Member Statements on 2026-EER02: Endorsement of Janeese Lewis George for DC Mayor

Member Statements
41

IN FAVOR by Dan K

Hi folks,

I would like to add my voice to those requesting a DSA endorsement for her Mayoral bid. As someone who has worked in and out of politics for more than 3 decades, the big picture is pretty clearcut.

Janeese has served–openly–in the DC City Council as a Socialist. Her priorities–both in her current position and in her campaign–reflect our voice. Metro DC DSA as a whole thought well enough of her to not only have her provide the keynote address at our December Convention, but to give her a standing ovation after.

Endorsing and organizing for a candidate seeking citywide election brings more visibility to our work. The NYC elections provide us with momentum that we can carry into the DC Primary, and Janeese is a willing and able standard bearer.

This kind of momentum does not last on its own, but if you feed it consistently it will continue to grow. An endorsement for Janeese is the perfect opportunity for us to capitalize on the momentum. If we are successful, we gain more popular support and a powerful elected official who is one of us.

I’m a DSA newbie, having joined after the November elections. So I don’t have a ton of experience within the organization, and can’t weigh in on any specifics of Janeese’s candidacy (The PEC’s memo did a great job though). I can’t debate the minutiae.

What I can say, with that disclaimer, is that from my perspective Janeese has earned our embrace, and her candidacy is a great opportunity for the chapter. Please join me in supporting her endorsement.

Many thanks,
Dan Klotz

42

IN FAVOR by Kirk G

I am a new member of MDC DSA. I attended convention in December and have been looking for ways to get involved with the chapter. I am particularly excited about the Janeese Lewis George campaign. I attended the campaign launch party at Howard Theatre and was very inspired by the energy there and seeing how diverse the crowd was. I talked with people who were from all over DC and saw them cheer when Janeese forcefully stated that MPD will not cooperate with ICE under her administration and that immigrants in DC have the right to be safe and to thrive here, when she said she would expand childcare, she would get more union jobs in the district, and when she said we need greater protections for tenants. Janeese’s campaign represents a major opportunity for DSA to engage with the coalition she is building, with everyday people of DC who are passionate about the issues that DSA fights for, but who otherwise might not understand what Democratic Socialism is. As someone who has done labor, tenant, and electoral organizing, I see immense opportunity in this campaign to “activate” working class DC residents and engage them with the organizing efforts of DSA. I hope others will join me in voting yes to endorse Janeese for Mayor of DC.

43

AGAINST by Hasan I

The moral argument to vote no is obvious. Janeese Lewis George chose to normalize Zionism, a genocidal ideology, the results of which we still see on our phones daily despite there being a so-called ceasefire, when she hosted a panel with the JCRC. And for that we should reward her with an endorsement? But maybe you think this was just one mistake, and it won’t happen again. Think again. This campaign has made so many mistakes that we, as members of DSA, need to worry if endorsing her will backfire on us. If she feels unable to stand up to the JCRC, why do we believe she will be willing to stand up to the Trump administration on anything? What will DSA’s reputation look like if we endorse her and she capitulates repeatedly.

Firstly, let’s start with the AZR. She refused to give explicit yes/no answers to the Palestine section of her first questionnaire. On the questionnaire itself, she says the mayor doesn’t have power over foreign affairs so she has to focus on local concerns. OK. Then she hosted a panel with a Zionist lobby group. She said she had no choice because of what happened in the “Australia” ward of DC, I guess. But don’t worry! She said she wouldn’t discuss Zionism at the Zionist lobby group event. “They better not bring up Zionism or else I’m gonna say Free Palestine. They better stick to the agenda and just talk about ICE enforcement!”

Then an article comes out saying she told them she supports increasing security grants for Jewish nonprofit institutions because of increased antisemitism. Not just synagogues used for religious practices. Not all religious institutions. Was there any mention of increased Islamophobia?

Comrades, there is now a non-zero chance we will endorse a candidate who wants to increase taxpayer-funded security spending — including public funds that can end up underwriting settler-linked real estate events and land-grab deals that expand illegal settlements. The headlines write themselves.

When a group of over 100 DSA members gave her campaign a list of Palestine solidarity measures she could take to take accountability, we got no response. She doesn’t take the AZR, a DSA principle, seriously. It’s only a matter of time before we see another violation. Her updated questionnaire very specifically says she’ll likely work with Zionist lobbying groups again.

Secondly — and this is especially salient today — Janeese could not say Abolish ICE because “she has no power over the federal government.” In her questionnaire, she says she’ll “direct MPD not to cooperate with ICE.” She should be firing MPD personnel that refuse to arrest ICE agents. Will she command the 800 additional MPD agents she wants to hire to arrest ICE agents?

