Vote Socialist
New Independent Socialist Campaigns Just Dropped
Jason Thiel
It’s that time of year for the talking heads to come out of the woodwork and peddle the lie that if the Democrats win elections they are going to reel in Trump.
Trump’s approval rating on the economy and healthcare have cratered to historic lows. But people are completely fed up with both parties
Two and a half years of bipartisan support for genocide combined with worsening material conditions has caused a historic surge in anger at both parties that is expressing itself concretely in a record number of independent socialist campaigns up and down the ballot in state after state, red and blue.
New York
In New York City, independent socialist Andre Easton is running for Congress in the Bronx against notorious warmonger Ritchie Torres. Torres has gained notoriety for being a dogged supporter of Israel’s genocide. In early 2024, he was the largest recipient of AIPAC money during a wave of spending while Congress was voting on military aid to Israel.
Torres represents the poorest Congressional District in the country, NY-15. In 13 days, Andre Easton’s campaign collected 10,000 signatures to get him on the ballot. Easton is running on concrete working class demands like raising the minimum wage to $30/hr, free healthcare for all, free childcare, and ending U.S. military aid to Israel.
Ritchie Torres is also being primaried by former Vice Chair of the Democratic National Committee Michael Blake. Blake’s campaign is posing as an anti-AIPAC challenger to AIPAC’s poster boy Torres. But this is a lie designed to contain the anger against the genocide. Blake has a long history of AIPAC support, which he has tried to cover up by scrubbing his social media. Until recently, Blake was a regular at AIPAC conferences. In 2020, he wrote an article on his position on Israel where he said that, “America has no closer friend and ally in the Middle East than Israel, and I will do everything in my power to keep it that way.”
New York’s 15th Congressional District has over 750,000 residents. Yet in the last few Congressional elections, fewer than 200,000 of those residents actually voted. Andre Easton’s campaign is a concrete way to reach voters who don’t bother to vote for Democrats like Torres and Blake, and who recognize that Democrats have nothing to offer workers. Workers and the left in New York City should rally around Easton’s campaign.
California
California has the largest surge of independent socialists running for office up and down the ballot this year.
In Los Angeles, Aida Ashoury is running for city attorney with the Peace and Freedom Party, pledging to prosecute corporate landlords and help renters organize. Meghann Adams is a school bus driver running as a socialist for CA Controller. Ramsey Robinson, a member of the Party of Socialism and Liberation, is running for governor on a platform of free universal healthcare, rent control and taxing the rich to build quality affordable housing, and higher wages.
There are over a dozen candidates for governor on the primary ballot, with the election taking place in just a couple weeks on June 2nd. The two leading Democrats are billionaire Tom Steyer and a former Biden administration official named Xavier Becerra. Steyer has been spending big on trying to whitewash his career making a fortune on private prisons by proclaiming to support Medicare for All (which he used to be against) and other progressive policies.
Governor Gavin Newsom promised universal healthcare, but once in office he sold workers out. Supporting Steyer or any other Democrat is just kicking the football again. Workers should cast their vote for Ramsey Robinson and the whole slate of socialists across California. If you live in California, Vote Socialist on June 2nd!
Ohio
Ohio has an independent socialist running for Senate. Greg Levy, also a member of the Party for Socialism and Liberation, is running for Senate against Republican John Husted and former Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown. Levy is running on ending U.S. military aid to Israel, ending the war on Black America, and to take the top 100 companies into public ownership.
Sherrod Brown was ousted from the other Ohio Senate seat by a Republican and is now looking to flip this seat in a special election against Husted. Both Husted and Brown are backed by AIPAC. Brown has received a whopping $1.3 million from AIPAC and the pro-Israel lobby. The Democrats are spending enormous amounts of money on his campaign, having spent over $24 million already from wealthy donors.
Polling has shown that this race is close. With an independent socialist in the race as a potential “spoiler” Democrats will most assuredly be ramping up the drumbeat of lesser evilism. Levy’s campaign needs to go all in. Socialist campaigns should be spoilers. We want to end the Democratic AND the Republican parties, and we can only do that by actually threatening their power through campaigns like this.
Ohio has a proud history of spoiling election night for the ruling class. In 1844, Thomas Morris of Ohio ran on the Liberty Party ticket for vice president. The Liberty Party was an unapologetic antislavery party that rejected the lesser evilism of the Whig Party. They won 2.3 percent of the vote and were accused of throwing the election to the pro-slavery Democrats. But the Liberty Party showed that the antislavery movement couldn’t be ignored, and helped lay the basis for the movement that abolished slavery two decades later.
Rhode Island, Indiana, and Washington
In Rhode Island, a DSA member named Brittany Kubicek is running for Rhode Island State House. She has the backing of the local DSA chapter and was recently endorsed by National DSA. As of writing, this is the only truly independent socialist campaign that National DSA has supported in this election. This should not be the exception.
In Washington state, independent socialist Kshama Sawant is challenging 29-year incumbent Democrat Adam Smith. Adam Smith is an arch warmonger who has steadfastly funded genocide, ICE, and the war in Iran. He voted to create ICE. He voted for the Iraq war. Kshama spent 10 years on the Seattle City Council building movements that won historic victories like the first $15/hr minimum wage, the Amazon Tax, and landmark renters’ rights. Kshama’s campaign has raised the most money of any independent socialist campaign in decades, with over $600,000 raised from over 6,000 working-class donors in every state.
Socialists in Indiana, including Indianapolis City Councilor and DSA member Jesse Brown, have launched the Socialist Party of Indiana. They are running two candidates, Harrison Jacobo for Secretary of State and Ben Davis for State House District 13 in greater Lafayette. Republicans run Indiana, but not because they are popular. In fact, the Republican governor of Indiana, Mike Braun, is one of the least-popular governors in the country. Republicans control Indiana because people hate the Democrats even more. Indiana has a real opportunity to make a historic breakthrough in building a socialist party because of how weak and hated the Democrats are.
We need a new party
These campaigns are not just about electing a particular candidate or casting a “protest vote.” They are a concrete step towards a new party in this country. Workers have spent decades electing Democrat after Democrat, and Republican after Republican, hoping that something would change. The House Progressive Caucus has nearly 100 members, making up almost half of the Democrats in the House. But what has that won us? What has 8 years of AOC in Congress won us? What would four years of President AOC win us?
History has shown us that change is not slow. We will not win free healthcare by spending 20 years slowly adding more “progressives” to Congress. The capitalists won’t just sit by like frogs in boiling water, as we slowly chip away at the health insurance industry. We need to fight for immediate, revolutionary change.
Seattle did not become the first city to win the $15 minimum wage by winning a progressive majority of Democrats on the City Council. It was won by fast food workers walking out, large street protests, and crucially, electing an independent socialist to City Council: Kshama Sawant. The threat that her election would lead to more independent socialists and the formation of a socialist party was what forced concessions from the Democrats.
All of these independent socialist campaigns around the country represent opportunities to make a breakthrough that could help lay the basis for a new socialist party. Workers around the country should support these campaigns. If you’re a member of DSA, a socialist group, or a union, fight for your organization to endorse and build these campaigns.