CAMPAIGN UPDATES FROM NYC GROUNDWORKERS IN THE FIELD
Collected and Edited by Groundwork Co-Chair Joe W.
May 29th, 2026
intro
The New York City DSA chapter has had a busy 2026. The chapter has had to simultaneously develop alongside the fledgling Zohran admin and recommit itself to running not just its entire legislative (state and federal) Socialists in Office bloc for re-election but ten new insurgent candidates: 2 for Congress, 1 for State Senate, and 7 for State Assembly (including Diana Moreno, who won the special election for Zohran’s State Assembly seat back in February and immediately had to pivot toward the regular biannual election). Now, with roughly one month until the June 23rd primary day, much of the chapter’s best organizers are committing all their capacity to ensuring a DSA sweep and building working groups that can capitalize on our political success.
NYC-DSA is the largest chapter of DSA many times over- about a sixth of the org’s total membership is housed here. Thousands of members are simultaneously engaged in dozens of projects, all democratically determined and directed. This work deserves to be understood and celebrated, not just by those outside the org but as a model for the rest of DSA. Part of that, to me, involves exposing exactly who is putting in effort, where, into what, and why. There is no AOC, no Zohran, no SIOC bloc without members just like me and you doing the quiet and difficult work of building a movement.
Groundworkers in New York have been there and hard at work. As one of the largest caucuses in both national DSA and NYC-DSA, we have committed ourselves to investing in chapter priorities. Our members are heavily involved in almost every campaign and Working Group in New York City, volunteering time and effort to build a DSA that wins socialist politics and takes further and further steps toward demonstrating an alternate, better vision to the masses. Having recently moved back to NYC-DSA myself, I took it upon myself to ask Groundwork’s organizers- what does your campaign or working group want the org to know? What’s the state of your campaign? What asks do you have from the caucus and the entire org? I have compiled some of their responses.
congressional races
NYC-DSA has two insurgent Congressional races, both endorsed by Mayor Mamdani.
Claire Valdez
“Claire Valdez is a union organizer, democratic socialist, and state assemblymember running for New York's 7th congressional district on a platform of Medicare for All, Housing For All, and Unions for All, as well as abolishing ICE and fighting for a free Palestine.
NY-7 is one of the most leftwing districts in the country, and in last year’s Democratic primary for Mayor, Zohran Mamdani won 64% to Andrew Cuomo’s 20% in the first round and 76% of the vote to Cuomo’s 24% in the final round of ranked-choice voting – the largest margin of any congressional district in the city. Claire Valdez’s path to victory is clear: drive turnout in the neighborhoods that cemented Mamdani’s win, in a district that is overwhelmingly renter (77%), young (median age of 34), and left leaning. Mamdani’s endorsement of Valdez on Day 1 and continued backing of her campaign is a clear indicator of her strength in this race, as well as Valdez securing the support of the coalition that backed Mamdani’s victory, including endorsements from Senator Bernie Sanders, the New York City Democratic Socialists of America (NYC-DSA), the United Auto Workers (UAW), Jewish Voice for Peace Action (JVPA), Desis Rising Up and Moving (DRUM) Beats, Justice Democrats. To ensure that Mamdani’s voter coalition turns out for Valdez, the campaign is running robust field, fundraising, and digital/media program.
As of May 26, the campaign has raised over $1 million from more than 20,000 individual donors, knocked over 120,000 doors, and recruited 2,000 volunteers. In addition to it's grassroots volunteer army, the campaign has also begun running digital & TV ads and sending out mailers to reach voters through traditional means. Recent polling has shown this race in a dead heat, with Valdez up 2 points on Reynoso. With less than 4 weeks to go and over 40% of voters undecided, the campaign will continue to scale up it's efforts to reach voters through all mediums, and turn out the coalition that powered Mamdani to victory.”
Ravi S., Campaign Manager, Claire Valdez for Congress
Darializa Avila Chevalier
“Darializa has been picking up momentum recently. Recently she has been endorsed by UAW and a poll at the end of March showed Espaillat at 42% and Darializa at 28%. When positive bios of both candidates were read, that goes to Darializa 46% and Espaillat 35%. She is in a real position to win if we can get her name and message out there. Fundraising has picked up and Darializa outraised Espaillat during Q2. She currently is the only candidate on the airwaves, releasing her first Spanish language ad, and mailers are hitting people's mailboxes. In response, we are seeing shell PACs start to spend money against her.
