Democratic Socialists in the USA: The other “red wave” in the midterms

One of the Democratic Socialists' biggest victories in the US midterms could be a defeat. In the race for a Senate position in Florida, the socialist Angie Nixon lost extremely narrowly, with 48 percent of the vote. This is remarkable because it is Florida, the heartland of right-wing Cuban exiles, where Donald Trump won by a huge margin in the 2024 election.

Nixon is a member of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA). As the name suggests, the organization advocates democratic socialism. In the Democratic primaries in Florida, the 42-year-old black woman was able to prevail against her establishment competitor.

Nixon came very close to victory on Tuesday, even though the Republican campaign machine was much better financially lubricated. The national Democratic establishment was late in coming out in favor of Nixon - although whether this was an obstacle to them is debatable given the uninspiring leadership in Washington.

Just a few months ago, people were laughed at when they claimed that a socialist could have serious hopes of winning a Senate seat in conservative Florida. However, the midterms have proven that DSA candidates can also be successful beyond the progressive metropolises.

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According to its own election monitor, the DSA endorsed 222 candidates in the Democratic-winning elections - at every level, from national to state to local. As of Thursday afternoon, around two thirds of these candidates won the election. The result is still pending in 38 races.

As the Nixon case suggests, this is not just about deep blue areas, but also about swing districts. For example, the socialist Ashley Herrmann was able to wrest a seat for the Florida House of Representatives from the Republicans in her district. These victories undermine the claim of centrists in the party that a democratic socialist bid can only take hold in progressive cities and not in more conservative regions.

The DSA also achieved success in New York City. Three left-wing candidates, supported by socialist mayor Zohran Mamdani and two of whom are DSA members, won seats in the national lower house. The same goes for DSA-backed Donavan McKinney in Michigan and Chris Rabb in Pennsylvania.

In Colorado's capital Denver, Melat Kiros won the race for the House - the 29-year-old is not only a member of the DSA herself, but also the first black woman to be elected to the US Congress from Colorado. A socialist mayor will govern in the capital Washington, D.C. in the future, and the DSA mayoral candidate in Los Angeles also has a good chance of taking office based on the current count.

The DSA was founded in 1982 by the professor and writer Michael Harrington. They are an independent organization not directly affiliated with the Democratic Party. However, candidates and supporters who take part in the Democratic primaries are recruited from their membership.

But there are also members within the DSA who are critical of participation in elections and the path through the Democratic Party. This faction would rather put resources into building an independent movement or a socialist party. After the successes of recent years, the DSA now claims to have over 130,000 members.

Even in places where there were no DSA candidates on the ballot on Tuesday, you can see their handwriting - or the pressure that electoral successes like Mamdani's exerted in New York. In the Democratic election campaign, the focus shifted away from “preserving democracy,” as was the case under presidential candidate Kamala Harris. The progressives James Talarico in Texas and Abdul El-Sayed railed against the corruption of the Trump administration, the oligarchic conditions in Washington, the war against Iran and promised to improve the living standards of the working population.

“Socialists have not been this strong in the USA for a century,” writes Stefan Liebich, the US director of the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation, in an analysis. The movement at the time not only organized industrial workers, but also protested against the United States' entry into World War I, to which the government responded with repression and prison sentences. Further contributing to the socialists' decline was President Roosevelt incorporating parts of their program into his New Deal agenda until Reagan-style neoliberalism destroyed these tentative social democratic gains.

Under different circumstances, the DSA is now once again influencing the democratic program. It is the committed grassroots members who carry the plea for a left-wing economic policy into the country and into the election campaigns.

After the election results, the left is now strengthened in the fight for the future direction of the Democrats, writes Liebich. Also with a view to the next elections in 2028: New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is now even being discussed as a presidential candidate from the DSA.