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By: Ric Blair
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not represent the official position of Working Mass.
The 2025 election cycle has left Boston Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) stronger and better positioned for the future; As far as I see it, this is a fact. Members across the region have pounded the pavement to spread the message of our endorsed candidates, leading to victories or strong showings in every race we ran this cycle.
In the process, too, Boston DSA, and all the zip codes it entails, has built up chapter capacity in meaningful ways and set the stage for even greater future success.
In Somerville
Coming into 2025, Somerville DSA was a growing section of the chapter that had existed in a substantive sense for many years—my first ever interface with the chapter was, after all, the 2021 “Somerville for All” slate. But Somerville DSA itself – the Somerville “neighborhood group,” still felt nascent. Earlier this year, Somerville created its own leadership structure and self-organized out of the neighborhood group model of ad hoc initiatives and towards a branch with organizing campaigns and political decision-making.
One decision that Somerville DSA made as a body following the chapter endorsement of Willie Burnley, Jr. for Mayor was to establish a member-led apparatus to elect Burnley. The campaign was selected as the sole external priority of the branch, aimed at creating new member leaders from the campaign’s many tasks. Membership elected three campaign stewards to bottomline the campaign and mobilize new members to campaign events. Those stewards, in collaboration with the Electoral Working Group and Burnley’s campaign, created the campaign’s field operation. What began as weekend canvasses only eventually expanded into Willie Wednesdays, then regular phone banks, volunteer recruitment calls, and beyond.
An essential element of this process was new member leadership. Instead of relying on only activating the same core of members, Somerville intentionally worked to organize new leaders from members recently entering the organization or buried in its paper membership. The Somerville DSA campaign stewards themselves were a mix of longtime members and former chapter and working group leadership, alongside newer self-motivated members. As Willie’s campaign worked to expand capacity, they brought in experienced electoral organizers with DSA connections and focused on greatly expanding their roster of field leads, recruiting nearly 20 highly motivated and reliable volunteers to bottom line canvassing shifts.
This diffuse structure of campaigning is exactly what powered Mamdani’s victory, and while Somerville did not see that level of success, It was not because of a weak field operation down the stretch. Rather, the lesson here is the exact same one from last year’s campaign to elect Evan Mackay to the state house: that our campaigns should be operating at the necessary scale by the summer, or rather as early as possible. The expansion of capacity on Evan’s and Willie’s campaigns was substantial but too late to swing the ultimate result.
Willie, and thus DSA, lost ultimately because the expansion of capacity didn’t happen quickly enough. But in the process of running this campaign, Somerville DSA spent the better part of a year organizing in the community, developing leaders, growing the local membership, and spreading class consciousness in Somerville through organizing conversations. Somerville DSA’s leadership is now entirely composed of new members, most of whom were brought into organization through campaign tasks, but have now transitioned into organizers in other parts of their lives. Members canvassed relentlessly across the city with volunteer turnout driven by a concerted effort to make recruitment calls, both through chapter-owned lists on “Turnout Tuesdays” and with campaign lists on a regular basis. Many of the members who a year ago had barely interacted with the chapter or not even joined yet became involved with DSA through Willie’s campaign and have become effective local leaders in their own right.
In Lowell
Marcos Candido’s campaign for Lowell City Council was a vehicle for the rejuvenation of Merrimack Valley DSA. What had been a largely overshadowed section of the chapter pulled itself together in the name of electing Marcos, who cut his teeth organizing a union with his coworkers at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), who campaigned on a relentless door-knocking operation kickstarted weeks before the preliminary after a crucial Boston DSA endorsement. He lost by 39 votes. It was another eerie reminder of Evan’s race, in which the incumbent won out by 41 votes. The democratic socialist project was two votes, far slimmer than even a field margin, from the capture of key seats.
The campaign leaves behind a window of opportunity to solidify and grow a democratic socialist presence in the Merrimack Valley. Comrades were inspired by Marcos’s energy and connection to the labor movement, which has connected more members from electoral to labor work. Further, already, the neighborhood group has organized beyond the campaign; in November 2025, Merrimack Valley DSA co-hosted an organizing training for local tenants with the Emergency Tenant Organizing Committee (ETOC) of Boston DSA’s Housing Working Group.
The expansion of Merrimack Valley DSA, which can and should be a key hub of organizing in 2026 with the rent control ballot question on the horizon, should be a priority for local members and chapter leadership.
In Cambridge
Former Harvard student organizer Ayah Al-Zubi’s campaign was also incredibly strong at identifying motivated and diligent members and turning them into loyal volunteers and leaders. The campaign utilized a number of levers, including connections to outside organizations like IfNotNow and Cambridge for Palestine, to drive volunteer turnout and mobilize over 120 unique canvassers. Jivan Sobrinho-Wheeler’s campaign mobilized about half that much, facing obstacles including a clear gap in enthusiasm between an incumbent campaign and a challenger campaign, as well as, of course, the chapter’s vote to essentially deprioritize his reelection. Jivan, to his credit, more than made up for the difficulties in recruiting volunteers by knocking nearly half the campaign’s doors himself. But both campaigns were ultimately able to ride the power of the chapter’s organizing to resounding wins.
Cambridge’s election system is peculiar. Campaigns can make it into office on much smaller-scale operations. With that in mind, we should take to heart the magnitude of our victories there and stay hungry for more.
There are certainly ways to improve our operation. For one, we should have unity in our campaigns from the jump. Factional sentiments and tensions should be smoothed over internally and resolved before launching campaigns. Cambridge DSA was fortunate to see both candidates win, but ranked endorsements like what was passed at the August general meeting muddy the chapter’s communications both internally and externally. I believe that there exists within our chapter a shared commitment to resolving internal tensions and creating a better environment for more victories going forward.
Every Conversation, A Seed for Class Consciousness
More than anything else, the lesson we should all glean from this election cycle is that canvassing works. DSA campaigns are powered first and foremost by rank-and-file DSA members who believe in the socialist project and what our candidates stand for and represent–they, meaning you, are the front lines of our movement. Every canvass is an organizing moment that builds capacity, leadership skills, and community. And every canvass, furthermore, whether it’s for an endorsed candidate, a ballot question, or a project like Safe Communities, is an opportunity to talk about DSA. Even beyond that, every conversation plants a seed for class consciousness in the head of every worker, tenant, and future DSA member in the region. Our campaigns, even in loss, can and have made our chapter and our movement stronger.
So to comrades in Waltham, or Quincy, or Framingham, or anywhere outside of Camberville, who don’t see a strong DSA presence on their ballots, and who see winning campaigns electoral or otherwise as too much of an uphill battle to take on, shake off your worries and take as many opportunities to organize as you can get. As long as you are there, DSA is too.
The time to build up chapter presence in your backyard is not in a couple months or years – it is now. DSA victories are not just dominating national headlines. They are in your area code, and you yourself can bring them into your community.
Ric Blair is a member of Boston DSA and contributing writer to Working Mass.
The post OPINION: Electoral Strategy With Every Canvass An Organizing Moment appeared first on Working Mass.
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