Despite a huge night for the DSA, leaders at the organization’s Metro D.C. Election Night watch party urged attendees not to get complacent.
Tuesday was a good night for the Democratic Socialists of America. Their presence in the House of Representatives more than doubled, thanks to the landslide victories of DSA-endorsed House candidates Darializa Avila Chevalier (New York), Claire Valdez (New York), Donavan McKinney (Michigan), Chris Rabb (Pennsylvania), and Melat Kiros (Colorado).
Even in districts where non-DSA candidates were expected to win comfortably, the races were surprisingly close. In Florida, where President Trump beat Kamala Harris by 13.1 percentage points in 2024, DSA candidate Angie Nixon lost to incumbent Republican Senator Ashley Moody by just two points.
While not all votes nationwide have been counted, it is obvious that the 2026 midterm elections were an astounding victory for the left. Following two years of a Republican trifecta, the Senate and the House of Representatives are unambiguously blue.
On Tuesday, as the DSA expected a big night, supporters crowded into a standing-room-only watch party in Washington, D.C. The party brought in a wide range of people: university students with shaggy hair and oversized sweaters, boomers with small glasses and well-groomed beards, pot smokers, and young working women clutching Coach handbags.
A 2021 graduate from Georgetown Law School manned a booth on the universal abolition of prisons and police forces. She and the man next to her, who works in the software world, defended the total elimination of jails and policemen by saying DSA policies would “eliminate the need for police.”
To their left was another DSA table with various free items for attendees, including fentanyl test strips, condoms, and flyers promoting the DSA chapter’s “bodily autonomy working group.” One flyer on the table advertised the Metro D.C. DSA, saying the group fights for “reproductive justice, trans & queer liberation, and bodily autonomy for all.” The volunteers did not offer an explanation as to what, exactly, trans and queer liberation looks like.
At around 10:30 p.m., when it became obvious Democrats were winning — by a lot — Metro D.C. DSA Chairman Kurtis Hagans took the mic. With Hasan Piker’s livestream playing behind him, Hagans cautioned attendees not to get comfortable with their political gains. “Now is the time to organize somewhere, anywhere,” he said. “If Democrats take the House and Senate, we’ll have some breathing room, but it is not over.”
Hagans then referenced the “No Kings” protests that DSA chapters helped organize in most American cities following Trump’s re-election. “The average American will agree that we do not accept kings in this country, and I add to that — no kings in the work place,” he said. “We should not accept an authoritarian presence in our workplace. We should not have landlords who can evict us to the streets without say from us. No kings.”
He was met with applause, then added, “If you agree that there’s no place for kings in our lives, join the Democratic Socialists of America.”
Prior to Hagans’s speech, NR spoke with a retired man wearing a rose-in-fist patterned shirt. He joined the socialist movement 40 years earlier while living in Kansas; he said America’s socialist movement is gaining momentum in 2026 at a rate he’s not seen before. Asked what he hoped the DSA would do politically that Democrats have been unable to, he referenced a desire for a harder line on ICE and data centers.
The DSA’s headquarters has publicized similar growth. This 4th of July, the DSA surpassed 120,000 members, making them the largest socialist organization in U.S. history.
DSA members helping run Tuesday’s watch party work professionally in various political capacities. Mae Eldahshoury, who currently works as Representative Summer Lee’s communications director, spoke on a panel during the event, joined by a former school teacher-turned-union leader.
Though most attendees spoke over them, the panelists reiterated Hagans’s plea for attendees to get involved — and stay involved — in their political movement. The former school teacher referenced President Barack Obama’s first election to office. “What happened when Obama got elected in 2008? He didn’t do anything. We won’t achieve democratic socialism if we stop pushing after Election Day,” he said.