IN FAVOR by Sheely E
I am voting YES in favor of endorsing JLG’s mayoral run. She has worked consistently with our chapter and shown her willingness to continue working with us on our priorities. On top of her relationship with our chapter, this race is also an incredible opportunity for us to reach working people across the district. Excited for us to elect a socialist mayor and I encourage my comrades to vote YES in favor of this resolution as well.
IN FAVOR by Alexa KP
Hey everyone! As a socialist, Janeese’s run for mayor gives me a lot of hope, which is why I’ll be voting YES for her endorsement.
As Ward 4 council member, she’s defended and rallied for the working class. For example, she led the defense of the implementation of I-82 on council, even when other council members went behind voters’ backs. She has stood by workers and encouraged restaurants and tipped workers to voice their frustration to DC’s government. She has been with us every step of the way in every fight.
Janeese would make so much more impact as mayor to level the playing field, like cracking down on wage theft. I hope you’ll join me in voting YES for her endorsement at the end of this month!
IN FAVOR by Jake H
As someone whose core political commitments include Palestinian freedom and climate justice, I strongly urge all members to vote in favor of endorsing Janeese, a longtime chapter member and proven supporter of our campaigns.
I’ve been active in our chapter since 2019. I helped launch the energy justice campaign that later became We Power DC. I’ve also facilitated direct action trainings, helped run new member cohorts, had a role in the recent successful campaign to elect chapter member Frankie Santos Fritz to Greenbelt City Council, and knocked tons of doors for DSA electoral candidates and campaigns including the 2024 Uncommitted campaign for justice in Gaza.
Janeese’s campaign represents a rare opportunity to gain hundreds of new members, expose thousands of newly politicized DC residents to democratic socialism, and cement our status as the dominant left-wing force in regional politics. If we endorse Janeese, and she wins, we’ll play a fundamental role in determining the DC Council’s political agenda for years to come–especially if chapter member Aparna Raj wins her race in Ward 1.
The entire DC progressive bloc is united behind Janeese. People are demanding a mayor who will fight Trump and ICE, as Janeese always has. Zohran Mamdani’s victory in NYC has sharpened public expectations for political change, and demoralized liberals are looking to us for leadership. Failure to endorse Janeese would damage our credibility and leave us isolated from DC’s progressive alliance at a time when we should be at the forefront.
On climate justice, Janeese has been with our chapter, almost literally, from the very beginning. In 2019, when our ecosocialist work had barely taken shape, Janeese signed the No Pepco Pledge, which among other things required political candidates to refuse fossil fuel industry donations and commit to building a greener, fairer energy system. She proudly stood with us as a fellow democratic socialist during a political moment when most left-liberal political aspirants were dismissing us as racist Bernie bros and gloating about their devotion to deadbeat centrist shlock. Since taking office, Janeese has led on Green New Deal legislation in DC. In her Q+A session, she demonstrated strong interest in the regulatory powers that mayors have to hold utilities accountable to climate goals. Given Janeese’s strong track record of working with us on climate justice and hiring DSA members to her council and campaign staff, it seems likely we could get chapter members appointed to the utilities regulation commission if she becomes mayor. That would make a huge difference and is worth fighting for.
Palestine is one of the defining causes of my life. I was most active in the movement more than 20 years ago, during the second intifada, when I founded Students for Palestine on my campus. I visited the West Bank and Gaza with a solidarity fact-finding delegation in the summer of 2003, and was active in the divestment movement at the time, focused on Caterpillar, which produced bulldozers with which Israel demolished Palestinian homes. More recently, I was one of our chapter’s top door-knockers during the Uncommitted campaign in the 2024 Democratic primary. I support Janeese because she stands with Palestine. She has always defended Palestine activists from criminalization. She called for a ceasefire very early in the Gaza genocide. In her Q+A, when asked if she would divest public funds from Israel, she gave a simple answer: ”Yes.” These are among the reasons why, by all accounts, single-issue Palestine organizations in DC regard her as an ally. We should work to elect Janeese and then hold her accountable to her divestment commitment when she takes office.
