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.
Mamdani clutched it, the DSA voted 52% in favor of keeping Hakeem Jeffries and against endorsing Chi Osse.
DSA literally establishment Democrats now.
It’s a vote over resources and the the fact that Chi is an opportunist.
DSA does not have infinite time and money and volunteers. They need to pick and choose what they support and where they spend their energy. Chi only re-joined because he saw them win with Mamdani, after having joined and quit 2 years ago, with rumours about him talking shit about DSA.
Mamdani should not be endorsing Jeffries, he should be doing what Jeffries did and be talking about “having conversations”. But that doesn’t mean DSA needs to back Osse.
Chi is a DSA member. If the DSA let him join then they should have screened him. Also Chi has a pretty good track record.
Funny how joining the DSA is “opportunistic” now. As if Chi is a literal top AIPAC recipient with a track record of selling our and corruption.
No wait that would be Jeffries.
Mamdani shutting up would be one thing but he actively works for Jeffries against the DSA and Chi Osse.
Again, Chi literally already joined and quit 2 years ago, and has literally stated he only re-joined because he thought they could win. Do you think as DSA gets wins like Mamdani there wouldn’t be opportunists looking to benefit off the back of DSA helping a campaign? It’s already happened. There have been people that got into office off of the work of DSA then shit on them in office. People need to prove themselves. not just just join an org then immediately expect everyone to get on board on their personal campaign straight away. Do you understand how building trust works, especially when you’ve already broken that trust previously?
There’s hardly any screening process to join DSA.