We believe endorsing Congressmember Jamaal Bowman at this time would be a mistake for NYC-DSA’s organizing efforts and electoral project. Endorsing this campaign would be a misguided shortcut to legislative access and national popularity, a regression of our electoral program, and an undermining of efforts to build strong accountability mechanisms in our organizational structure and relationships.

Bowman has approached NYC-DSA at the near last minute seeking our endorsement for his 2024 reelection. We appreciate that certain comrades have put effort into rebuilding the fractured relationship between him and NYC-DSA. We also commend the congressmember for taking a bolder stance on Palestinian liberation than the majority of his colleagues since October 7. But these steps are the beginning of a path toward reconciliation, not the end. For lasting trust to be rebuilt, the chapter must be allowed to observe our alignment and collaboration with Bowman steadily and sustainably grow. 

This is not the first time-pressured endorsement request from Bowman. In 2020 LHV-DSA and DSA National endorsed his campaign mere weeks before the primary. NYC-DSA did not have a meaningful relationship with Bowman at the time, limiting our ability to evaluate both his commitment to our platform and our capability to hold him accountable to our principles. Ideally we have a relationship with a candidate before they apply for endorsement, but if not, the endorsement process itself serves as an opportunity to start building those ties. A truncated process cannot replace this course of development. We should learn from our past: it is precisely Bowman’s record and our challenges in holding him accountable which demonstrate the organizational and legislative consequences of deviating from our standard endorsement timelines. 

Bowman’s 2021 votes for Iron Dome funding and his participation in the J Street sponsored trip to Israel kicked off a severely disorganizing internal conflict that reverberated throughout the organization, resulting in a loss of DSA members who had been organizing to oppose Israeli military funding. This conflict, highly publicized by corporate media outlets, highlighted both our inability to coordinate with our endorsed officials at the federal level as well as the public damage they can cause to our reputation. It also caused Palestinian-led groups at the forefront of the movement to boycott DSA. This has weakened our ability to lead and respond organizationally as NYC-DSA is barred from entering prominent coalitions in the mass protest movement for Palestine that marches in our city every day. 

In that light, the candidate questionnaire submitted for Bowman’s current endorsement request was an opportunity to showcase his seriousness in moving forward with DSA, committing to both our broad democratic socialist program and our unwavering solidarity with Palestine. Instead of assuaging our concerns, his response raises further questions about the suitability of the campaign for this organization and the quality of the relationship that the congressmember envisions with us. The questionnaire paints a picture of NYC-DSA providing significant labor to his campaign while the Bowman team provides little in return.

Congressmember Bowman states that he will not make down-ballot endorsements of our candidates, which should be a dealbreaker and shows a lack of investment in our basic electoral model. There is no mention of his current stance on the core Palestine solidarity principle of BDS, a significant issue in his 2020 endorsement questionnaire. Bowman’s summary of his relationship with our org as simply being “a member in good standing of DSA since 2019,” entirely ignores our tenuous history. It should also be noted that the candidate’s office told the press otherwise in October, claiming he let his membership expire. At a time when DSA was receiving considerable spurious criticism, we needed our members in office to stand with us — instead he publicly distanced himself from the organization. Bowman does not show sufficient interest in addressing previous points of contention, and it is unclear how this endorsement could concretely support our organization’s goals across our current local races and our broader Palestine solidarity work. His office openly embracing “building the big tent coalition from Leader Jeffries..to NYC-DSA” reinforces this concerning trajectory for our path forward. 

This process makes a farce of both our internal deliberative commitment and of the strength of the NYC-DSA endorsement, a point of pride for our organization. We are being asked to approach a uniquely contentious decision without the depth and diligence we usually devote to endorsements. The suggested plan would be merely a step above a paper endorsement, and says nothing about our contributions to messaging and strategy, typically mandatory for our involvement in a campaign. While defeating AIPAC in this election is highly important, our proposed modest role is unlikely to be the determining factor in the outcome of this race, making the perceived urgency around this endorsement unfounded. 

The notoriety of being associated with a high-profile candidate is not a prize in and unto itself and is not sufficient for building DSA. Scrambling into such a campaign can cause us to overlook a situation where the elected official values their individual office, and we value our public association with it, over developing a strong member-driven organization for class power. Indeed this last-minute and insubstantial application indicates that Bowman’s campaign does not yet view us as a vital partner. Bowman could have approached the organization earlier in 2024 with an action plan to repair our relationship and a commitment to helping shape our federal electoral project. This could have provided a base and timeline from which to re-engage with the support of a broad swath of membership. But seeking our endorsement without any such terms, whether established on our end or coming voluntarily from the candidate, is not a solid foundation on which to rebuild the relationship. It’s time for a better plan.

We believe in building a mass movement and developing a thriving Federal Socialist in Office project. But there are no shortcuts to power, and as we have witnessed, bypassing foundational steps leaves us on unstable ground. By acknowledging the mistakes of the past and committing to a future based on our shared socialist vision, our relationship with Bowman can evolve in a way that is instead grounded in mutual trust.

To address his orientation to Palestinian liberation, we would ask that he:

• Apologize for the harm caused by funding and arming the Iron Dome (HR 5323) and Israeli military (HR 4373) and conflating antisemitism with anti-zionism (HR 888); for participating in whitewashing the crimes of the apartheid state by traveling to Israel on a Zionist lobby-funded trip, including meeting the Israeli Prime Minister; and for rejecting criticism of the aforementioned from DSA and the Palestinian liberation movement.
• Commit to Palestinian self-determination from the river to the sea through supporting BDS, which includes opposing any funding to Israel, which DSA has supported since the 2019 Convention.

To address his orientation to DSA, we would ask that he:

• Apologize for the destabilization his actions caused in DSA.
• Invest efforts into creating a Federal Socialists in Office committee and organize others into it.
• Commit to supporting DSA’s Palestine platform including support for Not on Our Dime as NYC-DSA endorsed Congresswoman AOC has.
• Commit to paying Solidarity-Income Dues.

For the vitality and integrity of our organization NYC-DSA must expand while upholding a standard for electoral accountability that facilitates working class organizing inside and outside elections. Our principal objective must be to lead and organize toward a socialist horizon. If we simply accommodate the short-term strategies of independent elected officials, we may win individual battles and notoriety, but may miss the broader victory. If we instead emphasize our transformative, organizationally driven program as the horizon, we can present a unified pressure that our socialist elected officials cannot exert on their own. For these reasons, we urge members to commit to a coherent approach to endorsements and to electoral programs that will allow our Federal aspirations to flourish as one aspect of a successful socialist project. 

DSA Emerge urges all NYC-DSA members — citywide, in The Bronx / Upper Manhattan, and on the CLC — to vote against this endorsement.