All of the most odious political forces–including the apartheid lobby, landlords, and fossil fuel lobbyists–will be spending money to defeat Janeese, because they correctly perceive her as a threat to the unjust status quo. Failure to endorse would be a sign of weakness, not strength. It would send a message that we cannot be trusted to exercise political leadership when it matters most, and that we are incapable of distinguishing between allies and enemies. It would squander the power we’ve built over the last decade. There would be absolutely no upside for the Palestinians or any other cause we care about. We need to endorse this campaign and do everything we can to win it.
IN FAVOR by Michael S
Comrades, I am writing to encourage all members of Metro DC DSA to VOTE YES on the endorsement of Janeese Lewis George. This is a once-in-a-generation chance to elect an open Democratic Socialist as D.C. Mayor, to elect someone who is antizionist, anti-ICE, pro labor, pro tenant, pro socialism, and antifacist. We must VOTE YES because Janeese is an ally, Janeese is a Chapter Member, and Janeese needs us to win. With a fascist pedophile plastering his face and name all over the District while his thugs terrorize our neighbors, abduct children, and gun people down in the street, we cannot allow yet another milquetoast, party-line, business friendly democrat to attain the mayoralty, so we must VOTE YES, endorse Janeese, and throw everything we have into electing a true antifacist, antizionist, pro labor Democratic Socialist as Mayor. The fascist pedophile GOP and the democrats too scared to fight back will pull out all the stops to overcome this class struggle and prevent a Democratic Socialist from becoming Mayor, so we must join ranks with the workers, with ATU Local 689, with SEIU 32BJ, with UFCW Local 400, with Unite Here Local 23 and Local 25, with the tenants, with the migrants, and with all who struggle to survive under capitalism and VOTE YES so that we may rise as one to stand up and fight back against those who would do us harm. This is our chance to win real socialist power in the heart of the empire. What better place than here? What better time than now? VOTE YES!
IN FAVOR by Dieter LM
The Washington Teachers’ Union endorsed Janeese Lewis George for Mayor — and as a socialist teacher in DCPS, I’m genuinely fired up about it! Janeese has consistently been the only elected in this city treating public education as a public good worth governing democratically, not a cost center to privatize or starve. She backed librarians, fought for funding transparency, stood with teachers during our contract fight with the city, and actually treats educators as a political constituency rather than a prop. Her platform goes straight at the structural issues: turnover and burnout driven by punitive evaluation regimes, recruitment of bilingual and Black male educators, compliance with at-risk and ELL funding laws, and investment in the care work that keeps schools alive. Labor does not often get candidates this aligned with our demands — when we do, our job is to help them win.
IN FAVOR by Alex S
I want to encourage everyone to vote for the chapter to endorse Janeese Lewis George. I’m writing mostly as someone who has been involved with Stomp Out Slumlords since 2018 and has interacted with lots of local politicians when it comes to housing in DC. Since day 1 Janeese has been the strongest advocate for tenants on the council, consistently pushing back against bad faith landlord and developer talking points that sway many other DC politicians. While other alleged “progressives” listen to developer lies that TOPA stops new development and vote to rollback parts of TOPA, she consistently votes to defend it. She also supported Covid-era tenant protections and has been a strong advocate for social housing in DC. Notably, she has also been willing to work with SOS and and touted our work. For example, around 2021 and 2022 she worked with SOS to help with events in Ward 4 for tenants to apply for covid-related rent relief. And at her 2024 re-election campaign launch event she specifically named SOS as an organization she has worked with and planned to continue to work with. This was before Zohran made embracing democratic socialism seem like a winning strategy at the city level. Janeese did these things because she truly shares our values. Her recent Q&A responses about landlords also show this.
