The socialist electoral calendar for 2023: Late April edition
Welcome to Socialism on the Ballot. Here’s a recap of the election days I profiled which have passed so far, and a more comprehensive update on the election days to look forward to. They are numerous and upcoming, and you probably don’t know about a lot of them.
Are more updates coming?
Yes. There are a lot of races with unclear incumbents which I’ve omitted here to prevent speculation; there are for example a dozen or more Connecticut and Massachusetts incumbents who would be up this year if they seek re-election, but it’s not clear yet if they will. I’m sure there are also a significant number of chapter endorsements still to be made, as only 54 endorsements have been made by DSA chapters that I’m aware of. The next forthcoming update to this post should be in June or so, depending. I think by then it will be much more clear if the remaining people I’m thinking of are running or not.
Anyways:
Results to this point
Chicago: February 28 and April 4
In the end, my prediction of a caucus expansion of 1 or 2 validated, although the one I expected to do best did not. Incumbents Daniel La Spata (Ward 1), Jeanette Taylor (Ward 20), Byron Sigcho-Lopez (Ward 25), Rossana Rodriguez-Sanchez (Ward 33), and Carlos Ramirez-Rosa (Ward 35) all won re-election, while in an April runoff Angela Clay (Ward 46) won her race.
Non-incumbents Oscar Sanchez (Ward 10), Ambria Taylor (Ward 11), Warren Williams (Ward 30), and Nick Ward (Ward 48) all lost. Mueze Bawany, who had his endorsement rescinded, also got crushed in his race.
Burlington: March 7
Rhone Allison, a Champlain Valley DSA member, lost her race by around 55-45, an unfortunate dropping of the ball for the Vermont Progressives in a seat they usually do very well in. This means that CVDSA’s footprint remains confined to legislative seats.
Oxnard, CA: March 7
Michaela Perez also lost her race for Oxnard City Council District 6 to Arthur Valenzuela Jr., but apparently this didn’t matter in the end. Valenzuela Jr., like Perez, is also a member of Ventura County DSA, so they still carried the seat. Congratulations guys.
St. Louis: March 7 and April 4
Katie Bellis, who was backed by St. Louis DSA in City Council Ward 2 did not come particularly close despite the use of approval voting—but, that was not a big surprise, as Ward 2 has been a historically difficult ward for the chapter. Their consolation is the uncontested (re-)election of Megan Ellyia Green to the second highest position in the city, the prospect of which I talked about at length in a previous post on here.
Milwaukee DSA: April 4
Milwaukee DSA successfully elected Missy Zombor for Milwaukee Board of School Directors—making her their highest profile win in the city to date—but just narrowly missed out on electing Sam Harshner to the Shorewood Village Trustee Board. Still, the results are very promising in the latter case and speak to growing strength for the chapter outside of the city proper. Look out for them in the cycles to come.
Denver: April 4 and June 6
Denver DSA is guaranteed to at least hold serve in electing Sarah Parady to the City Council through an at-large seat, but will have to win three runoffs to expand their footprint. Shontel Lewis (District 8), incumbent Candi CdeBaca (District 9), and Shannon Hoffman (District 10) all face June runoffs, and it’s not immediately clear if any or all of them are favored.
Tiffany Caudill (District 2) and Tony Pigford (District 4) both lost their respective races, as did Lisa Calderon (Mayor) who the chapter endorsed late.
Upcoming races
And now, the upcoming races that I’m aware of which have known dates.
West Lafayette, IN: May 2
Incumbent DSA member James Blanco is running for re-election to the West Lafayette City Council. He faces nominal opposition in the primary—his city council seat is one of the city’s three at-large seats, and four candidates counting him have filed—but I would assume he is favored as an incumbent. If he wins he will be unopposed, as it does not appear any Republicans filed for West Lafayette’s at-large seats.
San Antonio and South Houston: (Saturday,) May 6 and June 10
San Antonio is holding its general elections on May 6, which you may notice breaks from the tradition of Tuesday elections in being held on a Saturday. San Antonio DSA’s two incumbent members, Jalen McKee-Rodriguez (District 2) and Teri Castillo (District 5), are up that day. If they fail to clear a majority of the vote, they will go to runoffs on June 10.
South Houston also has municipal races on May 6—Houston DSA-endorsed Sophia Saenz is running for the mayoral position there.
