Democratic Socialists of America chapters are already mobilizing to gain national power in the 2028 election, passing resolutions urging member Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., to run for president.
Even as the 2026 midterm elections are not yet finished, DSA chapters from Los Angeles to Atlanta have embraced an Ocasio-Cortez presidential run, while the movement’s influential Bread & Roses Caucus joined the push last month. The movement’s national leadership also approved a process enabling a presidential endorsement early in 2027, rather than waiting until its summer convention.
These resolutions portray a potential presidential campaign as more than a bid for the White House. They present it as an opportunity to build socialist political power.
Eric Blanc, a member of the Bread & Roses Caucus, wrote in Jacobin that the DSA faces “a crucial test of how to turn its growing popularity into national political power,” pointing to “encouraging signs that DSA is rising to the occasion.”
Ocasio-Cortez told The New York Times in September that she will decide whether to run for president after the midterm elections. DSA activists aren’t waiting for her decision, however.
Building Momentum
In July, the Los Angeles DSA’s local convention adopted a “Run, AOC, Run!” campaign. Later that month, the the Atlanta DSA followed with its own resolution encouraging a presidential run.
The Democratic Socialists of America summit in Chicago in late July featured a gathering called “DSA for AOC,” where leaders called on the party to endorse Ocasio-Cortez as soon as possible, The Washington Post reported.
The congresswoman rejoined the DSA in August, after her membership had lapsed in 2019.
In September, she traveled to Ithaca, N.Y., where the city council has a DSA-member majority. “We’re committed to electing AOC for president,” Ithaca’s DSA chapter posted on Facebook.
Late last month, the Bread & Roses Caucus—one of the DSA’s largest internal groupings—passed its own resolution calling on AOC to run for president.
Blanc also wrote that chapters in Chicago and Wichita, in addition to Los Angeles and Ithaca, passed similar resolutions.
Why Does DSA Want an AOC Campaign?
The resolutions offer a window into the agenda that DSA activists would expect from an Ocasio-Cortez presidential campaign.
The Atlanta DSA praised the congresswoman for opposing “U.S. imperialist actions” such as Israel’s response to the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks; President Donald Trump’s ouster of Venezuelan socialist dictator Nicolás Maduro; and the Iran war. It also praised her for supporting the Green New Deal, “Medicare for All,” and an arms embargo on Israel.
“These resolutions argue that an AOC campaign could upend American politics,” Blanc wrote.
He argued that when Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., ran for president in 2016 and 2020, his campaigns “helped turn democratic socialism into a recognizable political force and gave millions of Americans a language for challenging billionaire power. In supporters’ view, an AOC campaign could build on that legacy.”
The “draft AOC” campaign isn’t just about Ocasio-Cortez, it also “presents an opportunity to strengthen socialist organizing well beyond Washington,” Blanc explained.
He also insisted that the Bread & Roses resolution carries weight because his caucus “often holds the balance of power between the organization’s different political wings.”
The idea of using electoral politics to build socialist institutions parallels another major project Bread & Roses championed: the DSA’s “rank-and-file strategy.”
Back in 2019, the Bread & Roses Caucus wrote a resolution calling for the DSA to consciously train members to join labor unions. Large unions form a key backbone of the Democrat Party, providing funds and organizational power on the Left. The caucus’ strategy represents a powerful long-term plan for the DSA to reshape the Democrats and the Left more broadly.
‘Life Makes Things Ready’
Ocasio-Cortez has suggested that 2028 may be her moment.
“There’s an argument that some make that this is a very unique political window and, oftentimes in politics, you do only get one shot,” she told the New York Times. “And you don’t — and just in life in general — life doesn’t wait for you to be ready for things. Sometimes life just makes things ready for you.”
Or sometimes, the DSA does it.
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[ H/T The Daily Signal ]