There are obviously many other reasons to endorse her than just housing, and others have spoken about them. I do want to briefly speak to some of the statements said against endorsing Janeese at the last GBM. A few members speculated about what we will do if Janeese for some reason adopts bad policies in the future (something, to be clear, I am not worried about). If that happens, I and other supporters of this endorsement will criticize her. Endorsing her campaign does not mean we will never push back against her in the future, so that is a bad reason to oppose her endorsement. A few members also pointed out difficulties that she will face if elected. I do not want to downplay this. She will face opposition from many forces in the city. And it would be easier if we had more socialists on the council. But we don’t get to pick the time that opportunities present themselves. With a strong base of support, Janeese will be able to achieve a lot, and it is imperative that our chapter is part of that base, but our failure to endorse her will alienate us from the campaign and weaken our ability to help her withstand the forces of capital. Lastly, despite what some people say, I don’t think she violated our local AZR. Other people may disagree, but individuals don’t get to speak for the chapter and say that she did. Moreover, her response to pushback against the JCRC event was to attend a session with the chapter and submit more questionnaire responses. This shows a strong commitment to the chapter and to the chapter’s anti-zionist positions.
Her campaign is an amazing opportunity to elect a democratic socialist to the highest elected office in the city and to recruit people all over the city to join the chapter through canvassing and other outreach. Endorsing her will also allow us to play a major role in the coalition supporting her, which is key to continuing to work with her office once she is elected. Our chapter has been building for years to get to this point of being able to make democratic socialism so visible in the city and to elect someone who will make the lives of working people and tenants in the city better.
IN FAVOR by Zachary T
I will be voting in favor of endorsing our comrade Janeese Lewis George for mayor, and encourage others to as well. In the more than six years she has been a member Comrade Lewis George has been a champion for socialism on and off the council, in countless ways, but I would like to speak on one issue area in particular.
For decades DC had a regressive local tax system with the richest 1% of households paying less than many working families. This is unfortunately the rule not the exception for most states/cities. Progressive groups had been working for year to fix this status quo to no avail. It was only after DSA got our 1st elected official on the city council did that change. Just months after Janeese Lewis George was sworn in she was leading the charge for a Millionaire Surtax and got it enacted over the Council President and Mayors opposition. In less than a year in office Comrade Lewis George played a critical role in transforming DC’s tax code to the most progressive of any state! This extra $170 million of revenue was put into funding pay equity for workers in early childhood education. This program directly benefits some of the most underpaid and at-risk working class residents of our city, increasing their take home salary by as much as a third!
Enacting policies that transform the lives of the working-class is why I joined DSA, it is how Janeese Lewis George has governed while on the council, and it is the cornerstone of the platform she is running on for mayor.
We all know (I hope) that socialism will not be won solely at the ballot box. But we cannot ignore that for most people “politics” means voting in an election, and the best way to reach them is through that axis. This is not just only an opportunity to put into power a champion for the working-class in Comrade Lewis George, but also our moment to mount a city wide campaign to grow our chapter in leaps and bounds in working class communities.
- Let’s Build Power
- Let’s Take Power
- Let’s Wield Power
- Vote Yes to Endorse Janeese Lewis George
IN FAVOR by Sangeeta G
I am advocating for everyone to vote YES on endorsing Janeese Lewis George for Mayor.
I am a DC Native and she is by far the best mayoral candidate to come around in my lifetime. Her track record on the council is incredible and I know she will do the same thing as mayor.
I was one of the 125 people who signed the original petition. There are several things that were reassuring to me: the report back from the meeting with her campaign and others in the Palestine Solidarity coalition, her unequivocal yes answers during her Q&A, and her previous track record on Palestine. She was the only councilmember to call for a ceasefire in Gaza in the wake of the October 7th attacks, and she has visited college encampments at a time when so many people in power were trying to shut down any pro- Palestine sentiment. I have no doubt she will stick to those values in office.
Not endorsing Janeese would handcuff our ability to work with her to affect change, as well as diminish our standing with other organizations in our coalition. This is a once in a generation opportunity to endorse a candidate for DC Mayor that DSA has been waiting for.
Vote Yes on Janeese!
IN FAVOR by Chelsea B
I enthusiastically support Janeese Lewis George as the next mayor of DC. For me as a union member and activist within the Coalition of Labor Union Women, I believe Janeese brings an important voice to the table in supporting workers’ rights and is also energizing for Black women voters in particular who’ve been let down by the actions and policies of the current administration. I strongly encourage chapter support for Janeese Lewis George for DC Mayor!