Delaware: May 9
In Delaware, DSA Delaware endorsee and member Douglas “Danger” Manley is running for a four-year term on the Christina School Board. He has one opponent, Christine A. Gilbert, and the chapter thinks he’s heavily favored to win the seat.
Philadelphia, Pittsburgh: May 16
Philadelphia DSA, as noted previously, has four races it’s endorsed in and those will take place during statewide primary on May 16. David McMahon (Norristown City Council D2), Andrés Celin (Philadelphia City Council D7), Seth Anderson-Oberman (Philadelphia City Council D8), and Amanda McIllmurray (Philadelphia City Council at-large) are all running with chapter backing. McIllmurray and McMahon are both chapter members; I remain unsure of Celin and Anderson-Oberman’s affiliation, but I suspect they are not members.
Pittsburgh DSA has a slate of three which I have not mentioned. That slate currently includes Darwin Leuba (Allegheny County Controller), Dennis McDermott (Allegheny County Council D11), and Deb Gross (Pittsburgh City Council D7). Leuba and McDermott are members of the local chapter; Gross is not, to my knowledge.
Charlottesville: June 20
Incumbent and DSA member Michael Payne (City Council) is running for re-election this year; there are five Democrats running for three primary seats here. He should advance and as of today is the second biggest fundraiser in the race, although it’s early.
New York: June 27
More New York endorsements are probably forthcoming—I assume DSA members Tiffany Cabán (New York City Council District 22) and Alexa Avilés (District 38) will receive re-election support—but for the time being only smaller chapters in the state have sought fit to endorse.
In upstate, Ithaca DSA is running a slate of five candidates: Phoebe Brown (an incumbent and member) and Kayla Matos in Common Council Ward 1, West Fox in Ward 2, Nathan Sitaraman in Ward 3 (a member), and Jorge DeFendini (another incumbent and member) in Ward 4.
In Syracuse, Syracuse DSA has endorsed chapter member Maurice Brown for Onondaga County Legislature District 15.
In Rochester, the chapter has endorsed three candidates—and has stated they may endorse more in May. Two of their endorsements are for Monroe County Legislature: Oscar Brewer (District 21) and incumbent Carolyn Delvecchio Hoffman (District 25). Hoffman is a member of the chapter. They’ve also endorsed Rachel Rosner for Brighton Town Board, and hope she will join chapter member Robin Wilt there. I would assume any further endorsements will include chapter member Mary Lupien, who serves on the Rochester City Council and is up this year.
Also on the non-endorsed side of things, DSA member Alexandria Wojcik (New Paltz, NY Board of Trustees) is running for re-election. So are Megan Deichler (Poughkeepsie City Council District 8) and Dan Aymar-Blair (Beacon City Council District 4), both members of the organization and incumbents of their respective positions.
Nashville: (Thursday,) August 3
DSA member and incumbent Sean Parker is seeking re-election for his Nashville City Council seat. It does not appear he has any challengers, and so the number of DSA elected officials in-state will remain at least 1.
Knoxville: August 29
In another Tennessee race, DSA member and incumbent Amelia Parker (no relation) is seeking re-election to her Knoxville City Council seat. Unlike Sean Parker, she has a lot of competition for this seat, mostly from hard-right challengers with lots of money to throw into the race—it’s unclear if she’ll be able to prevail, but one can hope and help.
Minneapolis (MN), St. Paul (MN), Aurora (CO): November 7
In Minneapolis and St. Paul, municipal elections are held on Election Day; accordingly, the Twin Cities DSA slate will be up at the end of the year. It currently consists of 7 candidates. For Minneapolis City Council, incumbents and DSA members Robin Wonsley (Ward 2), Jason Chavez (Ward 9), and Aisha Chughtai (Ward 10) will all be up for re-election; they hope to be joined by newcomers Soren Stevenson (Ward 8) and Aurin Chowdhury (Ward 12), both of whom are also DSA members. For St. Paul’s city council, incumbent and DSA member Nelsie Yang (Ward 6) is seeking re-election, and the chapter hopes to elect non-member Hwa Jeong Kim (Ward 5) to join her.
In Colorado, DSA member Juan Marcano is seeking the mayoral position in Aurora; he was originally elected to City Council District 4. Fellow member Allison Coombs also seems to be seeking re-election for City Council District 5.