Carlos Rosa is alderman of Chicago’s thirty-fifth ward, but he’s not a typical member of city council. He is the first openly gay Latino to serve as a Chicago alderman, serving since 2015 (when he was only twenty-six), a socialist and member of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), and a former delegate to the Democratic National Convention for Bernie Sanders.

After recently agreeing to join State Senator Daniel Biss’s ticket for the upcoming Illinois governor’s race, Rosa made headlines for being forced off the ticket by Biss after only six days over Rosa’s refusal to denounce the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel. Rosa faced pressure both for publicly supporting movements for justice in Palestine in the past, and for his membership in DSA, which voted at its August convention to endorse BDS. He refused to budge.

Jacobin associate editor Micah Uetricht interviewed Rosa about how he came to run for office, his attempts to bring movement demands to his electoral work, and the lessons he learned from his short-lived stint on Biss’s gubernatorial ticket.