New Socialist Party Launches in Indiana

Can workers turn Indiana red?

Em Smith

On March 15, two dozen union members, elected officials, and activists held a press conference outside the historic home of Eugene V. Debs — four-time presidential candidate for the Socialist Party of America — to announce the launch of the Socialist Party of Indiana.

At the press conference, Socialist Party chair Mary Kate Dugan said: “We’ve been locked into this corrupt two-party system for a long time. There are folks who tell me it’s too difficult to start a new party, that compromise with the capitalists is the best we can do. To that I say bullshit.”

The new party was launched with the support of an Indianapolis city councilmember, Jesse Brown. Brown won his seat as an open socialist in 2023, against the opposition of both big business and the bureaucratic union leadership in the AFL-CIO, which backed his Democratic Party opponent. Brown is a member of the Democratic Socialists of America.

The Socialist Party of Indiana was created out of necessity. The party’s launch is a direct response to the Democratic Party leadership in Marion County (Indiana’s most populous county, which includes Indianapolis) effectively purging socialists and progressives from the party, preventing over 100 of them from running in internal party elections.

The purge of socialists by the Democratic Party in Indiana reflects the impossibility of socialists remaining within that party.

Socialists cannot make peace with either capitalist party. Socialists who try to stay inside the Democratic Party will either sell out or be forced out. The billionaires who run the party won’t tolerate a socialist who fights to win.

The Socialist Party of Indiana is running three candidates in the 2026 elections. They have launched an ambitious campaign to collect 32,000 valid signatures to win permanent ballot access for the party.

Jesse Brown, the Indianapolis City Councilmember who supported the party’s launch, continues to work within the Democratic Party. In a blog post about the party’s launch, he argued, “It will take an ‘inside-outside’ strategy in order to put an end to the Uniparty political monopoly in Indiana.” 

This “inside-outside” approach will fail. The Socialist Party of Indiana is already under attack from capitalist politicians, and these attacks will grow. Socialists need to put every ounce of effort into building our own party. Brown should pledge publicly now that in his next election, he will run as a Socialist.

Socialists need to give all possible support to this new party. DSA should send full-time organizers to Indiana to help collect signatures and win ballot access. Union members should organize for support in their unions.

We need to turn this act of necessity into an act of conscious defiance. Socialists need to chart a course for an immediate break with the Democratic Party. Like Kshama Sawant’s campaign in Seattle, the Socialist Party of Indiana can be a major step down that path.

We agree with Harrison Jacobo, the Socialist Party candidate for Indiana Secretary of State: “It’s time for all of us, the working-class people of Indiana, to stand together under the banner of a Socialist Party of Indiana.”