Taking inspiration from Mamdani, democratic socialists look to expand their power in L.A.
The revelers who packed Tuesday’s election night party in Los Angeles’ Highland Park neighborhood were about 2,500 miles from the concert venue where New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani celebrated his historic victory.
Yet despite this sprawling distance, the crowd, heavily populated by members of the Los Angeles chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America, had no difficulty finishing the applause delivered by Mamdani, himself a DSA member, during his victory speech.
“New York!” Mamdani yelled at the oversized television screens hanging in the Greyhound Bar & Grill. “We are going to make the buses fast and…”
“Free!” » the crowd inside the bar shouted back.
In Los Angeles, Democratic Socialists of America activists have already launched their campaign for the June elections, sending canvassing teams and scheduling postcard-writing events for their chosen candidates. But they also draw inspiration from Mamdani’s victory, highlighting his unapologetically inclusive campaign and his consistent focus on portfolio issues, particularly among working-class voters.
The message that propelled Mamdani to victory resonates just as much in Los Angeles, said City Councilwoman Eunises Hernandez, who won her seat in 2022 thanks to logistical support from the DSA.
“What New York City is saying is that rents are too high and affordability is a major issue, not only when it comes to housing, but also when it comes to groceries and child care,” she said. “These are the things we experience here in Los Angeles as well.”
City Council member Eunisses Hernandez, appearing at a rally in Lincoln Heights last year, said New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani’s message would resonate in Los Angeles.
(Jason Armond/Los Angeles Times)
DSA-LA, which is a membership organization and not a political party, has elected four of its endorsed candidates to the council since 2020, ousting incumbents in each of the last three election cycles. They did this largely by knocking on doors and working to increase participation among renters and low-income households.
The chapter hopes to win two additional seats in June. Organizers have begun to envision an all-socialist city council — perhaps by the end of 2028 — with DSA members holding eight of the council’s 15 seats.
“We would like a socialist majority on the city council,” said Benina Stern, co-president of the Los Angeles chapter of DSA. “Because that’s clearly the logical progression, to continue to develop the block.”
Despite these lofty ambitions, it could take at least five years before the Los Angeles chapter matches this week’s breakthrough in New York.
Mayor Karen Bass, a prominent leader in the Democratic Party with few ties to the DSA, is now running for a second term. His only major opponent is former schools superintendent Austin Beutner, who occupies the center of the political spectrum in Los Angeles. Real estate developer Rick Caruso, a longtime Republican turned Democrat, has not revealed his intentions but has long disagreed with DSA’s progressive policies.
In Los Angeles, DSA organizers emphasized identifying and campaigning for candidates in down-ballot races, not citywide contests. This is partly because Los Angeles has a weak mayoral system, especially compared to New York City, where the mayor is responsible not only for municipal services, but also for public schools and even judicial appointments.
Los Angeles council members propose and approve legislation, rework budgets submitted by the mayor, and represent districts with more than a quarter of a million residents. As a result, DSA organizers chose the council as their route to power in City Hall, Stern said.
“I think the conditions in Los Angeles and New York are very different,” she said.
As of 2020, DSA-LA is very selective about its approval choices. The organization made up exclusively of volunteers sends candidates a long questionnaire containing dozens of decisive questions: do they support the embezzlement of funds intended for law enforcement? Do they oppose Los Angeles’ decision to host the Olympics? Do they support repealing Los Angeles’ ban on homeless encampments near schools?
Once a candidate gains support, DSA-LA turns to its formidable pool of volunteers, sending them to help candidates knock on doors, call banks and organize fundraising events.
During Tuesday’s party, DSA-LA organizers recruited new members to help with the re-election campaigns of Hernandez and Councilman Hugo Soto-Martínez, a former union organizer. They handed out postcard-sized flyers with the message “You Hate Capitalism? So Do We.”
Nearby was Estuardo Mazariegos, a tenant rights advocate who is currently running to replace Councilman Curren Price in a South Los Angeles district. Mazariegos, 40, said he first became interested in DSA in seventh grade, when his middle school civics teacher unfurled a DSA flag in his classroom.
The crowd at the Greyhound in Highland Park reacts to Tuesday’s results.
