Member Statements on EER04: Endorsement of Deirdre Brown for DC Delegate to the U.S. House of Representatives
Per Section 4 of our bylaws, “The Political Engagement Committee shall be permitted to issue a recommendation and rationale as a body, to be delivered by its chair or their designee, before or during debates on all electoral endorsements and will be allotted additional speaking time if requested to deliver findings from their engagement with the candidate or ballot initiative campaign. This recommendation and rationale will be included along with endorsement ballots sent to members.”
The Political Engagement Committee has issued a recommendation Against endorsing Deirdre Brown. The PEC’s full recommendation and analysis can be found here.
There has not been a competitive Democratic Primary for this seat in decades. In the three most recent cycles, the total number of votes cast has ranged from just over 90,000 in 2024 to more than 120,000, with Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton receiving between 72,979 and 107,289 votes (79.6% to 98.02%). It remains to be determined whether this will be a truly open race. There is much speculation about (and increasingly open calls for) Del. Norton’s purportedly impending retirement, but she has not yet announced that she is retiring. Regardless, the seat is considered vulnerable to a challenger. Deirdre ran for office once before in the Ward 3 Democratic Primary in 2022, garnering just 517 votes (2.7%) and coming in eighth place.
The delegate seat has little to no real legislative power and there are already at least two ambitious, prominent candidates – At-Large Councilmember Robert White and Ward 2 Councilmember Brooke Pinto – who are likely to raise a significant amount of campaign funds and receive key endorsements. Democratic socialist Ward 4 Councilmember and mayoral candidate Janeese Lewis George has already endorsed White. Moreover, Deirdre ran in the Ward 3 primary in 2022, during which she indicated that the Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act (TOPA), a longtime priority for our elected officials and tenant organizers in the chapter, should be amended. In her responses to questions 23 and 24 of the Greater Greater Washington questionnaire, Deirdre wrote: “I am a member of the District of Columbia’s Association of Realtors Public Policy Committee. We worked with the Council on the Single Family TOPA law. It outlaws the selling of TOPA rights by tenants. I believe we should do the same for the two plus TOPA law” and said “No” to restoring single-family TOPA. Deirdre indicated in response to a question at the first read of her endorsement resolution at the General Body Meeting on November 9th that she no longer holds this view. Given that she only recently became a new member, we don’t have reason to believe that Deirdre is sufficiently aligned with the chapter.
Per section 6.5 of our bylaws, “recognized caucuses shall have the right to publish statements and proposals in public forums for the local, subject to the moderation of that forum.” Metro DC DSA’s Groundwork Caucus has submitted a recommendation AGAINST endorsing Deirdre Brown. The caucus’ full writeup and analysis can be found here.
We do not believe Deirdre meets the endorsement criteria we laid out. She has a long track record of publicly opposing our politics. Beyond this, she is running for an office with limited ability to win the structural reforms we need, and she has no credible path to victory. Indeed, she is probably to the right of the current leading candidate politically. We cannot recommend endorsing here.
AGAINST by Gary Z
I am writing AGAINST of endorsing Deirdre’s run for DC House Delegate. Beyond this race being an extremely heavy commitment, Deirdre’s past positions on vital DC tenant’s rights make her incompatible with our chapter’s platform, values and objectives.
Deirdre is not cadre, has not been involved in any class struggles alongside DSA and has no record of engagement with our chapter’s working groups or operations. Just a few years ago, she was running for election on a platform that opposed rent control and advocated for continued disfiguration of DC’s TOPA protections. Deirdre is a member of the Association of Realtors — which has directly advocated against our chapter’s platform and priorities in the past — and bragged about being part of the capitalist insurgents that killed single-family TOPA (tenant opportunity to purchase) back in 2018, an action which set the stage for the wider rollback of tenants’ rights we have seen in DC this year. Although the answers provided in Deirdre’s questionnaire suggest she does not share these views today, the damage her activity and advocacy has wrought in the city has already been done.
I always want to extend grace to those who have changed their views — I have not seen evidence that suggests this change of heart is authentic or rooted in class struggle. I see no good reason for socialists to commit time to this election or candidate.
AGAINST by Ken B
In 2022, Deirdre Brown told the Washington Realtors Association that she supported taking away TOPA rights from single family homes. Now, she’s telling us she supports protecting and expanding it. At her candidate forum, she claimed that she only took that position because she was a member of the realtors association, and wanted their endorsement, so she has to share their line. Now she claims to be a DSA member, and she wants our endorsement. While I’m flattered that corporate democrats find our endorsement more useful than the Realtor’s Association’s, I do not think we can trust people who will sing whatever tune they need to get an endorsement. Please vote NO on Deirdre Brown.
AGAINST by Carl R
Comrades, vote NO on the endorsement of Deirdre Brown. There are two key reasons: firstly, she does not share her politics, as evidenced by her recent opposition to TOPA (which she has flip flopped on while seeking our support). Secondly, and much more importantly, is the office. It holds functionally no power. Why should we spend our time and effort electing someone to Congress who won’t get to vote there? Comrades, vote NO.