Carl R Questionnaire
Please describe your past and current involvement in DSA. This may include your involvement in the metro D.C. chapter, another chapter, and/or work at the national level.
I’ve been a DSA member since 2018, joining while living abroad. In that time, I’ve organized with the Green Country chapter in my hometown of Tulsa, Oklahoma, where I was involved in electoral work (helping organize a candidate forum from abroad and knocking doors for endorsed candidates), labor organizing, and tenant organizing, and since moving to DC in 2019, I’ve tried to help out that chapter from afar. Here in DC, I was one of the co-chairs of our local DSA 4 Bernie group, organizing alongside many other great comrades (to knock almost 20,000 doors and have one of the chapter’s largest events. Since then, I’ve marshaled and marched at protests, and phone banked for Janeese Lewis George and the PRO Act. I am also a member of the International Committee’s Europe subcommittee, joining this summer.
Why do you believe that you are a good fit for this position?
I think that my experience in electoral organizing will be useful, as we’ll have a round of elections in 2022 in which we should be able to have some meaningful wins. I also think I bring a unique perspective, understanding the breadth of DSA’s organizing and the role a larger chapter like ours plays in DSA’s national context. Finally, as someone from Tulsa who went to high school in Greenwood, the part of town ravaged by the Tulsa Race Massacre, and who has organized in that context as an adult, organizing for racial justice is very important to me. Because of the DMV’s unique history in America’s racial capitalism, I think this perspective is important to have as a member of the steering committee.
What do you hope to accomplish for the chapter if elected to this position?
As a member of steering, I’d like to make sure we take on good electoral work that not only increases our representation in the region’s various governing bodies, but also serves to deepen our internal organization. I want to make sure the chapter continues supporting the great work we are doing in Defund MPD, our Green New Deal work, Stomp Out Slumlords, and publications, among others. Finally, I think it’s necessary we develop a plan to recruit a membership that’s more representative of the DMV. As a white, cishet male, I think this is key—DSA looks too much like I do, and I think we fix that by intentional, active organizing to make it happen.