Other comrades have mentioned, she has publicly said Abolish ICE. When? The first piece of evidence they gave were tweets from 2020, when we had a Democratic president. The second piece of evidence cited, was an Instagram note, something only close followers can see and also disappears in 24 hours. This note is gone. She is hardly a profile in courage on this issue.

Comrades, sanctuary is not a slogan. Sanctuary is a set of actions, budgets, and consequences. If the policy is “don’t cooperate,” but there’s no enforcement, no discipline, and no willingness to confront MPD, then it’s just press releases while our neighbors “disappear”.

And let’s be clear about the pattern: when asked to take a principled stand, we get hedges. We get “I don’t have authority.” We get “I’ll focus locally.” But when it comes to showing up for the JCRC, suddenly there’s urgency, suddenly there’s flexibility, suddenly there’s political will.

So I’m asking you: what happens the next time there’s pressure from the same institutions? What happens the next time there’s a “community safety” moment, a “security” moment, a “protest crackdown” moment? Do we really want Metro DC DSA’s name attached to a campaign that keeps signaling it will triangulate around our red lines?

Endorsements are not participation trophies. They are not thank-yous for past friendships. They are not “maybe she’ll listen later.” An endorsement is us saying, publicly, this candidate represents our politics and our discipline. It is us lending our credibility, our volunteers, our infrastructure — our labor — to build their power.

And if we get this wrong, it won’t just be embarrassing. It will be demoralizing. It will make our chapter look unserious about the AZR. It will make our immigrant neighbors question whether “sanctuary” means anything when it costs political capital. It will tell everyone in this city that DSA’s principles are negotiable if you apply enough pressure.

Comrades, we don’t need to endorse someone to “keep a seat at the table.” We need to build a table that can’t be bought, and a movement that can’t be leveraged against itself.

If Janeese wants our endorsement, she can earn it — not with vague commitments, not with “I’ll focus locally,” not with photo-ops — but with concrete, public, enforceable commitments that align with the AZR and with abolitionist politics.

Until then, the responsible, disciplined, movement-protecting vote is simple:

Vote no.

1 Like
44

IN FAVOR by Jon C

In preparation for our big local convention, when I learned Mayor Bowser had dropped out of the race, I assumed the process to endorse our comrade Janeese Lewis George would be nearly unanimous. I was wrong. Instead, we have had to bear witness to yet another internal battle defined more by posturing than principle.

Right around Christmas, I discovered a petition signed by 125 DSA members demanding the Councilwoman not speak at an event. My first thought was, “isn’t the substantive debate over these endorsements supposed to take place in January?” Instead, I was directed to a corrosive Slack thread in the SC channel. As an HGO, I cannot share the details, but I will say that both major factions within our Chapter exposed the very kind of internal strife that led me to become an HGO in the first place. My deep scars from decades of conflict on the left have shaped me into someone who works to build bridges, not burn them. “Divide and conquer” is a tactic used against movements for humanity since the Roman Empire. Read the “Cointelpro Papers.” Study the Church Committee findings. This is what they do to us.

For decades, I watched DSA from the sidelines as this strain of conflict played out in chapters across the country. Even during the Trump years, too often DSA’s most damaging conflicts weren’t over political strategy, but over language and purity. Philadelphia called Adolph Reed Jr. a class reductionist and disinvited him in 2020. There were attacks on Bernie Sanders for not saying “genocide” soon enough, even as he worked the Senate to build opposition to the policy. The criticism of AOC for attending a memorial service (but I agree with her censor on the Iron Dome). These public fractures do nothing but harm our organization, and I fear the damage a public airing this conflict would cause.

If we choose not to endorse, the consequences will be severe. We will likely have to scale back our plans for the year due to lost support. It will become a news story that a sitting council member and chapter member was rejected in this political climate. National reporters, paid to oppose us, will dig up whatever they can to inflict further damage on our work. We will forfeit a golden opportunity to elect another socialist mayor of a major U.S. city. This will be destructive to the campaign, to our chapter, and to our project of building socialism.

I was part of the one-third growth in our membership last year. I joined because I am a political person, and I knew DSA was the place to directly fight to retain the hard-won rights I worked so hard to gain. As a transgender bisexual person, my battles have also been against “Gay Inc.” and the liberal identity politics that often undermine material struggle. While this endorsement debate is being framed as a conflict between left and right factions, I see it in the same light as the endless battles over language that consumed LGBTQ+ politics after marriage equality—a fixation on culture wars over our basic rights and protections. I haven’t finished Minority Rule, but I’ve heard Ash Sarkar describe its thesis enough to recognize this terrain. To me, a retired worker, these often feel less like political battles and more like college debate clubs spilled into the public realm. It’s what pisses me off when Vijay Prashad criticizes DSA; sometimes it stings because he hits where the old scars are. I debated for the ERA in high school but was not of the social class to be given an education.