In terms of needs, we need more canvassers. We're scaling up volunteer outreach and we're going to be focusing it in Harlem because Darializa needs to win Harlem by a good margin if she is going to win this race. Espaillat has weakness on issues that matter to the Black community that we want to demonstrate we’d be an improvement over. We also need more Spanish speaking canvassers because Espaillat's support among Latinos is decent but very soft. If he falters with Latinos, this race is over and Darializa wins.
GW led the campaign to push Zohran to endorse the slate and our first victory is Zohran endorsing Darializa for NY13. This is the first step in building an SiO bloc uptown and expanding DSA's influence across NYC.”
James I., Data Manager, Darializa Avila Chevalier for Congress
State senate
NYC-DSA has one insurgent State Senate Campaign. Aber Kawas was originally running for State Assembly, but switched to Senate in January when an opportunity opened up.
Aber kawas
“Aber is running a difficult but winnable campaign against an institutional opponent who has adopted many of DSA’s talking points into his platform. That creates an opening for us politically. Aber’s campaign centers universal programs and lasting dignity: housing people can afford, healthcare people can count on, reliable transportation that works for everyone, and a politics willing to confront war, ICE, and climate destruction directly. Her campaign also reflects Groundwork’s belief that socialist politics must be rooted in organizing, political clarity, and building durable working-class power beyond any single election cycle.
Aber’s candidacy is resonant in this district. As an organizer with years of experience fighting for immigrants and working people, and with the opportunity to become the first Palestinian woman elected to Albany, she brings credibility and urgency to issues that many Democratic voters care about, especially anti-war politics, immigrant rights, and economic dignity.
That resonance has become visible online. After a recent video responding to Islamophobic attacks against Aber, the campaign generated more than 1 million views on Twitter/X alongside strong engagement on Instagram. The response expanded the campaign’s reach, and follow-up videos introducing Aber and her politics have continued to perform well with audiences within and beyond the district.
The race became more challenging after moving from an Assembly race to a State Senate race, but momentum is building. Our message is finding our voters at the doors, but our opponent still maintains an advantage in name recognition. That means our path to victory depends on fundraising, volunteer field operations, and direct voter contact at scale.
This district voted overwhelmingly for Zohran Mamdani in 2025, and we believe the path here is similar: organize relentlessly, turn out the base, and make direct voter contact everywhere possible. Field lead recruitment has been strong and volunteer energy is ahead of past cycles, but we still need more capacity to hit our goals. Relational organizing and repeat canvassing are important right now. If someone can canvass once a week, a second shift matters. Bringing one additional person to a canvass expands our reach.
This race has implications beyond one Senate seat. A win would strengthen the socialist bloc in Albany, deepen organizing infrastructure in Queens, and demonstrate that unapologetic working-class politics can succeed at a larger scale. The clearest path forward is to keep building momentum, expand our voter contact program, and continue turning political excitement into organized power.”
Chris T., Campaign Manager, Aber Kawas for State Senate
State Assembly
NYC-DSA has 6 insurgent candidates for State Assembly (7 with Diana Moreno included). Their race difficulties vary incredibly- some are filling in vacated positions left by Zohran or Claire, reifying the germs of a DSA machine in. those neighborhoods. Others are confronting political machines and dynasties in areas DSA has never broken through before.
Illapa sairitupac
“The first Illapa campaign was started from Groundwork BPRA organizing and the current campaign is helmed by Groundworkers managing and turning out for it. We're building serious momentum. We've earned the endorsements of the Hotel and Gaming Trades Council, NYC Carpenters, 32BJ SEIU, United Auto Workers Region 9A, and UNITE HERE Local 100. These unions aren't just lending their names, they're showing up with real material support, making ours the labor campaign in this race. On the fundraising front, we've nearly maxed out on matching funds in just two months, with more work still ahead. Our ground game is just as strong: canvassers have been out almost every day of the week, phone banking happens weekly, and we've knocked on 7,000 doors and identified 500 supporters. We're growing fast and we need more volunteers to keep the momentum going and grow our operation.”