IN FAVOR by Patrick C
Comrade Janeese Lewis George has worked closely with this chapter both as a candidate for city council and as an officeholder. I am inspired and encouraged both by her actions on the council and by her willingness to run as an unabashed socialist who calls the DSA her political home. I hope this chapter will endorse a mayoral candidate who promises to continue standing with us on picket lines, stop evictions, pass universal childcare, finally establish social housing in DC to reduce the cost of housing and address homelessness, follow through on her explicit commitment to strip MPD of its investments in Israel (as stated in our chapter Q&A), and ends DCs abhorrent cooperation with ICE. This election can demonstrate that socialists can win and deliver on what we promise.
There is no reason to believe that this chapter cannot hold Janeese, or any other DSA elected official, accountable while they are in office. This chapter has made clear our displeasure with actions taken by comrades in office in the past – this case should be no exception. DSA has a myriad of ways to externally pressure politicians, aligned and unaligned alike, to wield their power correctly. It is unusual that we can have a seat at the table of local government to the extent that Janeese is offering us.
Janeese Lewis George has promised to include DSA in her transition team and in her administration - I see no reason why this chapter should turn this down. This election provides Metro DC DSA with a unique opportunity to grasp the highest level of municipal government and turn its resources away from siphoning money to capitalists, who have no concern for the well-being of this city’s people, and toward DC’s poor and working classes.
I encourage all comrades to build on what NYC DSA has established and vote YES on endorsing Janeese Lewis George.
IN FAVOR by Rob H
Hello comrades! I am encouraging you all to vote YES to endorse Councilmember Janeese Lewis-George for DC Mayor. As a member of the Woodner Tenants’ Union since 2024, I have helped facilitate eviction defense meetings in DC’s largest apartment complex, assisting our neighbors in utilizing our Emergency Rental Assistance Program and helping them connect to social services, including pro bono legal support. I have seen our Council and Mayor Bowser consistently vote against the priorities of renters, including gutting our Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act and ERAP funding. As a result, DC is now at a six-year high for evictions while continuing to struggle post-DOGE unemployment rates. DC needs a mayor that will be a champion for renters in our renter-majority city, and Janeese has consistently been the most vocal champion on the Council for protecting TOPA, ERAP, and promoting a Green New Deal for Housing.
We are being presented with a generational opportunity to elect a democratic socialist as Mayor in the nation’s capital. Missing this opportunity would be a huge mistake, and would embolden the Green Team and their allies to continue enriching themselves and their friends over providing timely, necessary services to people who don’t directly donate to them (take a look at the roads).
Please vote YES to endorse Janeese Lewis-George for Mayor!
IN FAVOR by Aaron M
As a Howard student my comrades and I trust we will be safer regarding actions we take on and off campus with Janeese Lewis George as mayor. I believe the backing of Metro DC DSA could be what gets her in office and other than the protection she could provide to us as students, she would also do wonders for the working class of D.C.. We are at a turning point moment for socialists in this country and a real working class movement is being built in real time. Janeese Lewis George as mayor would serve to propel than movement here in D.C.
IN FAVOR by Blake P
Hello comrades. I am piping up to add my voice to the chorus of others and urge you to vote to endorse Janeese Lewis George in her run for mayor. As a person relatively new to the chapter, I was hesitant to make this statement. I believe firmly in the respect experience within the chapter is due, and figured I would make my decision based on their opinions and my own. But recent statements about the relative optics of an endorsement, both now and in the future have made it clear to me that I do have a perspective to share. I came to socialism through a circuitous route probably not unlike the one I’m sure a lot of our membership followed at one time in their lives. But however I got here, what ultimately activated me and brought me into the chapter was hope. Not the sort of blind hope that turns away from ugly truths, but the sort of hope that rolls up its sleeves and works to dig others out of the muck where it can. Not everyone is as lucky as me to be able to find that hope through causes they care about. Some need someone else to show them that its ok to hope like that. I think Janeese and her candidacy are a very practical way to signal that hope to people who may be on the fence. I want to be clear, I do not think that Janeese is perfect. But then again, I have never met a candidate who was and am not sure I would trust them if I did. She is, however, publicly and practically committed to our chapter and our cause. I believe that her public support for socialism in the district will act as a beacon to draw others like me into the movement, no matter what the future holds. I think if we pass this opportunity up, we will kick ourselves for however long it takes for the next establishment candidate to relinquish their death grip on power. And I think it is imperative that we embody the hope of our movement and trust that if Janeese is elected, we will hold her to account in the same way that we expect to hold all of our endorsees to account, not shy away from that ongoing and permanent responsibility.Thank you very much for reading. I urge to you to vote to endorse Janeese Lewis George.