Those of us in leadership have a responsibility to our members and to the millions of fellow workers in the DMV we claim to represent. That requires respecting both our democratic processes and our fellow comrades. As an anarcho-trans-feminist, my instinct is to seek consensus and move beyond such boyish behavior. But I am a DSA member; I understand change takes time. However, looking at the world, we don’t have a lot of time for navel-gazing. It appears that it “tis the final conflict.” We are facing the end to the rules which the world has lived under since the end of The Great War to End Fascism. It didn’t. In fact, nearly conflict raging today stems from the world order established post war.

It is our duty as political people to step back and interrogate our positions before drawing lines in the sand, especially in an era of mass collective trauma caused by forces opposed to humanity. As someone living with C-PTSD, I know when I must use the tools I’ve gained from years of trans healthcare to cope with conflict. My hope now is that we act responsibly with the power we hold.

We must not succumb to internal fracturing. We must seize this moment. I urge you to join me in voting to endorse our comrade, Janeese Lewis George, for Mayor of Washington, Douglass Commonwealth!

45

IN FAVOR by Claire M

This week, we all needed our government. And Mayor Bowser’s admin failed us completely. There was no plan, she prioritized downtown AKA out-of-District commuters, and she was nearly silent the whole week. Now imagine you are a person who needs the DC government for literally anything: help dealing with a lying landlord, relief on your utility bills, a call to 911, a bed to sleep in on a freezing winter night. You will be met with the same complete and utter failure of a response. DC’s government is a shell, hollowed out by Mayor Bowser.

The working class of DC doesn’t believe democratic socialism is possible because they don’t believe in DC’s government, not because they don’t trust Democratic politicians. Why should they have any faith in a government that leaves us stranded in a storm and lets our neighbors freeze on the street or get snatched by ICE?

That’s why I’m voting enthusiastically to endorse Janeese Lewis George for mayor: she can build a DC that works for people.

Janeese Lewis George has excelled at an incredibly difficult job ALONE on DC Council. She is surrounded by liberals who lack her vision or courage and conservatives who throw the people of DC under the bus daily to make a buck. And even if anything remotely positive makes it out of Council, the Mayor has systemically killed it by stalling, gutting, and corrupting the DC government in every way possible. This city works for developers, landlords, bosses, and the wealthy elite because it has been designed to. The Council is no different. But JLG’s Ward 4 constituent services are still incredible and she’s LOVED by her Ward because of it. She’s made DC’s completely incompetent government actually work for her people, and I am confident she will do everything in her power to do the same for the city as Mayor.

The working class of this city doesn’t know or care how JLG voted on a given bill or if she attended a JCRC meeting. They care about ICE disappearing their neighbors, landlords jacking their rent, childcare costing over 20k per kid, and the DC government making all these problems worse instead of better. They want someone who will try to help them. We know JLG will do exactly that. Of course JLG can’t fix all these problems by herself – as a Councilmember or Mayor. But McDuffie will systematically make every single one of those problems worse until there is nothing left of this city’s working class so there is no one left to oppose him.

I think this chapter has a responsibility to do everything within our power to stop that. And I think doing so will help us build power to push JLG in the right direction on the difficult road of governing ahead. This is what we’ve done to get her elected and then help her govern as a Councilmember. She knows that, she’s said that publicly, and that’s why she’s asking for our help again. It hasn’t been perfect, and it never will be. But if we wait until it is, we will be waiting until there is nothing left.

46

IN FAVOR by Mina S

Hi comrades, I urge everyone to vote YES and have MDC DSA endorse Janeese Lewis George for Mayor of DC.

Look, I’m not going to belabor the point. Masked federal agents, fascist paramilitaries, are shooting people in the street. I walk past armed military occupiers every day I go into work. The only way to stop this is to take power. The only way to take power in this District, in 2026, is to elect the mayor. We are incredibly lucky to have Janeese Lewis George, a strong Socialist in Office here, who has huge momentum, a diehard DSA member, uniting a labor-left coalition – running to overthrow a political coalition (Bowser’s Green Team) that can’t even plow the freaking streets, let alone the sidewalks, let alone oppose fascism. Sitting on the sidelines for this race would be a pathetic abdication of power at a time when we’ve never needed it more. I’m reminded of the words working people yelled at socialists over a century ago, in another desperate time for another country: “Take power when it is handed to you!”

If you are on the fence about this vote, remember Minneapolis – then remember that whatever Trump and his cronies do to them, they can and will do to us, unless we stop them. And we can’t stop them without a socialist mayor, right here, right now. Vote yes.