Darren G., Campaign Manager, Illapa Sairitupac for State Assembly
David Orkin
“David Orkin is an immigrant workers’ rights attorney running for New York State Assembly in Ridgewood, Glendale, (Beautiful) Woodhaven, Ozone Park, and Richmond Hill neighborhoods of Queens. Many have heard about the campaign through our legal challenge of our opponent’s allegedly fraudulent petitions, but I think that this has been framed in the wrong way. The purpose of the challenge was not to kick our opponent off the ballot, but instead to expose the Queens Democratic machine’s anti-democratic way of doing business. They have, for years, circumvented the will of their constituents with bureaucratic schemes like this one and neglected the people of South Queens. This campaign has shown a new way forward; one which is interested in bringing these oft-neglected neighborhoods into a movement and into the political decision-making process. One which will tax the rich to fund Queens, protect our immigrant neighbors from ICE, and fight for working people. The community vibe and light-hearted nature of David and the campaign is the aspect which has stuck out to me since joining the KC in December, and I think it is our responsibility as Groundwork to emphasize this part: that campaigning and building a party/movement isn’t about insider legal information but is instead fun and fulfilling and something that every DSA member in Queens should want to be a part of. We could really use more canvassers, particularly in Woodhaven/Ozone Park/Richmond Hill. Sign up now.”
Tanner W., Field Coordinator, David Orkin for State Assembly
Eon Huntley
“Eon’s campaign has hit several significant milestones. First, they maxed out on matching funds ahead of the March filing deadline, raising nearly 86,000 dollars from 272 in-district residents, qualifying the campaign for 175k in vital public financing. More recently the campaign announced that they’ve knocked on over 40k doors, second on the slate behind only Claire Valdez’s congressional campaign. All throughout, a new coalition has started to take shape. DSA insurgents and electeds in Bed-Stuy have begun to campaign with members of the Stop Deed Theft Coalition –Carmella Charrington and Omar Hardy – in their bid for State Committee, largely organizing around a vision for a more just housing policy and anti-deed theft legislation. Now, with early voting just a few weeks away, the race is at an inflection point. The ground game must scale its canvassing operation week over week to meet its field targets and - per the the recent public disclosures - beat back the rush of independent expenditure money now flooding the race, courtesy of Bloomberg backed PACs, DoorDash, and the charter school lobby.”
Iain M., Deputy Campaign Manager, Eon Huntley for State Assembly
Samantha Kattan
“Samantha Kattan is on track to victory next month. Her opponent has struggled to meet matching funds fundraising benchmarks and Sam’s internal numbers are quite positive. This is the district Claire is vacating to run for Congress and it is important for us to assert that this part of Queens is a DSA stronghold- so far, all signs point to us remaining ahead of the opposition.”
Chris T
Conrad blackburn
“Conrad Blackburn's campaign is translating Jane McAlevey's organizing theory into electoral work. Led by Groundwork members in staff and volunteer roles, the campaign has successfully broken in to Harlem, territory that DSA has not been able to run before. Inspired by Jane McAlevey, the campaign has connected with organic leaders in the district. With these leaders, the campaign has been able to connect with long time community members, organizers, and the successors to Harlem's historic Black Socialist leaders. These organic leaders had been skeptical of DSA, but Conrad's campaign is building a coalition that rival's last year's mayoral campaign.
This campaign is rising at a time that the Wright Machine of Harlem is falling. Conrad is able to use his professional experience as a Public Defender and childhood growing up in the projects to connect to the people of Harlem. Where as Conrad has lived the struggle that working class Harlemites know, Jordan Wright takes money from those who try to harm him. As the scion of Harlem's political family fails to meet the moment, Conrad and this campaign are embracing what voters want and adapting to their stories in real time.”
Chiara B., Deputy Campaign Manager, Conrad Blackburn for State Assembly
Christian celeste tate
“Christian Celeste Tate has assembled a broad coalition. Erik Dilán, his opponent, doesn’t know how to campaign and doesn’t fight for the working class. We’re excited to see what June will bring.”
Gustavo G., NYC-DSA Co-Chair
incumbents
Most of our incumbents are relatively safe from challenge. I talked to Groundworkers on Jabari Brisport’s campaign just to get a sense of what it’s like working on a campaign for an established elected.
Jabari Brisport
“Jabari Brisport is one of the only State Senate candidates to max out on matching funds, which we did on April 27th. We have a huge canvassing operation and have hired dozens of paid organizers. Our comms game is top notch: we've hired artists to design eye-catching, beautiful mailers and filmmakers to make heartstring pulling streaming ads. We've also used the campaign to support organizers fighting deed theft and tenants at Fulton Park Plaza suffering from horrid living conditions. All this is needed because the Jeffries machine is going after Jabari- and for good reason (to them). As one of DSA’s longest serving State Senators, Jabari has helped build a DSA proto party in Central Brooklyn; a new wave of voters and a new breed of politics that fights for a socialist future by coordinating together against entrenched interests. The results haven’t just paid off for our campaign- they help boost Chi Osse and Eon Huntley while simultaneously strengthening DSA. This is what has drawn so many Groundwork members to Jabari’s team.”
