Member Statements on Resolution 26-39: Run, AOC, Run! ATL DSA is Ready for 2028.
Submit member statements here.
IN FAVOR by Noah T
I believe in striking while the iron is hot, and I believe an AOC presidential campaign and presidency could be monumental for DSA, our movement, and building socialism in this country.
It is so important that we use DSA & the left’s momentum & popularity over the last year and a half to support the opportunity to further our goals for a better world and also to grow our ranks. This will be the best opportunity in DSA’s history to bring people into the movement and the party, as an AOC campaign will massively turn out the working class and the progressive left that makes up our base and potential new members.
We can’t afford to be caught flat-footed or to sit this out and let the campaign pull from our org’s momentum/membership by not being involved from the very beginning.
We have a world to win and we can win it now!
IN FAVOR by Blue T
This project is a slam-dunk. Setting aside the agenda-setting power that a Democratic Socialist candidate taking office would provide the Left, I think the biggest opportunity here is one of party growth. I’m a big believer in mass politics — the idea that the best way to get things done is to involve as many people as possible. We need a DSA of millions, one that’s strong enough to contest state power, fuse with a strong labor movement, and energetic enough to get bystanders to come out to support us.
I think there’s really no other candidate with the clout and pull of AOC. She gets the entire day’s news cycle for appearing in a members-only NYC-DSA Q&A session. After Convention passed a resolution calling for a left-labor candidate to run for president in 2028, it became clear to me that Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is the only figure on the Left with the combination of sauce, politics, and platform to get the job done. I’m supporting this resolution because I think this only works for DSA, though, if we can get out ahead of it. If we can pull AOC into the conversation, and serve as the wind in her sails, then we get to build the biggest mass movement of the left in this country’s history.
IN FAVOR by Nate K
In 2016 and 2020, DSA proudly endorsed Bernie Sanders for President, supporting petition campaigns urging him to run, endorsing early as soon as his campaigns launched, and embedding ourselves within the broader grassroots movement around Bernie. Those interventions were resoundingly successful, skyrocketing DSA’s membership and making democratic socialism mainstream.
In 2024, DSA and the broader Left largely sat out the Presidential election. While “Vote Uncommitted” did have a positive impact, Biden later dropped out, demonstrating that the Left missed an opportunity to put forward our own candidate. Kamala’s catastrophic defeat showed that we cannot afford to leave the task of fighting fascism to the Democratic Party establishment.
I currently serve on DSA’s National Presidential Exploratory Committee and National Electoral Commission Steering Committee. In these committees, it has become clear that there are only two federal office-holders and who could plausibly and viably run for President in 2028 in the DemSoc/Progressive lane as successors to Bernie Sanders: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ro Khanna. Unlike AOC, Ro Khanna is not a socialist and he previously voted to fund Israel military aid and to condemn “the horrors of socialism.”
In 2028, DSA has a historic opportunity to campaign for a Democratic Socialist President, double our national DSA membership again to 200K+, and share our “Workers Deserve More” national program with an audience of millions. To do that, we need an AOC campaign for President of the United States to win transformative change like Medicare For All, an Arms Embargo on Israel, the PRO Act, a Green New Deal and more. With the energy from a Presidential campaign, we can run an independent campaign with our own DSA-first messaging, run a Socialist Slate of ATL DSA candidates all across Metro Atlanta, grow our ranks and expand all of our local organizing. Vote Yes!
AGAINST by Erick L
Supporting a possible AOC campaign while promoting the Workers Demand More program doesn’t really make sense. AOC doesn’t currently support the program as shown by her not agreeing with abolishing the Senate in a recent interview, so it is unlikely she supports the more radical demands. This does not send a clear message on what the DSA stands for. Personally I wrote off joining the DSA for the longest time because I thought the DSA was basically the same thing as AOC instead of standing for socialist principals. I’m not sure it makes going around saying this is our program but also vote for this person who doesn’t support it.
AOC did not stand up to establishment democrats during the Biden administration, so it is unlikely she would act any differently as president unless she fully commits to our program. She famously lied about Biden working tirelessly for a ceasefire.