IN FAVOR by John V
This year’s open election for mayor is a golden opportunity for Metro DC DSA. One of the two frontrunners is a proud socialist and member of our chapter. Janeese is an ardent champion for working people who has advocated alongside our chapter time after time on the DC Council, winning policy concessions in spite of a Democratic establishment that is in the pocket of the business elite. As we’ve seen in NYC, running a strong mayoral candidate can supercharge a DSA chapter, drastically boosting excitement, activity, and membership.
Periods of turmoil are often conducive to achieving major social or electoral change. DC is currently in a prolonged period of turmoil. Residents are living under a fascist occupation and are furious that their mayor is actively aiding it while praising the occupiers. The city has disproportionately high unemployment and cost of living. In many cases, the local political machine barely even tries to obscure its corruption and lack of care for residents. These conditions are ripe for a major shakeup in the city’s political order. We must not miss our chance to build on DSA’s national momentum and win control of the DC executive branch.
IN FAVOR by Nathan H
I believe that socialists in Washington DC have a once in a generation opportunity to build on the momentum from our comrades in NYC DSA as they elected fellow socialist Zohran Mamdani to be mayor of New York. Now is the moment to elect a proud socialist and longtime champion of working people in the District, and that candidate is Janeese Lewis George. If we as a chapter do not rise to this moment and do everything we can to elect Janeese Lewis George, I fear we will set our movement back years and tarnish our organization’s credibility as an electoral force. For these reasons, I strongly support our chapter endorsing Janeese Lewis George for DC Mayor.
IN FAVOR by Thomas S
As someone who lives outside of the District, I contribute this member statement with reticence, as I generally think that the branches should defer to each other, at least within a zone of reasonable strategic disagreement. However, I think that the ways in which our chapter’s AZR is interpreted and applied have ramifications across the chapter. In that context, I encourage chapter members to vote YES on the endorsement of Council Member Janeese Lewis George’s candidacy for Mayor of the District of Columbia. Based on all of the typical criteria we would use to evaluate a race - winnability, alignment, co-governance, the power of the office sought to alter material relations, the potential of the campaign to grow our membership and our power as a chapter, etc. - endorsement here seems like an easy call. We have endorsed Janeese twice in the past, and, although there is certainly room for critique of aspects of her performance as a council member here and there, she has generally governed in the way that we hoped and expected that she might. She has had an open door with the chapter. She is clearly assembling a left-labor coalition with the potential to win while raising the money that it would take to win. D.C. voters have a real appetite for change after 12 years of Muriel Bowser. Zohran’s campaign has shown how catalytic a high-profile race like this can be, and, make no mistake, Janeese has a much better chance of winning than Zohran did at the outset of his race.