47

IN FAVOR by Elizabeth B

I am writing in favor of endorsing Janeese Lewis George for the simple reason that she is a committed socialist and will fight for the working class. She has been a leader on the issues we care about - on tenant’s rights, on DC Home Rule, on the environment and public transit, and on Palestine. Living in Ward 4, I can personally tell you that she has been an effective Councilmember and she would be an excellent Mayor of DC. I understand the opinions of some of my comrades on her meeting with the JCRC, but I would note that she has shown herself to be a champion for Palestine through her actions such as supporting the GW encampment, calling for a ceasefire long before it was politically convenient or easy to do so, and her demonstrated commitment to continue to fight for the Palestinian cause as Mayor. Meeting with the JCRC to discuss ICE’s kidnappings, especially in light of her demonstrated and repeated commitment to the Palestinian cause, is not a sufficient reason to condemn her as a Zionist or even as wishy-washy on the issue.

It is obvious that we are under an occupation in DC. Many of us merely need to look out our windows to see armed soldiers on our streets. We have seen entirely too many innocent people detained, harassed, kidnapped, tortured and murdered by the fascist thugs of this regime. Now is not the time to nitpick over what is ultimately a non-issue. Janeese Lewis George is a committed socialist who will fight for workers, tenants and immigrants. She will fight the fascist regime instead of collaborating with it. She will bring in a wave of new members and volunteers and allow us to make inroads in communities we have previously had little success in mobilizing, such as among native Washingtonians. To refuse to endorse a woman who has described DSA as her political home, whom we have endorsed before, whom has fought the Democratic Machine and the Trump regime on every issue that matters to us would be a grievous self-inflicted wound. We must strike while the iron is hot and we cannot shrink from the fight.

Come, my friends, it is not too late to seek a newer world.

48

IN FAVOR by Stu K

As a longtime Metro DC DSA member, a former chair of the chapter, and a leader of our chapter’s electoral organizing, I urge chapter members to vote YES on endorsing fellow chapter member Janeese Lewis George for DC mayor.

Since first running for the DC Council in 2020, now-Councilmember Lewis George has stood with our DSA chapter on a range of our priorities, such as:

This is a track record that comes from Janeese Lewis George’s ironclad moral vision of what a better world can look like. I trust that, if elected mayor of DC, Councilmember Lewis George will continue working alongside our chapter to fight for working class priorities across the metropolitan Washington region. But first, Lewis George needs to win this election, and our chapter must be a key partner in making that victory a reality.

Again, for the reasons I’ve shared here, I encourage Metro DC DSA members to vote YES on endorsing Janeese Lewis George in her campaign for mayor of DC.

49

IN FAVOR by Amanda G

If you know me, you know I don’t really fuck with politicians. I spent most of my life scrutinizing politicians as a local reporter and more recently as a union organizer.

But the last year made me realize I cannot sit this election out – watching my neighbors be kidnapped and watching my friends leave the city because they can’t afford to have a dignified life here. So I got involved in politics, but NOT politics as usual.

Janeese Lewis George is one of us. Like me, Janeese was priced out of her family home. Like me, Janeese has been out in the streets documenting ICE and MPD detain our neighbors. She has great ideas on how to tackle the affordability crisis, like no more $1 land deals to developers and social housing. And Janeese knows how to stand up to Trump and will work shoulder-to-shoulder with the DC Office of the Attorney General unlike our current mayor, Muriel Bowser.

50

IN FAVOR by Caleb W

I encourage everyone to vote to endorse Janeese. A campaign that aligns so strongly with our values, publicly associates herself with the chapter, and supports our projects and priorities in word (by name) and deed is an incredible opportunity. It is even more favorable that we can do so in a political moment when people are open to a candidate proposing radical changes from a position of deep, authentic ties to DC.

51

IN FAVOR by Josh A

Comrades,

I am writing this statement in favor of our Chapter endorsing Janeese Lewis George for mayor of the District of Columbia.

Many of you might know me from my work in UNITE HERE Local 23 and the labor movement in general. Over a decade in service to the movement, as a shop floor steward, an officer and now staff organizer, have shaped my political lens as a communist, but also keeps my personal conviction as a father strong, and future I envision to build, hopefully as a continued Washingtonian.

In my Union, in all previous times of endorsement, I’ve never seen members, my comrades, who I’ve struggled with, built with, through fair and grim weather, be so enamored, engaged and willing to listen to something different. Something they believe is real.

There is a hunger to lend their support, not just to any person who holds a banner, but someone who walks the walk. For them, there is excitement in this future, one that many veteran and experienced worker-organizers wish to own a piece. For them, Janeese is worth talking about, taking seriously and as a matter of helping cross that finish line, be organized around.

For those of us in Labor, we will not just endorse, but flex muscle, and throw down.

Yet.

My comrades in this socialist organization, what of us?

