Winning as a Socialist on the Democratic Line

Democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani is running a competitive campaign for New York City mayor in the Democratic primary, sharply focused on a platform of fast and free buses, universal childcare, and freezing the rent for tenants who lived in rent-stabilized buildings. 

This fresh, energetic campaign follows widespread pessimism and anger with Joe Biden’s administration and the Democratic Party in recent years, on issues ranging from Palestine to the cost of living in the United States, particularly sky-high rents and groceries.

In the past decade, New York City DSA members have used Democratic primary challenges to defeat former Congressman and Queens party boss Joseph Crowley, New York State Senator Martin Dilan, and assistant speaker of the New York State Assembly, Felix Ortiz. Many of these challengers like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Marcela Mitaynes were inspired by Bernie Sanders, but this strategy dates at least as far back as socialist Upton Sinclair’s run for governor of California in the 1930s.

Despite the success of these political upsets, some members have argued recently that Zohran should be running as a third-party candidate for New York City Mayor in the general election.

“When NYC-DSA candidates win the Democratic primary, they typically take a break, go silent, and run passive or nonexistent campaigns in the general, coasting to wins in the safe Democratic districts they typically run in and win,”  member David V. wrote in the Socialist Call. “DSA candidates may have won the Democratic primary largely by appealing to triple prime voters, but in the general election they become just another part of the Democratic Party blob.”

David also wrote that “NYC-DSA leadership remains committed to a long-established strategy of exclusively running candidates in the Democratic primary, avoiding experiments with third-party ballot lines or campaigning in general elections.”

But NYC-DSA has learned important lessons about building political power for working-class people from our experimentation with third-party candidates, socialist ballot lines, and primary challenges. These lessons inform all the organizing we do today.

I also know that the leaders we endorse are not “just another part of the Democratic party blob.” They are actively organizing in our communities as democratic socialists around the clock, regardless of whether it’s the primary season, the general election, or an off-peak year. 

My democratic socialist assemblymember Marcela Mitaynes, for instance, constantly organizes for tenants and working-class immigrant families, no matter what day or month it is in the political calendar. The year after Mitaynes won her seat, she showed great courage and resolve by taking part in a hunger strike by immigrant workers.

During that hunger strike, Mitaynes fasted for 13 days in Judson Memorial Church to stand up for New Yorkers who were on the frontlines as essential workers but excluded from federal stimulus checks, rent relief, and other benefits. New York State ultimately approved a $2.1 billion fund for excluded immigrant workers. Socialist leaders like Mitaynes always stand out from the Democratic Party because of the unique vision they bring to public service. 

For greater context, I decided to reach out directly to New York State Senator and DSA member Jabari Brisport, who has had the distinctive experience of running on the Green Party, Socialist, and Democratic Party ballot lines, to see what lessons he could share in this political moment. 

I first heard of Brisport in 2017, when a friend asked me to door-knock for his campaign in a City Council race. The Brooklyn public school teacher was running in the General Election on both the Green Party line and a Socialist ballot line after socialist and Lutheran pastor Palestinian-American Khader el-Yateem narrowly lost a Democratic primary that year. 

The race was in a City Council district that included Brooklyn neighborhoods Crown Heights, Prospect Heights, Clinton Hill, and Fort Greene. Brisport spent a month on a bicycle trying to collect about 30 signatures from the district’s registered Green Party members.
“It was surprisingly very difficult,” he said. “It would be three signatures a day at most, it was hard.”

This is very different from collecting signatures in a Democratic primary race. Typically, volunteers help candidates get on the ballot in political races by standing near subway stations and grocery stores, collecting signatures in high-volume areas. Volunteers can often fill a petition sheet or two before heading home. Getting on the Democratic line with dedicated volunteers is hard work, but still doable given the number of registered voters in that party.

After the bizarre feat of collecting those 30 signatures, Brisport then faced a Green Party primary.

“It was possibly the silliest race ever run,” said Jeremy Kaplan, who volunteered extensively in the 2017 race. “Jabari got 35 votes to four. Some guy who always ran as a Green said I’m going to run, and nobody in the party was like yeah, don’t do that. They were too polite, and then helped Jabari win. It was so absurd.”