It seems that the only serious objection that has been lodged against endorsement here is a putative violation of our AZR. No such violation occurred and therefore that should not prevent chapter members from voting yes. The discourse within the chapter has gotten extremely toxic, but sometimes it is helpful to return to the language of the AZR that we passed - not National’s differently worded resolution - and the meaning of the words on the page. There is no question that JCRC is a Zionist organization (although, lacking a (c)(4) arm, lobbying activities are far less a part of what they do than is the case with respect to the examples of Zionist lobbying groups listed in the AZR). Everyone should agree about that. But did Janeese “affiliate” herself with JCRC by attending the event that she did? Not by any reasonable definition of what it means to “affiliate.” In my view, affiliation could be satisfied by something less than membership but that something would have to include some sort of positive public statement about the organization and their work, particularly as regards the aspect of their work that relates to Zionism. Simply, nothing like that exists. And, if the charge instead is that the event contravened our positions, that view would appear to be detached from the actual content of the event and in willful disregard of the fact the JCRC is a Zionist organization but they are not a single issue Zionist organization akin to AIPAC or DMFI. If we wanted to construe all events hosted by Zionist multi-issue organizations to be contrary to our purposes, the AZR should have stated that our candidates should not attend any event hosted by a Zionist organization, regardless of its content or stated purpose. It didn’t say that.
I totally understand if there are folks who think that Janeese’s attendance at the event reflects a misalignment on strategy (rather than stealth liberal Zionism) because attendance at an event hosted by a multi-issue Zionist organization - without conduct rising to the level of affiliation - still normalizes the organization, including its Zionist advocacy. But a no vote on those grounds should be justified independent of the AZR, which simply does not contemplate this type of scenario. Frankly, I’d have preferred for her not to have attended the event, but, in light of the abundant evidence of her solidarity with the Palestinian, that is a minor disagreement about tactics, not a major divide in strategy.
IN FAVOR by Katlyn C
I’m asking folks to vote in favor of endorsing Janeese Lewis George.
I’m a Stomp Out Slumlords organizer in Virginia, but I interface with a lot of our DC tenant unions and I helped lead our canvassing operation to fight the RENTAL Act in DC. A lot has already been said about Janeese’s record on tenant rights, including how she met with DSA members to strategize against the RENTAL Act, how she’s shown up to protest slumlords alongside tenants, how she’s a near lone voice on defending TOPA on Council. The experience of fighting the RENTAL Act was just genuinely awful - I don’t ever want to relive the feeling of certain doom, knowing that we couldn’t organize fast enough or big enough to outmuscle the landlords and developers, and that Council was a willful - gleeful! - participant in the massive rollback of working class protections. In less than a year, we lost long-held, hard won tenant rights. Electing a better mayor doesn’t solve all our problems overnight, only organizing a gigantic, militant, undeniable movement will. But I’m supremely interested in the opportunities to build a bigger fighting movement that this campaign presents. I’m particularly excited for the new opportunities it presents to engage the communities that DSA doesn’t often reach, particularly east of the river.
I’ll also share some other thoughts as a petition signer and someone who supported the AZR locally and at our 2023 and 2025 National Conventions. I won’t argue fine points or technicalities because it isn’t how I best communicate. And I won’t pretend that I wasn’t disappointed by her responses on Palestine to our candidate questionnaire, attendance at the JCRC event, or her votes on the Crimnibus. I supported the AZR because I wanted candidates I *believed* in, I wanted to *believe* they would fight for the things we care about. The stipulations in the AZR are a list of things that would make it hard for me to believe in a candidate. Her going to the JCRC event made it harder for me to *believe* in her. But there are a combination of things she could do, has done, and seems willing to do that would make me still believe in her even having gone to the JCRC event. I was genuinely heartened by the way she engaged with members on this front.
For all that I was disappointed, she is far and away the Pro-Palestine candidate, and it’s not that she’s just slightly better than the next best candidate. She’s just genuinely better than I ever hoped we’d get in a mayoral candidate. I’m convinced that her actions over the last few years reflect a genuine commitment to the cause, and I know there were hopes to create more education opportunities with our SIOs. She’s shown up in ways that others wouldn’t, including calling for a ceasefire extremely early, working with the GW encampment, and saying in the forum that she supports BDS. I don’t think she’s going to change any national conversations about Palestine the way Zohran did. But she leaned in when our members pushed back on an issue that matters deeply to us. Rather than ignore us or distance herself, she called us her political home. That mattered to me. It’s hard for me to feel like a junior partner here.