My comrades in UNITE HERE, they are District residents, with families, hopes and dreams, some with political opinions that match our own, fellow travelers, and someone who have never read Marx, and who’s entry point into this work, our movement is labor, not socialism - but they are the people, who if engage in a conversation with them, you’ll find their dreams and yours align.

The dream of a District resident, who now, as then, when I first developed my political conscious, is one that wants to thrive, not just survive. Comrades, it may seem strange to read, but it is the reality of this city.

A city of struggling workers, with every sort of family arrangement, including those who wish to plan, and those who feel that living, dependents or not, is out of reach.

In this city the worker is not just oppressed by capital, the bosses which dictate its flow and resulting control of ‘State’, but we are also befuddled by the oppressive nature of apathy. The proletariat has been conditioned into a subservient modus, told lies that the future is written, bleak, and unchanging in any sort of relief, let alone inspiration. The politics of our city currently is dominated by cowards, sycophants, sadists and other assorted filth.

We need a program of action and hope.

Much as on the shop floor, militants are not born, they are made, by struggle, and yes, a vision - a vision, mind you is just a sword forged of errant dreams, something lumpy, that turns into something refined.

No one fights, gets involved in this struggle, by words alone - they - we - comrades get involved because we encountered the sharpened vision of what could be, of what should be, with organization.

Janeese Lewis George, from a strong background and a cadre in our Organization, represents this vision, a piece and important role step in helping shape a new state of being, to inspire hundreds of thousands that a better world is possible.

We as Metro DC DSA, cannot afford to sit this one out, we cannot miss out in playing the role in that future and propagating our vision of life.

52

IN FAVOR by Carl R

At Janeese’s re-election party in 2024, she thanked a huge number of groups for endorsing her. The chapter received a very special call out as an organization. But she also thanked three sets of people - and only three sets of people - by name: her office staff, her campaign staff, and her DSA comrades who led the chapter’s work with the campaign. This was special, not because of the individuals she named, but because of what it meant: the chapter is a fundamentally different part of her coalition from every other group. We are the core, or in her words during this mayoral campaign: her political home.

And we know this is the case because she has worked with us, directly and closely, for years. She has stood with SOS tenants - and had us come defend people from eviction. She has made strategic plans with us, to defend I82 and TOPA. She has spoken at our local convention. She has told people, frequently, to join DSA if they want to organize for the things she believes in. She is one of us.

We can have a comrade mayor if we want. We just have to endorse and elect her. I don’t want to minimize the difficulties of electing her - let alone governing alongside her - but I’d rather face those difficulties than sit on the sidelines. After all, the bosses aren’t!

Vote YES to endorse comrade Janeese Lewis George for mayor.

53

IN FAVOR by Jonathan N

As an uncaucused Ward 4 DSA member who signed onto the AZR letter, I am writing to show my full SUPPORT for endorsing Janeese Lewis George’s mayoral run.

Seeing firsthand the positive change she’s brought to Ward 4 and DC broadly since I came to this state, I believe it would be electoral malpractice not to endorse someone who has stood behind and with MDC DSA through so many fights. I truly believe that JLG will make a great partner in our push to bring democratic socialism to DC and beyond - she has walked the walk and talked the talk in a way that, for the first time, I am a recurring campaign donor AND registered volunteer. The progressive and leftist coalition is already behind JLG and we must, as senior partners with Janeese, join them if we are to see DC become the livable state we need it to be. Not endorsing Janeese risks us losing DC to the likes of McDuffie or another capitalist-friendly mayor that will devastate the progressive and socialist causes of our time. I benefit from many of the public services JLG has fought for, and JLG is the only candidate who will fight to keep, if not expand them to everyone. JLG is THE candidate that will fight against racism, Zionism, capitalism, imperialism, and corporate greed - full stop.

Vote YES to endorse Janeese Lewis George - anything less would be a failure to DC and our fellow DSA members.

54

IN FAVOR by Rob W

Janeese Lewis George’s campaign for DC Mayor represents an opportunity for the socialist movement that we cannot afford to waste.

In the wake of Zohran Mamdani’s victory in New York, we have reason to believe that the mass voting public is much more open to socialism than in the recent past. Now we have a chance to demonstrate that socialist policies work in practice, that we have the ability to lead, that we can be trusted to deliver social programs that other Democrats only claim to support, and in doing so, we can launch our movement from the margins of American politics to the mainstream. We have no idea how long the window of opportunity will be open, so we need to strike now.

Janeese is the leader we need to take advantage of this moment. She is the most principled leader in DC politics, and she has taken a series of lonely and courageous stands on the council against rollbacks of tenant rights and criminalization of youth and in favor of Palestinian human rights and the economic rights of undocumented immigrants. She has been loyal to DSA and has consistently defended us when others have turned on us. Those of us who have been in the chapter for some years know her and have a strong working relationship. She has continued to make time for us and uplift our work and identify our organization as her political home, even as certain subversive elements in the chapter slander her record. Now she has a serious chance to win the mayoralty; in fact, thanks to the united support of the local labor movement and her prominence in the fight against the federal occupation, she has a much clearer road to victory than Mamdani did at the outset of his campaign. We have a chance to put her over the top.