Daniel G, Campaign Manager, Jabari Brisport for Re-Election to State Senate
Working group updates
I also checked in with Groundworkers in longer running Working Group campaigns for updates on how an active working group functions in a massive chapter like NYC-DSA
Trans Rights and bodily autonomy working group
“The Trans Rights and Bodily Autonomy working group (TRBA) launched in February 2025 in response NYU Langone and multiple other private NYC hospitals' preemptive compliance with the Trump administration's illegal executive order attempting to ban gender affirming care for patients under 19. Since then, the group has organized multiple rallies, letter campaigns, and phonebanks to protect and expand gender affirming care access in New York
TRBA is currently coordinating with DSA electeds at the city and state levels and organizing on the ground in NYC to establish fully-funded, public clinics to provide gender affirming care to all New Yorkers who need it, safe from federal overreach and corporate cowardice.”
Swan and Lina C., TRBA WG Organizing Committee
Anti War working group
“As the home of anti-imperialist and anti-war organizing in NYC-DSA, the Anti-War Working Group is currently working on several projects both at a domestic and international level. With member written proposals oriented towards responding to the expansion of Israel’s genocidal actions into Iran and Lebanon and the illegal kidnapping of Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro by the Trump administration through action events, political education and fundraising.
At a local level, the Working Group is heeding the call by Zohran Mamdani’s victory for Mayor by supporting the entire NYC-DSA slate running for office by co-sponsoring canvasses where we highlight the candidates’ commitment to transforming New York State’s complicity in funding illegal Israeli settlements in the Occupied West Bank with the reintroduction of the Not On Our Dime bill. The Working Group is also home to the Break the Chain Campaign, an arms embargo campaign focused on disrupting the supply chain of military cargo bound for Israel through JFK Airport through labor organizing, research and community action.
Finally, the Working Group is actively monitoring the situation in Cuba and working on a range of responses such as political education, public pressure campaigns targeting elected officials and fundraising.
Groundwork is committed to anti-war organizing through the Anti-War Working Group due to the over-encompassing nature of American imperialism and we understand at this point in time, we have to try by any means possible to stop the war machine.
Attend one of our monthly general meetings, keep in touch by signing up to our newsletter, follow the WG on social media and turn out to one of our canvasses if you want to get involved.”
Alejandro B, Anti War Working Group Organizing Committee
Eco-Socialist working group
“NYC-DSA’s Ecosocialist Working Group is hard at work advancing the fight for public power and climate action that helps New Yorkers live dignified and affordable lives.
Since we won the passage of the Build Public Renewables Act in 2023, Eco has been focused on ensuring that the law is implemented to its fullest potential, pressuring Governor Hochul and the New York Power Authority to build 15 GW of publicly-owned renewable energy. During this budget season, we were able to win $100 million in the state budget in funding for public renewables alongside partners in the Public Power NY coalition, despite a hostile environment where the Governor gutted New York’s climate law, the CLCPA. We also recently received word that NYPA is increasing its pipeline of renewable projects to approximately 9 GW, bringing us ever closer to the 15 GW goal. Eco will host a mass call on June 3rd at 7:00 PM, Our Planet, Our Power: Climate vs. the Oligarchy, charting the path forward for the climate movement after Hochul’s rollback of the CLCPA. During this call, Eco will launch its vision for DSA climate organizing in the coming year. Register here to join us!
Eco also recently launched field events for their newest campaign, focused on winning Mayor Mamdani’s climate platform, Green Schools for a Healthier NYC. The goal of this campaign is winning the mandate and necessary funding to green 500 public schools in environmental justice communities in NYC - reducing building emissions while addressing the unjust conditions faced by public school students, teachers, and staff, such as flooding, extreme heat, and poor air quality. Eco is excited to strengthen the left-labor climate movement through this campaign by working alongside unions and other membership organizations in this fight.
As part of the ongoing fight for public power, Eco is building a campaign to fight investor-owned utilities like ConEd, who continue to rake in record profits as more and more New Yorkers fall behind on utility bills. Eco will fight for a utility rate freeze and build towards a long-term vision of municipalizing ConEd.”
Bekah C-H, EcoSoc WG Organizing Committee
