The DSA vs. establishment Democrats
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
The last time Antonio Mays Sr. heard from his son, it was in a note the 16-year-old left in the family's garage. He told me he was going to make me proud. Antonio Jr. left home to join a protest in Seattle. A week later, he was shot and killed there. I need some arrest made, justice for my son. Listen to We Keep Us Safe on the Embedded podcast from NPR.
What are some alternate words that could make up the DSA acronym? What could DSA possibly stand for?
Does it have to be like based in reality or can it just be, I'm sorry, divas supporting anarchy?
Divas supporting anarchy. Wow, that's so much better than anything I was going to say.
No, no, it was pure luck. That's incredible.
Driving sassy. This is good. Driving sassy.
Action.
Action. Thank you. Yeah.
There you go. Mine is actually quite related. Door knocking supplied astonishingly because. Oh, that's good. The DSA be knocking on them doors.
Yeah. Yeah.
DSA, if you haven't heard, actually stands for Democratic Socialists of America. It's the largest socialist organization in the U.S., and they advocate for policies and positions that would put us closer to a social democracy. The Green New Deal and Medicare for All, for example. It's not a political party, but rather a political and activist organization. And they've recently been flexing their organizing skills by running candidates for federal elections as Democrats and winning. DSA candidates won House primaries in New York, Colorado, and Pennsylvania. And part of why this is kind of a big deal is some of these candidates were going up against pretty powerful incumbents. One DSA candidate in New York beat the current chair of the House Hispanic Caucus, and another in Colorado beat an incumbent who had been in her seat for almost 30 years.
And it's not just these races for federal seats. DSA candidates won down-ballot primaries for state legislature in New York, Oregon, Georgia, and Kentucky. and for mayor of D.C. And I don't know if you've seen it, but I keep seeing a ton of stories of establishment Democrats freaking out about this. And there's been a lot of narratives coming from Democrats about why this is happening and why the DSA is a problem. But what public sentiment are these Democratic voters expressing here? And if this is actually a Tea Party moment, what does that change for everyday people? To get into it, I'm joined by Akayla Lacey, senior politics reporter at The Intercept and host of their Intercept Briefing podcast, and Michael Lang, New York political analyst, writer of the Narrative Wars substack, and a DSA member.
Michael, Akayla, welcome to It's Been a Minute.
Good to be here. Thanks for having us.
Thank you for having us. Hello, hello. I'm Brittany Luce, and you're listening to It's Been a Minute from NPR, a show about what's going on in culture and why it doesn't happen by accident.
So, OK, we're talking about some recent primaries where DSA candidates won House races over some establishment or some progressive Democrats. Were you surprised at all by these wins? Akilah, let's start with you.
In some ways, yes, and in some ways, no. I think, like, Melot Kuros in Colorado was more of, like, a likely, you know, that she would upset Diana to get just based on things I was hearing from people on the ground and some polling in the race, but... In New York, Daria Liza Avila-Chevalier's upset of Adriano Espaillat was not something that I had anticipated. I thought it would be a close race, but I wasn't sure if she would pull it off just given his seniority. And then, you know, the open seat where Claire Valdez beat Antonio Reynoso. I live in that district, so I felt like, you know, she had a shot, but I did not see a 20-point blowout coming immediately after the polls closed.
Yeah. Michael, I mean, you know, you are covering New York City. You've been covering New York City pretty closely for a while now. I mean, were you surprised at all?
I think I was pleasantly surprised, especially kind of by the scale of it. But I wasn't shocked. I mean, I think the biggest thing is that last year when Zoran Mamdani ran for mayor, kind of the composition of the Democratic electorate in New York City changed significantly.
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Chapters
4 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:00–4:27
2
What recent DSA primary wins are reshaping Democratic politics?
4:27–15:14
3
Were these DSA upsets surprising to local and national reporters?
15:14–26:23
4
Are accusations of racial displacement being used against DSA candidates in New York?
26:23–26:58