Socialism in one city?

The 2024 Primary in Los Angeles

The Terrain

In 2020 DSA Los Angeles supported political outsider Nithya Raman in her bid for Los Angeles City Council District 4. With our help she won in the November general election, a “political earthquake” that shook the entrenched neoliberal establishment that had grown quite comfortable in the City of Angels. In a city where it’s not unusual for landlords and developers to spend large sums of money on a single city council seat, building a grassroots socialist movement seemed like an impossibility. And yet, over the course of four years, DSA-LA has been doing just that. Since Nithya Raman’s victory in 2020, our chapter helped elect two more candidates, Hugo Soto Martínez and Eunisses Hernandez, to City Council in 2022. By working alongside United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA), our chapter also helped elect Rocío Rivas to the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) School Board in 2022. This is not supposed to happen in Los Angeles politics. 

These victories did not go unnoticed and, as always, the forces of reaction made their move to halt any progress for the working class. In now infamous leaked audio, three city council members and the president of the LA County Federation of Labor were caught plotting to carve up Nithya Raman’s district. When the districts were redrawn after the 2020 Census, Nithya only retained 60% of her original district which now includes a much lower density of renters. With Nithya facing a difficult reelection bid, DSA-LA membership voted to endorse her once again. However, reactionary forces, including closet-Republican and failed mayoral candidate Rick Caruso, coalesced behind her opponent Ethan Weaver. Backed by police unions, landlords, and developers, Weaver ran an inflammatory campaign against Nithya Raman and DSA. 

Nithya Raman, however, was not the only endorsement our chapter made in 2024. On the eastern side of the city is Council District 14, and in recent years it has been caught up in multiple, crippling corruption scandals. The previous council member, Jose Huizar, was recently sentenced to 13 years for racketeering conspiracy and tax evasion. The district is currently represented by Kevin de León, the last remaining councilmember involved in the aforementioned LA Fed audio scandal. He has refused to resign and instead is seeking reelection. He has used public money to send over a million mailers and garnered the support of the most right wing elements of the district. Current California State Assemblymembers, Miguel Santiago and Wendy Carrillo, sensed his weakness and joined the race to unseat de León. Backed by big donors, including labor unions, they flooded the election with almost a million dollars in mailers and advertising. Amidst this brawl of big names and big money was a DSA-LA member and tenants’ rights attorney, Ysabel Jurado. Jurado, endorsed by our chapter in September of 2023, has been running a grassroots, community-based campaign. She fundraised off small dollar donations and invested it into a robust field operation to meet voters at their doors.

In the LAUSD School Board race for District 5, UTLA and DSA-LA have endorsed Karla Griego - a special education teacher for almost 20 years who stands firmly against the privatization of our public education system. Karla also supports the Black Student Achievement Plan, a Green New Deal for public schools, and supports the Community Schools model, which provides students with wraparound services like counseling and food assistance. Billionaires in Los Angeles have made it their mission to defeat candidates like Karla, funneling huge amounts of money into school board races in an effort to privatize our public services so they can line their pockets with our tax dollars and make a profit on the backs of public school students and workers.

This election cycle would be a test of DSA-LA organizing ability and the broader acceptance of socialist policy within Los Angeles. It would also be the first time not just running new candidates, but defending one of our current council seats. Not content to simply defend our prior gains, we also threw our support behind a candidate in CD14 in one of the most contentious and crowded races in the city.

Vindication

Ethan Weaver made the election in CD 4 a referendum on DSA-LA and our recent wins. The people, however, spoke loud and clear. Despite losing 40% of her district, despite over a million dollars spent against her, and facing an explicitly racist campaign, Nithya Raman now has over 50% of the vote and has secured a second term. This is a pathetic result for Weaver considering how much money from independent expenditures flooded the race to support him. 

In CD14, Ysabel Jurado’s campaign gained an incredible amount of momentum. Her campaign launch had over 100 people in attendance and, throughout the course of the campaign, communities all across the district supported her candidacy. DSA-LA worked extensively to canvass for Ysabel - making up the largest and most consistent volunteer base of her campaign. Our members knocked over 8000 doors, raised thousands of dollars, and helped propel Ysabel’s campaign into the election. Her opponents, on the other hand, waited until the last few weeks of the election to dump money into mailers and TV ads. They arrogantly thought a last minute advertising blitz would be enough to motivate the voters of CD14. 

Ysabel Jurado defied all expectations, not only by making the runoff, but by taking first place. She beat several well-known  politicians and establishment donors. Thanks to the support of DSA-LA and other community organizations she’s headed into a runoff against incumbent Kevin de León. 

With 36.72% in a four-way race, Karla Griego also made her way into the runoff in first place. She’ll be heading to the general election with Grace Ortiz - a candidate who is supported by multiple police officer associations and is currently barred from LAUSD campuses for potentially failing to protect a student volunteer from sexual assault by one of her campaign staff members in 2021. In contrast with Karla’s platform, the extent of Ortiz’s vision is “...[to]provide resources, opportunities and programs that will enhance the education of all children.” 

With Nithya’s race over, DSA members can throw their full weight behind Ysabel and Karla’s campaigns. It won’t be easy, but with even more doors knocked and coalition-building, DSA-LA can gain another seat in the LAUSD School Board and Los Angeles City Council.

The only question is, what district will be next for a socialist candidate?