Five DSA candidates win seats in U.S. House of Representatives

Five candidates endorsed by the Democratic Socialists of America won seats in the U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday, a record haul that will more than triple the organization’s presence on Capitol Hill when the new Congress convenes in January, NPR reported.

According to race calls by the Associated Press, the victories — Darializa Avila Chevalier and Claire Valdez in New York, Melat Kiros in Colorado, Donavan McKinney in Michigan, and Chris Rabb in Pennsylvania — all took place in reliably blue congressional districts. Just two sitting lawmakers, Rep. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, are currently DSA members. The DSA is not a registered political party, but its endorsed bloc is now on track to grow to at least seven members, giving the group a foothold it has never had in the chamber.

The wins capped a fiercely competitive primary season in which DSA-backed candidates ran on economic populist policies — universal healthcare and childcare, along with more polarizing stances such as abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement — and were unafraid to break with Democratic leadership. In Colorado’s 1st Congressional District, Kiros defeated Rep. Diana DeGette, a 15-term incumbent and member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, in July. Days earlier, Chevalier narrowly defeated Rep. Adriano Espaillat, the influential chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, in New York’s 13th Congressional District. Both upsets saw DSA candidates defeat establishment Democrats.

Five new candidates backed by the Democratic Socialists of America won House seats Tuesday. Together with reelected Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N. Y., and Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., that brings the number of DSA-backed members in the next House of Representatives as of this…

— https://x.com/DailySignal/status/2118039766050472196

Many of the candidates also tapped into voter frustration with the political system itself. They rejected campaign contributions from corporations and pro-Israel lobbying groups, sharply criticized the war in Gaza, and demanded that the U.S. cease military aid to Israel. That platform energized voters on the left, but it also handed Republicans a ready-made attack line, as GOP campaigns sought to paint the broader Democratic Party as too extreme and to link moderate candidates to prominent democratic socialist figures like New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Ocasio-Cortez.

More than tripling on Capitol Hill

If Democrats win back the House by only a thin margin, the DSA-aligned bloc could wield outsize influence over the legislative agenda; a broader majority would dilute that leverage. The first test may come quickly: the upcoming vote for House speaker. If Democrats take the chamber, Rep. Hakeem Jeffries of New York is poised to become the nation’s first Black speaker — and as of now, none of the incoming DSA-endorsed members has committed to supporting him.