Even ignoring the fact that winning the presidency without the legislative branch and no organized mass base will cause a situation where we can’t pass any laws, we will be discredited, and then the right will be emboldened, there is not really any good reasons why we need to throw ourselves behind one particular candidate prematurely instead of having a democratic process where multiple candidates are considered. The reasons given are basically just that: AOC is popular, a bunch of overly optimistic assumptions of what might happen, and a bunch of misleading claims. It is claimed that AOC fought back against the genocide in Gaza when this is the area that she is so bad at that she was unendorsed by DSA national because of it. Also, it is unlikely that this would “put DSA in the driver’s seat of any potential presidential primary campaign” because if she regularly focuses more on supporting random progressive populist candidates instead of endorsing actual DSA cadre and does not bother promoting DSA at rallys, it is unlikely that AOC would value DSA over other interest groups.
AGAINST by Rob O
Regardless of whether or not you support an AOC candidacy, you should vote against this resolution.
Last month, national DSA sent an email to with this text:
“This summer, every chapter will discuss how DSA should engage with the 2028 Presidential primary. These discussions will take place at membership meetings or other special meetings set up by your chapter. Chapter leaders will receive details shortly about how to host these discussions, and how to report the results back to the NPC. Discussions will happen throughout July and August, and chapters will report back to the NPC by September 15. If you don’t see a discussion scheduled as summer goes on, work with your chapter officers to schedule one!”A further resolution, drafted by a multi-tendency committee of NPC members, calls for discussions of candidates in the Spring.
We should not pre-empt these in-depth political discussions by voting on a needless resolution with minimal debate at a meeting where there are 8 other resolutions being discussed. An issue of this magnitude deserves the full focus of the chapter. If we are going to run AOC, or any other candidate, we will need the buy-in that deliberation would bring. This resolution should either be voted down or tabled until after a full chapter presidential strategy discussion.
IN FAVOR by Cleary M
When you act upon the throne, the throne acts upon you. The only power the president has is to distribute resources and policy to their key supporters, and this is how they gain and retain office. These key supporters–keys to power–can be individuals or collectives. Democracy’s advantage is that more of these keys are collective groups, which distributes power more widely, but you must still humor enough keys to maintain power, even when those keys are foul. This is the fundamental bargain of power. However, without power, you can change nothing.
President AOC will drop bombs. She cannot disband the FBI and CIA. These keys are too powerful to eliminate immediately. However, she will have other keys that allow her to effect change in a way that liberals never could. We as DSA now have the opportunity to become one of those keys to power–to haven and influence a socialist president. This has never before been possible in the history of this country.
The machine of capital and imperialism cannot be destroyed overnight. AOC will not usher in a magical utopia. No one person can. Only through collective action over time–only by seizing power where it exists and can be turned towards the workers’ ends–can we achieve socialism in our lifetimes.
To stand by is complicity. To stand up is power. I am transgender; my survival depends on the defeat of fascism in this country. Fascism is the natural conclusion of capitalism. Time and again, the people have shown they will not vote for the same old tired neoliberal politics - that they recognize the lie in the dichotomy between two capitalist parties. The working class is ready for a socialist president, and AOC is the only realistic candidate.
Failing that, fascism will rise again, and again, and again. I am transgender. Fascism is an existential threat to me. AOC is our best chance, not only to survive, but to truly improve the lot of working people. And supporting her now–not later–will make us one of her keys to power.
IN FAVOR by Shannon Y
What will DSA do with our time to shine?
Out of the potential candidates for president, AOC has shown that she is more responsive to pressure from her left than any politician with her prominence and profile. We represent that left and will be a core part of her constituency. We need to take the opportunity to endorse a candidate whom has shown that she needs us more than we need her and make that dynamic the standard practice for future endorsements. The political party duopoly has lost all momentum and socialism is now more popular than ever. Now is the time for DSA to take the initiative at the national level, endorse AOC for president and establish ourselves as the deciders in left politics for the foreseeable future.