When Jamaal Bowman and Cori Bush lost their congressional seats in 2024, the number of Democratic Socialists of America (DSA)–affiliated members in the House of Representatives shrunk to two: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and Rashida Tlaib (D-MI). But in the wake of Zohran Mamdani’s stunning election as New York City mayor, and hoping to ride a wave of renewed anti-Trump sentiment, a new crop of DSA candidates is running for Congress this year.

That includes Claire Valdez and Darializa Avila Chevalier in socialists’ electoral stronghold New York City, as well as Chris Rabb in Philadelphia. The first candidate national DSA endorsed this election cycle, however, was Oliver Larkin, who is running to represent Florida’s Twenty-Fifth Congressional District in the House of Representatives.

Larkin, who got his start in politics volunteering for Bernie Sanders’s 2016 presidential campaign, is running in the Democratic primary against Jared Moskowitz, a stridently pro-Israel Democrat who has supported Donald Trump’s war on Iran and Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Jacobin recently talked to Larkin about why he became a socialist, how Democrats have failed working-class voters, and the role he envisions himself playing on Capitol Hill should he win.