Joining in this campaign will strengthen Metro DC DSA’s organizing program. This is an opportunity to start talking to people in all 8 wards of DC about building social housing, abolishing ICE, taxing wealth, and using municipal policy to build the union movement and immediately move the people we talk to into motion. We all know we have struggled to organize effectively in working class black communities, but by uniting behind a prominent black socialist, we have an opportunity to bring people into our movement who have not taken us seriously in the past. We also have a chance to cement our status as the most effective volunteer campaign infrastructure in the Washington area, further establish our leadership with labor and the progressive movement, and pull our allies to the left.

The Janeese campaign is an unmissable opportunity for DSA, an all members who want socialism to be a mainstream force in American life should proudly vote YES for her endorsement.

55

IN FAVOR by Giancarlo V

Today I write in support of our chapter endorsing Janeese Lewis-George’s campaign for mayor. I understand the critiques that many members of the chapter have about both her recent actions and the policies that she is running on in this campaign. Personally, I am especially worried about the commitment that she has made to hire more police officers. It is clear that there is a fundamental contradiction between implementing municipal socialism and maintaining the MPD at their current size (much less expanding them). But I think that we, as a chapter, should be embracing contradictions such as these, and tentatively viewing them as an enviable manifestation of our organisational development, not an indictment of it.

Contradiction only occurs when encountering new ideas, talking with folks who don’t agree with us, or dealing with situations that we haven’t dealt with before. In a country that has done it’s best to bury socialism and other left politics for centuries, socialist ideas are new to many folks, most folks don’t currently think of themselves as socialists, and socialists have not wielded significant power — in the halls of government or in the streets — for several decades. It is impossible for us to gain enough power to win the new world we deserve without talking to a lot of folks who don’t currently have the same vision for the future, and getting into a lot of situations we’ve never been in before. Endorsing Janeese in her campaign for mayor is not only a new situation, but it is one with unprecedented potential for our chapter.

As we saw in New York City last year, electoral politics provides an unparalleled organizing opportunity in the U.S. political system. There is no other terrain where politics can be so openly contested (even if the playing field is so heavily tilted in favour of reactionary, corporate interests). By endorsing Janeese and being the driving force behind her campaign, we have a unique opportunity to bring scores of people from across the District into close contact with our movement. Although I understand the fear of many fellow comrades that we will work to put Janeese into power, only to be disappointed by how she uses that power, I think that it is this exposure to our fellow District residents that is where the greater opportunity lies.

I say this in large part because of my own experience becoming a socialist. While specific political events helped shape my worldview, what made me an organised socialist was my exposure to members of this chapter who were willing to not only talk to me about politics, but welcomed me into opportunities to organise on the causes I already believed in. This consistent exposure to these comrades, and their inspiring work, helped turn me from somebody who was interested in socialism, but felt conflicted about some of its tenets, into somebody who actively identifies as a socialist. Janeese’s campaign gives us an opportunity to have these interactions with hundreds and thousands of our neighbours.

Furthermore, I believe how well we integrate these neighbours into our political project is what will truly determine how socialist her mayoralty is. At our chapter’s current size, we do not have the capacity to exert discipline over any elected official. By effectively and efficiently bringing in as many folks as possible who volunteer for Janeese’s campaign, we can significantly increase the size of our chapter, and slowly change the politics of the folks who we newly organise during and after Janeese’s campaign. This is to say nothing of the many policy changes that Janeese will be able to implement once in office, which will change the ability of folks around the district, and the region, to organise.

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IN FAVOR by Bakari W

Hello all, I’m Bakari. I was on MDC DSA’s Steering Committee from 2023-2025 and was chair of the Political Engagement Committee, which leads our electoral work, from 2024-2025. I’m now a staff organizer for the Janeese Lewis George for DC Mayor campaign, but even if I wasn’t, I’d still be telling you to vote YES to endorse Janeese.

We’re staring down the barrel of fascism, AI, oligarchy, imperialism, Climate Change, and many other intertwined crises. Because the United States has primary responsibility for creating/perpetuating most of these existential threats, I unfortunately don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say billions of lives around the world depend partially on whether DSA becomes the most powerful political force in this country within about a decade.

So we have a lot of work to do. We have to organize tenants/workers, defend our communities, pressure the powerful with direct action, win elections, pass reforms that increase workers’ power, and use each of these tactics to strengthen our ability to do all the others. Underlying all of this, we have to grow DSA exponentially, especially among older, Black, brown, and non-Professional Managerial Class people who tend to be outside of the post-Bernie DSA-sphere. For us in Metro DC DSA, doing all of these tasks effectively requires endorsing Janeese, winning, and working with her once elected.

