Janeese Lewis George has won the Democratic primary for Washington, D.C. mayor, all but assuring the democratic socialist will replace Mayor Muriel Bowser as mayor of the nation's capitol in January. Kenyan McDuffie, Lewis George’s leading opponent, conceded the race on Thursday.
It is the latest sign of the influential Democratic Socialists of America expanding its reach in the wake of last year's election of Zohran Mamdani as mayor of New York City. Across the country, there are signs that more candidates are identifying as democratic socialists or aligning themselves with the DSA's platform, as the far-left organization's membership grows.
DC is not NYC. Mayor George will be hemmed in by Republicans in Congress at every turn. This is especially a problem for a DSA Mayor because DSA believes that “delivering” is the key to success on the Left. One can see this in action with Mamdani. His entire focus is on getting shit done. Mayor George will have an uphill battle there. Still, it’s an exciting win and I’m sure they’re thrilled. I also think centrist and Right wing Democrats have to drop the smear that DSA are racist at some point. So many DSA candidates are minorities and/or women it starts to become silly to insist all these black and brown DSA’ers are “racist” or “bros”. Come on. No one with eyes believes this. Oppose them on ideology, by all means, but drop the smears.
As I have mentioned here before, I joined DSA (cheapskate level only!) because I wanted to read their various forums and one must be a member to do that. I also joined because I no longer find the institutional Democratic Party credible on DSA, and I like to read original sources.
Ideology aside, DSA are good organizers. I’m an “at large” in the west Michigan org and I get about an email a week inviting me to something; a book club, a meeting at a bar, a picnic. West Michigan is the Right wing half of Michigan - unlike NYC or DC, Lefties are few and far between. But still DSA puts quite a bit of effort into the tiny, scrappy band of Leftists who are in Betsy DeVos’ backyard (Grand Rapids MI).
So I’ve been reviewing my own time in county leadership in the Democratic Party and I think I didn’t do enough organizing. I should have put more effort into community-building. I mean, we did SOME (and the little we did three women did all the work) but we could have done a lot more. I know that because I’ve joined the county Dems in my new home county of Michigan and just in the months of June and July they are holding a book club, a highway clean up effort, a “Pizza for the People” event at a private home and a rank choice voting education session. Two events a month sounds about right.