On balance, I’m more excited about the opportunities this campaign presents to build out our base than I am nervous about navigating the contradictions of a democratic socialist in executive office. I think those arguments have been made well, but I can’t make myself feel that fear in my gut. I’m genuinely more fearful and bummed out by the idea of being on the sidelines. I’m more afraid that we risk future opportunities to do really important things on all the issues that our chapter cares about if we sit this one out. So I’m leaning in, and hoping folks will vote to endorse her.
IN FAVOR by Guido V
I share the concerns that my comrades have around accountability and want to acknowledge that DSA has a macro problem when it comes to engaging our electeds and holding them accountable. There is a decay that occurs among electeds where their DSAness begins to take a backseat and when pushed to choose between socialist tendencies or establishment positions, our electeds choose the latter. With that said, however, I urge you to vote to endorse JLG in her campaign for mayor. Any ability we have to keep JLG accountable for her actions would be severely negated should we pass on endorsement and she ends up winning. After all, why would she listen to an organization that she didn’t need to win her election? I also believe that at the time when we are facing ICE fascists in the streets, we have a responsibility to bring in as many people as we can to the chapter to harness their labor power for things like ICE patrols, demonstrations, and logistics. We will not be able to do that if we are seen as an org at odds with or apart from her campaign. I fear that not endorsing would be seen as a rebuke of the coalition of working class DC voters that her campaign is trying to build, and not seen as a reason for her to adopt more of our positions. I originally signed the initial petition around JLG’s JCRC paneling because I felt there was not sufficient communication happening with the campaign around this issue. I still do not feel confident that we have created the necessary comm lines but I believe work is being done and do not believe that this is a reason to pass on endorsing. I think if we wish to push our electeds to stay in line with our program, we must build official systems of communication through our Socialist in office committee. That way candidates are receiving unified messaging on what is expected of them as an official voice from the chapter. Until then, failing to endorse would end up hurting us more than it does helping and that is why I urge you to vote yes on endorsement.
AGAINST by Elizabeth T
Hi comrades – it is true that Janeese Lewis George is a champion on so many of our issues. And yet she violated our chapter’s Anti-Zionist Resolution (AZR) by speaking as a panelist at an event hosted by the Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC) – a Zionist lobby group.
My statement lays out the following:
- JLG violated the AZR.
- We could have stopped JLG from violating the AZR.
- If you vote to endorse JLG, I’m asking you to promise you’ll be willing to hold her accountable
1.JLG violated the AZR.
If you decide that violating the AZR isn’t a dealbreaker, okay. But we should be clear on the fact that she did violate it:
The JCRC is not merely a “Jewish lobbying group.”“Israel advocacy” is 1 of its 4 pillars.
It doesn’t matter that the event was about immigration. The National Political Committee’s AZR (which our local AZR was modeled after and takes verbatim language from) explicitly defines “affiliation” with a Zionist lobby group to include “participation in … any event sponsored by” a Zionist lobby group.
This was not a constituent “meeting.” The AZR applies to events, and JLG spoke at an event (which included a $80+ registration fee to attend). While she might be required to meet with Zionist constituents in her capacity as an elected official, she does not have to attend or speak at events hosted by Zionist lobby groups.
We don’t need to “ally” with Zionist lobby groups. It would be just as unacceptable for JLG to speak at an ADL event about “fighting hate crimes” or an anti-trans org’s event about “supporting women in STEM.” Zionist groups use civil rights issues like immigration to launder their image as “progressive,” obscuring their role in the ongoing genocide. By speaking at the JCRC event, JLG helped normalize JCRC and Zionism.
2. We could have stopped JLG from violating the AZR.
This was not an inevitable outcome. 125 of us—largely rank-and-file members from nearly every chapter formation and geographical location—signed a petition urging her not to speak at the JCRC event. She could even have claimed illness as a reason for withdrawing. But some of our own comrades very loudly opposed us—including many chapter leaders and folks who are her legislative and campaign staffers. I really wish they had channeled that energy into urging JLG to comply with our AZR instead of fighting their own comrades.
