This good news but wish we could win bigger races. Like governors.
Its a city with more people in it than 25 states.
Also home to no less than 17 different US congressional districts, 27 State Assembly districts, and 14 State Senate districts. Lots of opportunities to bring socialists into your administration, contract with labor-friendly businesses and encourage pro-labor policy in the enormous municipal workforce, and line up the next generation of socialist aspirants for high office. As a center of power from which to cultivate more like-minded Socialist politicians you’d be hard pressed to name a better spot.
I would say the bigger issue with the LA Mayoralty is that it’s a generally weak-mayor system, requiring more buy-in from City Council and a good raport with the City Controller to get a budget approved. Fortunately, DSA already holds several city council seats and has been expanding its popularity city-wide for over a decade.
If you’re going to be a Socialist in America and you have aspirations toward public office (or just a role in the public-sector bureaucracy), you can pick quite a few worse places to live.
I look at it same as Mamdani.
We need to show people a good example of these policies in practice. And this addresses the criticism of only going for President or higher office.
only going for President
It’s less of a problem now that national media effectively refuses to cover third party candidates as more than a novelty or a joke. Historically, a run for President guaranteed a national platform and easier national ballot access for the party (for better or worse). Now third party bids just make you a national pariah. You get more media mileage running as a Congressional or Mayoral underdog in a hot primary than as a 2% vote-getter at a national level.
As an aside, I don’t think the US would elect from a third party, for President. However, I do think the US would elect an independent to the Presidency. There is just too much legacy baggage and propaganda against third parties in the US.
I don’t think the US would elect from a third party, for President.
Ross Perot won 19M votes - a full 19% of the total cast - in 1992. And that was after dropping out suddenly, then needing to reboot his campaign following a popular high watermark in June. At that point, Perot led the national public opinion polls with support from 39% of the voters (versus 31% for Bush and 25% for Clinton).
I think you’re underselling how influential an outsider could be if both parties ran really disappointing candidates. It should be noted that Republican polling was in the garbage by the end of Bush 41’s term, while Democrats suffered enormous structural headwinds (virtually every big state had a Republican lean in 1992).
It isn’t that hard to imagine a 2028 campaign in which a turd like JD Vance runs against a Mondale-esque Democrat and the popular voting majority is woed by a Platner-style independent. Or a third-party George Wallace / Huey Long candidate tries to do National Socialism outside the two party system, with the backing of Silicon Valley tech trillionaires and media magnets.
Hell, we almost saw something similiar with the RFK Jr campaign (before he was bought off and brought in by Trump) in 2024. And Trump himself, after he threatened to run indie during the 2016 GOP Primaries. We actually saw something like this play out in 1912, when Theodore Roosevelt ran an independent campaign against his own former VP, Howard Taft, and consigned the GOP to a third place finish (while handing Woodrow Wilson a landslide win).
I think you’re underselling how influential an outsider could be if both parties ran really disappointing candidates.
I mean, look, we’re in a politics forum thats practically a shitpost-tier. From my own perspective… I think Bernie should have ran Independent in 16’, '20, and '24 after the bullshit the Dem’s pulled. I personally reject almost all of the traditional “wisdom” of whats possible in politics.
But just because you or I think those things, there is a form of permission wall ideas like these have to get through. Or at least media believe it has the ability to shut down strategies like this.
I keep trying to think about who should run for President on the left in 2028, and I keep feeling like I don’t have an option to put forwards. Do you have any suggestions for candidates you think could run this outside power strategy?
Many governors are former mayors.
This is exactly how grassroots movements work, they start small and work their way up.
Good hopefully he can reform or disband the LAPD
Francesca Hong in Wisconsin is also being billed as a Mamdani. It just goes to show that the DSA approach of economic policy is popular.
The next Mamdani? We only just started with the now Mamdani!
No love for Seattle’s mayor Katie Wilson
Wow that’s great.
