This year, thousands of New Yorkers clawed political power out from establishment Democrats and brought it back home. When we elected Zohran Mamdani as mayor, we proved that the future of the city belongs to its people, not billionaire donors. Despite running against a campaign made up of fear, craven racism, and millions of dollars, we stood with our neighbors and demanded better than the status quo. This win couldn’t have happened without the New York City chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America (NYC-DSA).

I ran for office in 2021 because I believed the working people of our city deserve dignity and prosperity and I understood that our government was not committed to ensuring New Yorkers could live with that dignity, day in and day out. In deciding to run, I quickly realized that the problems we face as working people in Brooklyn, in New York, and in the United States more broadly are not disparate issues to be solved on an ad hoc basis but are different spokes coming from the same core issue: the economic system in which we live.

Our problems have an obvious source and clear solutions that our government has the responsibility to provide. The ultrawealthy are raising our rents and taking away our health care, while simultaneously squeezing their profits out of the pockets of the families who make our city what it is. Zohran’s campaign prioritized affordability, the antithesis of the business-as-usual politics that has left so many of us behind, a new brand of politics that is desperately needed not only in our city but around the world.

Establishment politicians want you to be satisfied with platitudes, while they turn around and receive their cut from the wealth corporations hoard. We successfully launched and won our grassroots campaign for New York City Council in 2021 because my community was fed up with this small-minded and self-serving standard. Like many, I was tired of the “leaders” who refused to use their power for good. The working class needs its own champions to fight back.

Elected officials who dare to defy the establishment by taking actions that put the working-class residents of our city first usually face steep repercussions. The members of NYC-DSA’s Socialists in Office have faced this political reality throughout their last four years in office. Even when I was not an active DSA member, I faced that alongside them. In 2023, when we voted to reject Eric Adams’s budget, we were all stripped of our committee leadership posts shortly after.

Supporting Zohran’s race meant keeping the commitment I made when I first ran for office: to fight for justice in our city and improve the lives of our neighbors. Although I didn’t receive the DSA endorsement in 2021, in the city council, I voted alongside my socialist colleagues consistently as we fought for New Yorkers.

While endorsing Zohran Mamdani’s mayoral campaign as early as I did was an easy decision for me, it damaged some of my relationships in the city council and the broader political world. I determined that my commitment to aiding the project of class solidarity was more important than internal politics. In true socialist tradition, NYC-DSA, myself, and a handful of like-minded organizations put the demand of the moment first.

I have always known that both decisions, the budget vote and my early Mamdani endorsement, were the right calls. I am proud of my actions as an elected official matching my commitments and core beliefs. But they were also isolating: I took those stands alone. Beyond being difficult on a personal level, that meant the actions were not as impactful as they could have been. I would have been safer and more effective with organizational support.

In my campaign to pass the ​​Fairness in Apartment Rental Expenses (FARE) Act, to end exploitative broker fees, I used an inside-outside strategy that married legislative work with public mobilization. We beat the real estate lobby on an issue it had declared untouchable. But once it passed, the momentum dissipated. I kept coming back to a simple question: What more could we have built if we had deeper, permanent organization behind us?

Socialism offers not just a structural strength to resist fascism but also a positive vision worth fighting for. That’s why Zohran won this November. During a bleak winter for national politics, his campaign became a source of hope, and I became a vigorous, early supporter. I was the first city council member to publicly endorse Zohran. I took him to events in Bed-Stuy and Crown Heights to connect with my constituents and demonstrate the case to black Brooklyn. We made videos across languages and neighborhoods to build support. It paid off, as my constituent-neighbors came out in numbers and turned our district into one of his strongholds.

I believe in speaking the truth and in changing our conditions. That’s why in the city council, our office fought to end forced broker fees for all New Yorkers, and we reopened a library that was closed for years and increased access to Narcan, invested in our parks, fixed roads, built bike lanes, and greenlit thousands of units of affordable housing. These are socialist policies because they put people first, and we secured these wins without compromising on our values.

This year hasn’t been easy, and beating Andrew Cuomo and his billionaire-funded Super PACs in November was an uphill battle, even after our historic June win. While this election gave me hope, the future remains uncertain. The violence and devastation carried out by the federal government grows by the day, and Democratic Party leaders seem asleep at the wheel. Donald Trump won because voters faced scorn and dismissal on one side and turned to hollow promises made by the other.

I joined DSA earlier this year because the movement surge that carried Zohran into office must grow into a tidal wave. The years of steady, tireless organizing created the conditions for this win. The months spent canvassing in the cold and the days spent standing outside poll sites in a sweltering heat wave with dedicated DSA organizers reminded me of the beauty of organizing and fighting for a cause together. I knew it was time to join and once again put the demand of the moment first.

As a membership organization, DSA is unbought and unbossed. We wholeheartedly believe that the world can look different, that there can be enough to go around, and that we can make that our reality. Our power comes from building solidarity across the working class of every background and showing that when we fight together, we win. The organization is the mechanism for movement strength to be amplified in government and for principled politicians to be supported by the movement.

My DSA colleagues were not isolated by their budget votes or endorsement decisions, because the movement was behind them and alongside them. With DSA movement infrastructure, the FARE Act mobilization could well have been carried forward into more concrete victories and future organizing efforts like this election cycle or the newly launched Tax the Rich campaign.

To the hundred thousand New Yorkers who marched, canvassed, and organized over the past year: we need you — not just in this moment but in DSA. We win when we stand together, and the hardest work lies ahead. The billionaire class that tried to buy this election hasn’t disappeared. Neither can we.