The Green Party candidate who ran had no support from the party leaders, and zero campaign infrastructure. “I’m not even sure he wanted to run, there was no logic or rationale for it. That’s why it was baffling that it happened,” Kaplan said. “Reaching Greens was so tough, it was clear they hadn’t been contacted in years. You would have thought they would be enthusiastic to hear from a Green candidate.”

Brisport said he decided to run on the Green and Socialist lines because he was done with Democrats and capitalism, and that he had joined DSA because it was the largest socialist group in the United States. After securing the Green Party nomination, he ran in the general election against the incumbent Council Member Laurie Cumbo. 

Two elements were favorable to running third-party during this time and place. Now-Democratic NY State Attorney General Tish James had won a City Council seat in that district in the past on the Working Families Party line alone during a special election. Left-wing enthusiasm was also at a dizzying high from Bernie Sanders’s run the year before, as well as the anger sparked by the first year of the Trump administration.

Brisport received 29% of the General Election vote with 8,117 votes on the Green Party line, and 1,190 on the Socialist Party line. Democrat Laurie Cumbo won 60% of the votes in the general election with 21,695 votes. Republican Christine Parker received less than 4% of the vote at 1,203 votes, but still slightly more votes than Brisport did on the Socialist line.

“I was really sad in that moment, because I wanted to win and thought we had a shot,” said Brisport. “You are asking a lot of people for their money and time when you run, and you want to win for the people who are helping you.”

New York is a rare state in that it has fusion voting, which allows different political parties to nominate the same candidate. The totals of the party line are added together to determine the election winner. Giving minor parties a role to play in elections supports ideological diversity outside of the limitations of the two-party system.

All that being said, even securing a ballot line is a major feat. There are four recognized political parties in New York: the Democratic, Republican, Working Families, and Conservative parties. New York State law requires that political parties form state and county committees. Parties must maintain their status by fielding candidates for governor or president every 2 years. These candidates must win at least 130,000 votes or 2% of all votes, whichever is greater. 

This requirement knocks smaller parties off the ballot. For example, the Green Party lost its ballot access in November 2020 when its presidential candidate Howie Hawkins only won 24,000 votes statewide. 

Simultaneously, independent candidates can also choose to have a label appear alongside their name on the ballot, instead of the name of a political party. These labels are called political party designations. Since these designations are not political parties, no primary is necessary. The Socialist Call writer suggested that NYC-DSA create a Democratic Socialist line, for instance, and called it a “missed opportunity for socialism.” Other candidates in the race like Eric Adams and Andrew Cuomo are running on political party designation lines. For instance, Eric Adams is running on two  designation lines that he created, End AntiSemitism and Safe & Affordable. Cuomo is running on a Fight and Deliver designation line.

Although less of a heavy lift than launching a party, DSA volunteers would still have to gather at least 3,750 petition signatures from registered voters to run a candidate with a political party designation. To avoid a successful legal challenge to the validity of the petitions, DSA would likely need to gather more than double that amount, pulling away critical resources in often very competitive races. Those resources would otherwise go toward connecting with voters on issues where a democratic socialist platform resonate with them, rather than going to logistical needs that arise from securing these lines. For example, Eric Adams is currently facing a legal challenge now to run on two lines.

Brisport said he doesn’t think there is much of a branding gain that would come from running on a socialist ballot line. “I was at a rally this morning against Cuomo, and people were shouting, you’re all communists,” he said. “Everybody knows we are socialists. You don’t need to run as a separate party.”

He laid out four key strategic challenges for running either third-party or on a new ballot line.

1. Easier to Win a Primary Challenge than a General Election Challenge. 

The number of voters you need to persuade in a primary election is smaller, which makes winning more feasible for grassroots campaigns who are challenging local political heavyweights.

 More than 32,000 people voted in the 2017 City Council District 35 general election, and 9,307 people voted for Brisport on the Green or Socialist line. Cumbo defeated her primary challenger Ede Fox with 10,421 votes in September.

“In a general election, you have to convince a lot more people to vote for you than in a primary. You run up against problems of scale if you are trying to talk to three to four times more voters in a general election than a primary.”

