Over 700 Socialists Have Won Elections in America

“I don’t believe that our current economic system works…we’ve got to move into something new and I believe in community ownership of land, labor, and resources and distribution of those resources.” – Denver City Councilwoman Candi CdeBaca

Over the past few years socialists are progressively winning local offices. While much attention is being paid to the socialists who are in Congress and are running for President, socialists are quietly winning more and more state and local elections. As Socialism is gaining in popularity, especially with young people, socialists and progressive groups are building a farm team of state and local elected officials who are trying to implement Socialism across the country in state and local government. There are many different groups of socialists who are prioritizing running and endorsing candidates for lower offices.

The largest socialist organization in America is the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA). It  has created a widespread and seemingly effective network that has had success winning elections by promoting socialist candidates and supporting their campaigns, while “building a sustainable socialist political organization.” The DSA has tried to consolidate as much power as possible and then use that power to bring about social justice specifically racial justice and socialized government programs. 

In 2019, five DSA endorsed candidates won Chicago City Council elections. Also, the DSA had four DC Neighborhood Commissioners elected, a Maryland county executive elected, and two members of the MD House of Delegates elected. In June 2019, Councilwoman CdeBaca won her City Council election in Denver. According to Eric Wimer, California, Hawaii, Northeast, and Electoral Organizer for DSA, the total number of DSA endorsed candidates who have won are just over 90.

One of the groups DSA encourages their members to work with is Our Revolution, which seeks to “reclaim democracy for the working people by harnessing the transformative energy of the ‘political revolution.’”. In the 2016 election, 58 candidates endorsed by Our Revolution won their general elections. In the 2018 party primaries, Our Revolution endorsed 85 candidates with 27 of them winning their primaries. Since the November 2017 elections, Our Revolution has claimed 102 general election winners. 

The Progressive Change Campaign Committee, PCCC for short, is a political action committee, a “million-member grassroots organization building power at the local, state, and federal levels.” The PCCC has backed 22 total candidates that have won their elections. 

Another group, the Working Families Party (WFP), which describes itself as “a progressive grassroots political party building a multiracial movement of working people to transform America” (implement Socialism). They are working toward a transformation into Socialism. WFP touts they “elected 457 WFP candidates to local and statewide office across 38 states” in 2018 and more than 50 in municipal and local elections in 2019. 

In total, more than 700 socialist or socialist aligned candidates have won at the state or local level. Conservatives need to wake up to realize how many groups are trying to transform America into a socialist country and transform their communities into socialist cities. Better yet, we need a new generation of liberty-minded individuals to step forward to run for office, defeat Socialism, and improve their communities. 

American Majority is a non-profit and non-partisan political training organization whose mission is to train and equip a national network of leaders committed to individual freedom through limited government and the free market. Please contact team@americanmajority.org to find out more about activist or candidate training for yourself or your group. 

Compiled and Co-Written by American Majority intern, Courtney Hahn