Doing these tasks requires specific and winnable organizing efforts that target the root of class exploitation, and it requires directly involving every kind of worker in those efforts. People outside of our bubble fighting fascists, bosses, slumlords, PACs, and lobbyists alongside DSA members is the best way for them to get aligned with DSA. When the people around that fight see the improvement that winning a class struggle can make in their lives, see the lengths capital will go to stop those improvements, and see that DSA is an effective/necessary ally in that fight, it opens people up to our politics. Our involvement in Janeese’s campaign and her mayorship will create the conditions for us to take on more of those fights on a larger scale than has ever been possible for our chapter.

One example of that in MDC DSA is Stomp Out Slumlords helping tenants, from Latino immigrants to Black DC natives in Ward 8, organize tenant unions and win massive concessions from exploitative landlords. Like Buena Vista, which is now a co-op owned by tenants, and the Marbury Plaza tenants union that won 10s of millions of dollars from their landlord in a court ruling, though there are many other successful SOS tenant unions too. Tenants in other nearby buildings have heard about victories like this because of word-of-mouth, the news, or our eviction defense work, and it gets more Black/brown/service worker/blue collar workers outside of DSA’s normal bubble to be more open to our politics because our politics have demonstrated results. Then, when a DSA elected like Janeese is the councilmember most outspokenly defending TOPA (the Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act) from the developer and landlord lobby, those tenants pay extremely close attention. Those tenants helped lobby the council in support of Janeese’s legislative efforts in 2025 because TOPA is an organizing tool many SOS tenants have directly used to protect their rights. SOS tenants also held a rally supporting Janeese in 2024 and helped us knock doors for her in their apartment buildings because of this. When we directly organize workers in tenant/labor unions and win elections with outspoken socialist candidates, it allows us to use both of those levers of power to fight legislative battles that improve our ability to organize more workers, elect more outspoken socialists, and align more sections of the working class against capital. This creates a virtuous cycle that feeds on itself and gets more and more powerful. DSA is the only organization in the US capable of sustaining a cycle like this in the way we do at the national scale we can. MDC DSA’s program (and the Groundwork caucus) calls it the Class Alignment cycle, and it’s the way we’ll grow big enough to win the better world we know is possible.

In situations like the TOPA example above, Janeese has already for years been critical for sustaining the class alignment cycle in DC. We must endorse Janeese because her winning as a DSA candidate with our help will give us more tools to win more victories that strengthen the class alignment cycle further. We must strengthen class alignment here in DC because we need to strengthen it everywhere in order to become the most powerful political force in the country.

Janeese’s campaign will also grow DSA by connecting us with more sections of the working class in DC, the ones outside our bubble. Janeese’s church is Union Temple Baptist Church, an Afrocentric church in Ward 8 that was part of organizing the Million Man March and Marion Barry’s re-entry into politics in the 90s. It’s also where my parents met. It’s a type of powerful DC political institution that the chapter has zero connections or lines of communication with, and we’re currently not on track to build those connections in the foreseeable future. But endorsing Janeese would put us fighting side-by-side with Union Temple and many institutions like it. Even if most of those we’re struggling alongside aren’t socialists, the best way to open people up to our politics is by doing the work with them and winning. It’s really really cool that when I tabled for Janeese in Anacostia at the MLK march I could say “Janeese goes to Union Temple down the street” and that was all some people needed to hear to support her. It was even cooler that my mom came and tabled with me. And even cooler when an older Black woman told me she learned the term democratic socialist from Zohran’s campaign, and asked me if Janeese was a democratic socialist too.

Vote YES to endorse the next mayor of the 51st state, Janeese Lewis George.

57

IN FAVOR by Emily N

I am writing today in support of our chapter endorsing Janeese Lewis George in her race for Mayor.

For full disclosure: I am a member of Janeese’s legislative staff and have no role on her campaign. The views expressed here are my own and reflect only my personal experience.

Those who have been around the chapter for some time know that I have been a cadre DSA member far longer than I have worked for Janeese. I have been a leader in sections, working groups, and our MED; served on the 2024 Steering Committee; and represented this chapter at two national conventions. I have often strongly disagreed with some of my comrades, but I don’t expect anyone would question my commitment to our shared organizing project or the movement to build socialism in our region.

Working in Janeese’s office has been clarifying - especially in exposing the weaknesses of this chapter’s political program. To other Councilmembers and their offices, our strategy and principles are largely illegible. They do not fear us and we are rarely taken seriously. We are not seen as a constituency to reckon with or political force, and are most often used as a foil around which others organize against our aims. This is interesting given that our electoral program is undoubtedly a force to be reckoned with, but the reality is that we, collectively, have failed to bring the same level of seriousness to our program and co-governance strategies so far in our development.