Kaplan remembered how many votes Jabari got in the general election and still lost. “It’s a very telling contrast between the el-Yateem campaign and Jabari’s,” he said. “Jabari actually got double the votes of el-Yateem and lost in a blowout, and el-Yateem almost won the primary.”

2. Harder to have conversations with voters when you run third-party. 

Brisport recalled that running third-party, it was difficult to even have conversations with voters. 

“In the last week or so of Get Out The Vote (GOTV), I was putting up posters, and talking to a small business owner in Crown Height, a nice Caribbean man who I had asked if I could put up a poster,” Brisport said. “He said sure. Before I could get my tape out, he asked if I was a Democrat. I said no, I’m in the Green Party, I’m left, I’m liberal. He just waved me off. These are the working-class people we want to organize.”

3. Not being in the room. 

Brisport feels that socialists would be weaker politically if they belonged to a third party. 

“We would have less power if we were third-party. We are in the room getting updates, and we can change the opinion of our colleagues,” he said. “As someone who has tried both, I am happier to be in the room as an elected Democratic than outside the room, unelected. I was a socialist running on the Green Party line, and I am a socialist now. I would rather be in the room.”

4. Ordinary, working-class people are inspired by socialists who run in major parties.

“I wouldn’t be in DSA right now if it wasn’t for Bernie Sanders running as a Democrat,” said Brisport. “I didn’t know what DSA or socialism was. Medicare for All? He’s a genius. I didn’t know other countries did that. Tell me more about this socialism. I was attracted to Bernie Sanders because I thought he could win, and had good policies. If I didn’t think he could win, I wouldn’t have gotten excited about him. This is an avenue into bringing people into our organization.”

Three years after that 2017 race, Brisport ran for state senate in Central Brooklyn as a socialist on the Democratic line, and received 57% of the vote in the primary.

“It’s good to run the experiment,” said Brisport. “I really love what DSA did in 2017. We ran one Democrat in the primary, and one Green, and we both lost. We took our lessons away from it. More chapters should try it. Don’t debate it, try it. Run people, you know? See what you learn. That’s what we did, and we’re not debating it so much in New York City–because we just went ahead and tried.”

Running socialists on the Democratic ballot line has led to the largest bloc of socialists in New York history, and allowed us to be in the room for critical fights on housing, healthcare, immigration, education, and public transportation. Socialists have had many important wins together, whether it’s Mitaynes helping to win more than $2 billion for immigrant workers, or the free bus program Zohran helped to pilot in five boroughs.

The challenge before us now is to keep disgraced, former NY governor Andrew Cuomo from reaching City Hall. There are many reasons why Cuomo should not be mayor–but that the Department of Justice found he sexually harassed thirteen women was top of my mind when I voted.

Zohran is the only candidate to consistently poll competitively with Cuomo, and it’s obvious that he’s the best chance to defeat the disgraced governor.

His clearest path to victory continues to be winning the Democratic Party primary. Zohran’s success comes from the greatest grassroots field operation in New York City history, as well as outstanding communication skills that clearly explains our values and vision to working-class New Yorkers.

Running on novel ballot lines like Eric Adams and Andrew Cuomo are doing now just communicates to voters that you are scared you won’t win. 

If Zohran wins the primary next Tuesday, the political fight is just beginning. Between then and November, Zohran must continue to engage in a robust campaign that deeply connects with working-class voters of all parties. No vote can be taken for granted, especially given the avalanche of dark money that will continue to be funneled into opposing candidates. 

If Zohran narrowly loses the primary, he may decide to run on the Working Families Party line against (most likely) Cuomo on the Democratic line, incumbent Mayor Eric Adams, who is running as an independent but is technically a Democrat, Republican Curtis Sliwa, and independent candidates with deep pockets. 

Zohran would be a candidate with integrity and vision in a general election where discipline and principles are greatly needed. Running third-party in the general election is a decision that our member-run organization will take seriously, and we will listen closely to all members on how we should move our electoral work forward in the general election.

We need to continue to prepare for all scenarios, but I am confident that Zohran can win in both the Democratic primary and the general election. The path to winning is running as a socialist in the primary and the general election – as he is doing. 

Our success in this election builds on all of our experiences–the collective joy, sadness, and wisdom we’ve been growing together in the past decade as members of NYC-DSA.