, was considered a long-shot candidate before his meteoric rise. He’s now one of the most popular politicians in the country and his election is widely credited with inspiring historic numbers of democratic socialists surging to office across the country and up and down the ballot.
Come January, the number of DSA members in Congress will have quadrupled (to eight), and more than 100 DSA-endorsed candidates will sit in local, state and national office. But DSA mayors, who have authority over more prosaic elements of governance, from garbage pickup to snow days, face a unique opportunity to prove to the public that the group’s ideals of affordability and inclusivity can improve the lives of working people – the central tenet of DSA’s vision.
“It’s the executive office, so the stakes are actually higher there,” said Eric Blanc, an assitant professor of labor studies at Rutgers University and DSA member.
“If politics cannot deliver on the block where you live, why would you trust it to deliver anywhere?” Mamdani told a gathering of mayors from around the world, on the sidelines of the United Nations general assembly earlier this fall.“If you are making a New Yorker’s life a little smoother, so too you are making their journey to believe in government’s ability to deliver for them.”
According to the New York Times, which covered the event, Mamdani made the remarks to fellow mayors to explain his fixation with potholes – his office says he has repaired more than 200,000 since taking office.
Similar to Mamdani, the incoming DSA mayors have run campaigns focused on affordability and practical improvement to people’s lives. Raman, an urban planner, has promised more housing and public transit improvements. Lewis George has campaigned on universal childcare, public housing and better protections for tenants. Morales has pitched affordable housing and called for corporations to contribute a larger share toward public education and city services. Rabhi has pledged to fight data centers and keep utilities affordable.
While his critics have generally focused on debates with little to do on municipal government, Mamdani has been focused on delivering on campaign promises such as a rent freeze, universal childcare and taxing the rich.
“Zohran already demonstrated proof of concept, contrary to all of the predictions of imminent collapse” of the city, Blanc said. “He has already demonstrated what democratic socialist governance can look like.”
“If others can follow this model, which is to take big fights against the rich and powerful, be out there proving to people that you can make their lives better, I think that is going to be what will help avoid some of the real difficulties of governing,” he added.
Katie Wilson, the mayor of Seattle and a self-identified democratic socialist – though not a DSA member – agreed. She called a mayor’s job “the best in the world” and noted that the office requires a mix of “the high and the low”.
“There’s big vision and ambitions and values, and then on the other hand a lot of the job is the real nitty-gritty of keeping the lights on,” she said. “It’s really important as socialists and progressives coming into office that we’re able to get those nitty-gritty details right, do the basics well.”
As a growing number of progressives have called on Democrats to “deliver”, following last week’s landslide wins, mayors will be the first to have to show results. Wilson said they should deliver on what is within their reach and maintain close working relationships with the grassroots organizers that helped them get elected.
“What people are affirming in voting for progressives and socialists in this moment, is that we believe in the power of government to improve people’s lives,” she said.
Even when the ability to deliver falls beyond their municipal authority, a mayor should show people “that you’re fighting for them”, she added.
“You’re not going to build socialism in one city ultimately, but how do you embody those values, and that vision, and take real, tangible steps toward socialistic policies, in a way that improves the daily lives of the residents of your city?”