As an outside group, with primarily an outside/agitational strategy, we do not hold institutional power. This position can only be powerful if we are effective, and we have a responsibility to be as effective as possible for the working class of this region.

Despite this lack of clear strategy in relating to our electeds, Janeese has continued to stand by us. She has taken hard and lonely votes to uphold the principles we share, fought to amend every bill that crosses her desk to reduce harm, and consistently welcomed collaboration with and feedback from our chapter. She holds down the left pole on the Council - often, all on her own.

Meeting her halfway has always been our responsibility. She consistently uplifts our chapter as a space where folks can turn to organize - from that night on the steps of the Supreme Court when Roe was overturned to this summer during her community presentations when the federal occupation first began. We passed SIOC reforms at convention to ensure this project is taken seriously and ensure that our electeds have clear ways to remain connected to our chapter. Janeese has held up her end of the bargain. It is time for us to hold up ours.

Co-governance is a two-way street, comrades. It is built on relationships. I have been grateful to collaborate with other DSA members as a staffer in this office and welcome anyone who wants to talk more about that work. Some of my own most gratifying moments as a Council staffer thus far are the direct result of my organizing with other DSA members. I know that we can and will do better to foster these relationships between our electeds, their offices, and our members, but it’s on us to figure out how.

If we are serious about becoming a force in this region, we must be willing to take on difficult questions and real responsibility. Sitting out Janeese’s mayoral race would not only harm our chapter - it would undermine the years of work that made this moment possible.

We have a real opportunity here. Let’s not squander it.

58

IN FAVOR by Olivia D

I support endorsing Janeese Lewis George for mayor and urge members to vote in support. I live in Montgomery County but work in DC and know how consequential a Janeese mayoralty would be for the entire region. From fighting for tenants, hospitality workers, childcare workers, parents, families, youth, and more— I trust Janeese to deliver a transformative agenda for the city. I trust Janeese and her team and we’ve seen what her leadership has done for the city and our movement in the past 6 years of working together. I believe it was only because of our past endorsements and collaborations with her that we were able to engage so quickly about the JCRC breakfast. Knowing that we have her back and will support her will only help her to take the bold stances we need her to to enact our agenda. An endorsement, in addition to enhancing our ability to hold Janeese and her team accountable, enables us to continue strengthening our relationship with her and for her to continue to see us as key members of her base, governing partners in her coalition, and her political home. An endorsement will also enable us to continue to strengthen relationships with the many other individuals and organizations who will be supporting her campaign, from organized labor to organized renters to Palestine solidarity leaders. Now is the year where we need to be collaborating and relationship building on as big a scale as we can, not closing off doors. Please vote yes.

59

IN FAVOR by Ricardo S

Janeese’s voting record has consistently defended and built power for working class Washingtonians and people of color, and her platform and approach to this election is by far the best and most advantageous of any candidate in the field for Mayor. She has represented DSA proudly, included us as core in her movement, and will continue to build power for the Left if we are harness the electoral cycle and our endorsement for base building and action. Vote yes on Janeese Lewis George.

60

IN FAVOR by Catherine R

I urge MDC DSA to vote yes on endorsing our comrade Janeese Lewis George for Mayor.

As many other comrades can testify to the important and extensive work Janeese Lewis George has done with the chapter, I’d like to take this opportunity to underscore the stakes of this decision, for DC and for our organization.

This is a winnable race, but it is far from won, and we should be clear that MDC DSA’s support—or choice to withhold it—could plausibly, maybe even decisively impact the outcome. Speaking to the press, JLG has described MDC DSA as her political home: if we decline to endorse, we would deal a serious and public blow to her campaign’s momentum and chances to prevail—and with it our chances for DC to be governed by a socialist mayor.

While current organizing conditions mean Mayor Lewis George would certainly face serious challenges in governing, it seems unquestionable to me that her record as a Socialist in Office shows she will be materially better for Washington’s working class in meeting these challenges than would any of the corporate Democrat alternatives, and I would be chagrined if we were the reason avoidable harm comes to the people of DC. It’s not an exaggeration to say “the DSA difference” here will be a matter of life or death for some residents of the District.

Moreover, engaging here offers the opportunity to grow our organization significantly, particularly in parts of DC that DSA has struggled to reach. An expanded MDC DSA would improve the conditions Mayor JLG would govern under, and also strengthen our own influence over both the mayoralty and the broader circumstances. We cannot abstain because the terrain isn’t yet optimal: engaging here is an important and unique chance to improve it.

It is our obligation to fight: I urge comrades to join me in voting YES to endorse Janeese Lewis George.