SOCIALISM STARTS IN THE STATES
Quick question for you. What do you call a party that discovers the statehouse the week socialists move in? Not the Capitol dome on cable. The boring building where utility bills, police rules and school fights actually get written.
The Republican State Leadership Committee has a slogan for it, and it’s a fair one. Fair warnings still deserve a mirror.
The count, not the fever dream
At least 65 candidates aligned with the Democratic Socialists of America have advanced to November general elections for state legislative seats, Robert Schmad reports for Fox News. The RSLC memo Fox obtained counts at least 82 who ran this year, with the 65 finalists spread across 24 states. Its method counts DSA members, DSA endorsees and self-identified members.
Brookings, also cited by Fox, found at least 76 advanced, and notes they hold only a tiny fraction of the nation’s state legislative seats. Hold both numbers. A farm system can matter without being a takeover.
The memo’s case is structural. State offices “can provide a platform, governing experience, donor networks and organizational infrastructure for future campaigns for higher office.” Its bottom line: “The RSLC has consistently said that socialism starts in the states and that is where we need to stop it.”
Named records, not vibes
Fox and the memo cite real positions, on the record:
- Jabari Brisport (N.Y.): his campaign site says he’ll “continue to do everything I can to end policing and incarceration in New York State.” He also backs decriminalizing sex work.
- Ryan Clancy (Wis.): has stood by saying police work has “no dignity or value,” and called American policing “epically racist and classist.” He told Fox his comments concerned officers who abused sex workers; Fox notes his original remarks were broader.
- Eleanor Chávez (N.M.): has called ICE “fascist” and compared its agents to the KKK.
- Sarahana Shrestha (N.Y.): pushed a bill letting the state acquire Central Hudson Gas & Electric, potentially through eminent domain. Michigan candidate Dylan Wegela has pushed state utility buyouts too.
- Gabriel Acevero (Md.): opposed a legalization bill, saying “cannabis legalization without reparations for communities harmed by the intentional drug war is not progressive policy.”
Shrestha told Fox most of her constituents believe “the energy sector should not be for profit, healthcare should be single-payer and universal.” A September Fox News poll found 55% of registered voters view DSA unfavorably. That’s a brand with underwater numbers and a growing bench.
DSA members outside Milwaukee City Hall at the Power to the People rally, June 24, 2026. Wisconsin state Rep. Ryan Clancy is among the DSA-aligned legislators on November ballots. Credit: Paul Johnson (@7pej), CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
New York math and Schumer money
New York is where the bench is deepest. Super PACs spent $9.6 million on state Assembly and Senate primaries this year, nearly five times the 2024 pace, much of it aimed at DSA-endorsed candidates, per New York Focus. DSA won most of those fights anyway and is poised to pick up at least six seats. If its primary winners hold in November, DSA will have at least 15 endorsed lawmakers in Albany, still a small slice of the 63-seat Senate and 150-seat Assembly.
The New York State Capitol in Albany, where DSA could hold at least 15 endorsed seats next year if its primary winners hold in November. Credit: Beyond My Ken, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
The national subplot: Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer backed Abdul El-Sayed’s more moderate opponent in Michigan’s Senate primary. Now a Schumer-aligned super PAC has committed millions to El-Sayed’s general election, per Fox. El-Sayed says he isn’t a socialist. The money still found its way left.
The red costume: state ownership, but make it patriotic
Republicans are right to put Brisport’s “end policing” line and Chávez’s KKK comparison in front of voters. That’s what campaigns are for.
But look at the utility bill. When Shrestha wants the state to buy a power company, that’s Marx. When the Trump administration bought a 9.9% stake in Intel for $8.9 billion in August 2025, converting Biden-era chip grants into government shares, it was a deal, per Reuters. Bernie Sanders cheered the plan: “I am glad the Trump administration is in agreement with the amendment I offered three years ago to the CHIPS Act,” he said, per The Hill.
We ran the name-check in Will the REAL Socialists Please Stand Up? If government equity is capitalism when your president signs it and socialism when a state assemblywoman drafts it, you aren’t defending free enterprise. You’re defending a jersey. The slogan is SOCIALISM STARTS IN THE STATES. Apparently it’s fine once it reaches Washington.
You don’t get to buy a slice of Intel on Friday and call a public utility communism on Monday.
Intel headquarters in Santa Clara, California. In August 2025 the Trump administration took a 9.9% government stake in the chipmaker, and Bernie Sanders cheered. Credit: Coolcaesar, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
The blue costume: “it’s just a GOP scare tactic”
Democrats, the “bad-faith campaign trick” line is getting harder to sell. Fox notes that some in the party call Republican efforts to tie Democrats to socialism exactly that, even as party leadership “has recently made significant concessions to its left-wing flank.”
You can say El-Sayed isn’t a socialist. You can’t call the left flank imaginary while a Schumer-aligned PAC spends millions on the candidate Schumer opposed, and Albany’s socialist caucus is on track to grow by at least six.
If Brisport’s “end policing and incarceration” isn’t your party’s position, say so plainly. A shrug and a super PAC check isn’t an answer.
A party that won’t argue with its own police abolitionists will get the argument from attack ads instead. That isn’t unfair. That’s an election.
Both costumes
Here’s the adult version. Sixty-five DSA-aligned names on November ballots, or 76 by Brookings’ count, are a real bench, not a meme. Their positions on policing, ICE, utilities and reparations are on the record, and Republicans are right to surface them.
Republicans are wrong to call public ownership socialism only when Democrats propose it. Democrats are wrong to call the flank fiction while their own leaders make concessions to it.
Own the boring standard out loud: argue the platform in the open (policing, energy ownership, immigration enforcement), and stop calling your own government stake “a deal” and theirs “Marx.”
Ask every statehouse candidate one question before you vote: do you want to reform the police, or end them?
Receipts
- Fox News (Robert Schmad), Oct. 10, 2026. At least 65 DSA-aligned statehouse finalists; Brookings’ 76 and “tiny fraction”; candidate positions and quotes; Clancy and Shrestha responses; 55% unfavorable poll; Schumer and El-Sayed; “concessions to its left-wing flank.”
- RSLC memo, via Fox News. 82 ran, 65 advanced, 24 states; methodology; pipeline language; “socialism starts in the states.”
- New York Focus, June 24, 2026. $9.6 million in super PAC primary spending, nearly five times 2024; at least six DSA pickups; at least 15 endorsed lawmakers if November holds.
- Reuters, Aug. 22, 2025 and The Hill, Aug. 20, 2025. 9.9% Intel stake for $8.9 billion from CHIPS grants; Sanders statement.
- Earlier Hypocrisy Democracy: Will the REAL Socialists Please Stand Up?
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Originally published on Substack.