If our chapter had been united in enforcing our Anti-Zionist Resolution, I do believe JLG would have listened to us and withdrawn from the JCRC event. It is precisely because our chapter was not united in enforcing our anti-Zionist line that JLG ended up violating it. We could have prevented this.
After JLG violated the AZR by speaking at the JCRC event, 111 of us—again largely rank-and-file members—signed a letter asking her to take 5 simple and feasible actions to realign with the AZR so that the signers could enthusiastically support her endorsement. But by now, the loud opponents of our petition and letter in our chapter had convinced her that she did not have to take members’ concerns seriously. And so, she completely ignored our letter. What a shame.
3. If you vote to endorse JLG, I’m asking you to promise you’ll be willing to hold her accountable.
Look, if you vote Yes to endorse JLG, I understand. She is indeed a champion on so many of our issues. But if and when she becomes mayor, I need you to be willing to criticize her and even organize against her when she’s wrong. For example:
She doubled down at her Q&A on wanting to hire 800 more cops even while MPD openly collaborates with ICE agents terrorizing our communities.
She voted Yes on multiple Bowser-Pinto crime bills, including the hyper-carceral SECURE DC (which Trayon White at least voted Present instead of Yes on) and Residential Tranquility (which further criminalized protest after Trump took office again)
She still has not answered Yes to supporting abolishing ICE—despite citing her opposition to ICE as justification for speaking at the JCRC event.
She still has not answered Yes to publicly supporting BDS—despite resubmitting the Palestine answers in her candidate questionnaire. (Note: her Q&A was a private DSA-only event, whereas her candidate questionnaire is a public document).
Are you willing to push her on these issues? What will you do when she uses her 800 new cops to arrest us for protesting against ICE (as Zohran recently did in New York) or genocide or war with Venezuela? I’m worried because some of you are so dedicated to defending her from any and all criticism that you have even resorted to claiming that the JCRC is merely a “Jewish lobbying group.” That is morally dishonest, and we have to do better as socialists.
What do you consider a dealbreaker and what do you let slide? The chapter seems to largely agree that it is absolutely unforgivable to oppose certain parts of our platform, such as housing or labor. See, for example, the Political Engagement Committee’s refusal to endorse Deirdre Brown for previously opposing TOPA (despite now claiming to support it) and everyone’s general animosity toward Robert White for voting to freeze Initiative 82 (despite later voting No on its repeal). Such mistrust is reasonable! Bad actions have consequences. But it seems that some bad actions are okay, like voting for multiple Bowser-Pinto carceral bills or rubbing shoulders with a Zionist lobby group — as JLG has done. This double standard exposes a deep flaw in our chapter: Palestine and abolition are not seen as core issues by many chapter comrades.
We must do better.
If you vote to endorse Janeese Lewis George, I’m asking you to promise that you will hold her accountable to DSA’s entire platform, and that you will be willing to organize against her as mayor if and when it becomes necessary.
Let us be clear-eyed. We only have power if we are willing and unafraid to wield it.
AGAINST by Rosie S
Member Statement AGAINST EE02 submitted by Rosie, Internationalism Working Group
The anti-Zionist resolution passed with overwhelming support, but resolutions and words do not matter if they are not adhered to in an actionable manner. Janeese Lewis George has knowingly violated this resolution, and should be disqualified from endorsement. She ignored members who reached out to try to educate her about the event with the JCRC (which is a known Zionist organization that has supported the ongoing genocide of Palestinians by the apartheid state of israel), and she ignored the petition of members who in good faith were attempting to engage with her about what this resolution means in practice. She participated in the event with full knowledge that her attendance violated our AZR; these actions make it very clear that she is not accountable to DSA members. If she is not accountable now, she will not be accountable if elected. If we continue to endorse candidates who violate our AZR, the resolution is meaningless, and DSA continues being a Zionist organization that functions as an arm of the Democratic party and upholds the imperialist status quo enshrined by bipartisan elite electeds. Repeatedly sacrificing our now-stated goals of BDS and rejection of Zionism in all its forms for political expediency and allegedly strategic short term material benefits has not and will not advance the movement for socialism in the belly of the beast.