(Eric Thayer / Los Angeles Times)
Mazariegos praised the results in New York and California, saying voters are “taking back America for the working people of America.” He seemed a little less enthusiastic about Bass, a former community organizer who has championed middle-of-the-road positions, like hiring more police officers.
Asked if he supports Bass’s bid for a second term, Mazariegos said, “If she’s running against a billionaire, yes.”
“If she faces another comrade, maybe not,” he added with a laugh.
When Bass ran in November 2022, DSA-LA reluctantly recommended voting for her in its popular voter guide, describing her as a “status quo politician.”
Councilor Nithya Raman, who represents a Hollywood Hills district, is much more enthusiastic. Raman worked closely with Bass on efforts to move homeless Angelenos indoors, while also seeking solutions to the larger systems that serve Los Angeles’ unhoused population.
“Karen Bass is the most progressive mayor we’ve ever had in Los Angeles,” said Raman, who co-hosted the election night with the three other council members aligned with DSA, DSA-LA and others.
Raman was the first of the DSA-backed candidates to win a seat on the Los Angeles City Council, running in 2020 as a reformer who would bring stronger protections for renters and a network of community access centers to help homeless residents.
Two years later, voters elected union organizers Soto-Martínez and Hernández. Tenant rights attorney Ysabel Jurado became the fourth last year, ousting council member Kevin de León.
Stern, co-chair of DSA-LA, said she believes the four council members have brought “step change” to City Hall, working with their progressive colleagues to expand the city’s unarmed responder teams, which are seen as an alternative to armed police officers.
The DSA voting bloc also shaped this year’s city budget, voting to reduce the number of new hires in the Los Angeles Police Department and preserve other city jobs, Stern said.
To be clear, the four-member bloc continued these efforts by working with other progressives on the council who are not affiliated with the DSA but more moderate on other issues. Beyond that, the group has many detractors.
Stuart Waldman, president of Valley Industry and Commerce Assn., said DSA-backed council members are making the city’s situation worse by pushing for a $30-an-hour minimum wage in hotels and a $32.35 minimum wage for construction workers.
“No one will ever build a hotel in this city again, and DSA is one of them,” he said. “Soon, no one will be building housing anymore, and the DSA is part of that too.”
The union that represents LAPD officers vowed to fight the DSA’s efforts to expand its reach, saying it would ensure “Angelenos are not duped by socialist bait and switch.”
“Socialists want to get Angelenos talking about affordability, oppression and fairness, getting their candidates elected, and then enacting their agenda that says ‘Defund the police by rejecting any expansion of police budgets…while cutting spending.’ [police] annual budgets toward zero,” the union’s board of directors said in a statement.
In New York, Mamdani proposed a series of measures to make the city more affordable, including free bus tickets, city-run grocery stores and a four-year freeze on rent increases in rent-stabilized apartments.
Some of these ideas have already been tested in Los Angeles
In 2020, weeks after the COVID-19 lockdown, Mayor Eric Garcetti imposed a moratorium on rent increases for more than 600,000 rent-stabilized apartments. The council kept this measure in place for four years.
Around the same time, the Los Angeles County transit agency suspended mandatory bus fare collection. The agency started charging bus passengers again in 2022.
City Council members Nithya Raman and Eunisses Hernandez celebrate the election night event they co-hosted with the Los Angeles chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America and two other council members.
(Eric Thayer / Los Angeles Times)
In recent months, DSA-LA has pushed for new limits on rent increases in rent-stabilized apartments in Los Angeles. Raman, who chairs the council’s housing committee, supports an annual cap of 3% for these buildings, most of which were built before October 1978.
Hernandez, whose district stretches from working-class Westlake to rapidly gentrifying Highland Park, is a proponent of moving the Overton Window to City Hall — shifting the political debate to the left and “putting people before profits.”
Like other election party members, Hernandez hopes the council will ultimately have eight DSA-aligned members in the coming years, saying such a change would be a “game changer.” With a clear majority, she said, the council would not face a huge battle to approve new protections for tenants, expand the network of unarmed response teams and impose “accountability measures” on businesses that “make money off our city.”
“There are so many things … that we could do more easily for the people of the city of Los Angeles if we had a majority,” she said.
