Five DSA-Backed Candidates Win House Seats, and None Had Committed to Jeffries for Speaker

The Democratic Socialists of America just got the biggest night in its history.

Associated Press race calls show at least five DSA-endorsed candidates won House seats Tuesday, Nov. 3: Darializa Avila Chevalier in New York's 13th District, Claire Valdez in New York's 7th, Melat Kiros in Colorado's 1st, Donavan McKinney in Michigan's 13th and Chris Rabb in Pennsylvania's 3rd. All five ran in reliably Democratic districts.

They join Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, the only two DSA members in the House now. When the new Congress is seated in January, the bloc will be about seven strong. Reason counts closer to eight, depending on how you define membership versus endorsement.

Incumbents ousted in the primaries

Three of the five won their primaries against sitting Democrats or establishment picks. Kiros beat 15-term Rep. Diana DeGette. Avila Chevalier narrowly beat Adriano Espaillat, the chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. McKinney also unseated an incumbent.

Their platform: universal healthcare and childcare, housing affordability, abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and no money from corporations or pro-Israel lobbying groups. All five have called Israel's conduct in Gaza a genocide and support cutting off military aid to Israel, according to the Forward.

The Forward also reported that President Trump announced Tuesday the U.S. will end nearly $4 billion in annual military aid to Israel by the end of the year, while still allowing Israel to buy American weapons. The national DSA wants more: it is campaigning for a full arms embargo and passed a 2025 resolution explicitly opposing Zionism.

The speaker question

Before the election, MS NOW asked all five whether they would back House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries for speaker. None had committed.

"I am nobody's rubber stamp," Rabb told the outlet. Avila Chevalier said backing Jeffries is "something I'm still thinking about and talking to my community about."

Democratic strategist Christy Setzer sees strength in that posture. "Their numbers may be small, but I believe they are mighty," she said. She argued the wins reflect "a true hunger among the Democratic base" for relief from rising costs and for more aggressive accountability for the Trump administration.

Democrats' own veterans are less thrilled. James Carville said last month he would rather Republicans keep the House by five seats than Democrats win by five, because the latter means they are "hostage to the DSA." Of Jeffries, he said: "There's no place for him to go."

The Tea Party precedent

Reason draws the obvious parallel. The Tea Party bloc, which became the House Freedom Caucus, used a small number of seats to pressure and eventually oust John Boehner, Paul Ryan and Kevin McCarthy as speaker. Republicans also forced the 2013 sequestration cuts during that stretch.

The math is the same on the left. A handful of members matters little when a majority is wide. It matters a great deal when the margin is thin. The size of the incoming Democratic majority will set how much leverage seven or eight hard-left votes carry.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a potential 2028 presidential candidate, went further than most Democrats would like on the record. He predicted last month that the DSA's "desire for bold change, not incremental change" will be "dominant" and "the mainstream Democratic movement. Absolutely. No question in my mind."

The organization has more than doubled its membership since 2024, to roughly 120,000. Its biggest prize so far is New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani, whom it credits with a template for winning.

Voters have not rejected the label. An Economist/YouGov poll of registered voters conducted Oct. 23-26 found half would ever vote for a democratic socialist candidate. Another 41% would not.

Republicans spent the cycle betting that the label is a liability. They tried to tie more moderate Democrats to Mamdani and Ocasio-Cortez and cast the party as too extreme. Tuesday's results in blue seats do not test that argument, because none of the five faced a competitive general election.

Avila Chevalier, a former Columbia University Gaza encampment activist, has repeatedly defended attending a pro-Palestinian rally on Oct. 8, 2023, the day after Hamas's attack on Israel, the Forward reported. Expect that to follow her to Washington.

The five are also part of a broader insurgent group some call "the Bloc," which includes Adam Hamawy, the Democratic nominee in New Jersey's 12th District, who was not endorsed by DSA. The first real test is the speaker vote when the new Congress convenes in January. Jeffries needs a path to the gavel that runs through members who have not said they will vote for him.