It feels like we have all been here before. A massively unpopular president, mass organizing against repressive policies, an electorate that seems primed to opt for a more aggressive combating of the status quo
And then… nothing.
The Illinois primary saw many credible challengers fail to gain enough momentum to break through against a littany of AIPAC-sponsored candidates, old Democratic Party incumbents, and “progressive” but pro-Israel politicians. In a few races, voters had several decent options and coalesced around none. In others, a sea of money flooded them out. In several races, the most credible progressive candidate didn’t even finish second.
Chicago DSA needs to look at what happened in these races and ask two key questions: how this happened and what we can do to prevent this in the future. And nowhere in the city can we learn more about how things currently stand than in the 9th Congressional District, made up of most of the Lakefront North Side.
We must be honest with ourselves that with three open congressional seats in the city and a plethora of candidates running trying to be the “left” candidate, only one sought the endorsement of Chicago DSA. , And that required some coaxing on our part. In IL-9, where there are hundreds of CDSA members, not one candidate sought out our endorsement.
We had candidates running for Congress that are dues paying members of our chapter who did not seek our endorsement. We can debate how much we should prioritize electoral organizing, but this is a verdict on the power of this chapter to intervene in events in this city. These candidates either did not trust that DSA would endorse them if they applied, did not believe we could meaningfully influence their race, or calculated that our electoral efforts wouldn’t outweigh any downsides of being “DSA-endorsed”
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Let’s start by taking a step back to look at the electoral terrain. United Working Families has seemingly imploded, and the Chicago Teacher’s Union and SEIU Illinois found themselves on opposite sides of multiple races in this cycle. There is no one group that leads the left in the city now. Comrades on the Northwest side have shown the ability to build electoral power, allying with local ward organizations to construct a “Commie Corridor” up and down Milwaukee Avenue (overlapping with the territory of Chicago DSA’s Northside Blue Line Branch). There is much to be learned from the process by which they have gained power, even though some of these electeds have not been endorsed by CDSA.
We need to follow through with the priorities we established at the December General Chapter Meeting and encourage members start attending meetings of their local Independent Political Organizations (IPOs). But we should take this a step further. Those of us with children should integrate ourselves into the school communities and talk politics with those people. If we are members of faith communities, we should be present there. It is how we can identify candidates and it’s how we make CDSA a presence in places we currently struggle to reach. A key rule of union organizing is that one needs to build trust with co-workers on the shop floor before one starts to talk about a union. The same is true of political organizing.
A second lesson is that for everything else that may have changed, both showing up locally and having local ties seems to matter. Kat Abughalea’s campaign did very well in the district (winning the Chicago vote), but it was hampered by both the candidates own missteps in blowing off CDSA, Indivisible, and People’s Lobby forums in a part of the city incredibly friendly to the type of politics she was espousing. By not seeking to work with anyone organizing on the ground in the north side of Chicago, Kat’s campaign passed up on a huge apparatus of volunteer organizers and advocates who could have tipped what turned out to be a close race.
There were other problems in Kat’s campaign that we might not have been able to overcome. Comrades on the ground that were working for various campaigns reported that many potential supporters had already made up their minds not to vote for Kat due to the short amount of time she had spent in the area prior to running for Congress. She was accused of being a “carpetbagger” by some detractors for that reason. The divide in Chicago between transplants and natives is a well-known dynamic, and it can be an uphill climb for candidates who have few ties to the community they want to represent.
In some ways, Kat’s staff and supporters did a very good job running a campaign. Their social media and communications work was excellent. They raised a surprisingly large amount of money. And they came unexpectedly close to defeating Daniel Biss, finishing in a close second at 25.9% of the vote compared to Biss at 29.6%. However, their efforts did not prove to be enough. Comparisons to Zohran Mamdani fail to take into account that Zohran used his social media prowess to reinforce a strong message. This message proved not only popular, but was also reinforced by his time already spent fighting for working class New Yorkers. Delivering a message that resonated with voters is the area where Kat struggled.
Comms, memes, and social media are valuable tools to a candidate that is telegenic, well spoken, and likeable. But they are not enough to win elections. Voters need to get to know the candidates and trust them to deliver change . Those candidates should have some kind of base where they are running. Kat’s campaign had a great messaging infrastructure that also failed to connect with voters.
Going forward, with an eye on future elections, we should remember that our strength as an organization is always going to be our members. We have an excellent Comms Team. We have smart theorists. But our key advantage is always going to be a motivated base that is politically educated and skilled in political organizing. Our comrades who worked polling locations on Primary Day for 25th Ward Alderman Byron Sigcho-Lopez ran into election workers who were almost always paid by our opponents to be there. They often didn’t care about the outcome, it was just another job. How many of us feel personal stakes in the success of the places we work? Many of these paid canvassers want to collect their check and go home, and some won’t even vote for the candidates they are “supporting.”
The upcoming political cycles around the 2026 midterms, the 2027 Chicago mayoral race, and the 2028 presidential elections are likely to be particularly tough one. There are going to be massive sums of money spent on convincing people that the corporate interests and real estate developers of this city have the best interests of working class Chicagoans at heart. We have decided we will challenge those who have chosen to put the interests of corporations over the people. We have decided to be more dedicated in trying to find candidates. But we also must be clear about where we are strong.
If we want the kind of power and influence that allows us to push citywide narratives, we have to win elections. We must not just serve as the tail end of a larger movement, but as an organization capable of putting on our own candidates in office. We are never going to be an organization that is able to build political power by spending money or gaining media space. But with strategic focus on contesting elections, by seeking partners in the struggle, and by finding candidates suited to run where they are, we can build working class power in this city that can withstand AIPAC, crypto billionaires, and whatever else the capitalist class throws at us.
