In the past, conventional wisdom would have us believe that any victory by the Democratic Socialists of America was due to their overwhelmingly white, young, transplant membership—bike lane users, co-op members, and Bernie 2020 voters. Meanwhile, DSA candidates struggled with working-class Black and brown voters due to a lack of trust, gentrification-fueled disdain, and communication failures. And more than anything, socialism just wasn’t something Black and brown people were “comfortable” with historically.
But recent election victories have thrown out that entire narrative. Nowhere was that more evident than in Washington, D.C., last week, where the DSA-backed mayoral candidate won the Democratic primary thanks to support in majority-Black neighborhoods, while the candidate packaged as the preference for native Black voters actually lost them by a landslide.
In the weeks leading up to the primary, moderate Democratic Councilman Kenyan McDuffie framed himself as a measured, natural progression from current Mayor Muriel Bowser. He promised to be tough on crime and focused his rhetoric on the native residents of D.C.’s historically Black neighborhoods. Meanwhile, Councilwoman and Metro DSA member Janeese Lewis George represented a progressive vision for the city that focused on universal childcare, housing, and affordability—a vision that political commentators and media outlets said was more salient with the transplant-heavy neighborhoods.
The New York Times wrote that Lewis George was “expected to be preferred by younger white residents who’ve lived in Washington less than 10 years.” CityCast DC featured a “Newbies Vs. Natives” analysis stating that “the Democratic Socialists of America member Lewis George does not seem to be cleaning up among D.C.’s poorer and less-educated voters,” and that “the younger, better educated, and newer you are to D.C., the more likely you are to support Lewis George.”
Lewis George’s primary victory put that narrative to rest. She won seven of the eight wards in D.C. and had secured more than 50 percent of the vote even before the first round of ranked-choice tabulation.
McDuffie only won Ward 3—which contains affluent, majority-white neighborhoods like Woodley Park, Chevy Chase, Foxhall Village, Friendship Heights, Palisades, and Tenleytown. Ward 3 is 69 percent white, with nearly 90 percent of residents holding a bachelor’s degree, an average age of 40 years old, and a median household income of around $144,877. And yet this younger, white, more educated, more affluent ward is the only one that went for McDuffie, and just barely. NBC reported that the specific neighborhoods that went for him were “among the most heavily white neighborhoods in D.C.”
Conventional wisdom would have had McDuffie cleaning up in DC’s Ward 8—81 percent Black with an average household income of $52,769 and less than a third of its residents holding a bachelor’s degree. Lewis George won it by 15 points. And in Ward 5, which is 55 percent Black and where McDuffie grew up, George won by 20 points. In the end, it was McDuffie who found the most support in the city’s whitest neighborhoods, while Lewis George overwhelmingly carried Black and Latino ones.
There are plenty of theories as to why McDuffie lost so handily both across D.C. and specifically in poor neighborhoods of color. His focus on crime—calling Lewis George’s decision to vote against a teen curfew a “failure” after a chaotic teen brawl in Navy Yard—may have been overshadowed by a more imaginative platform from Lewis George, who was trying to address the constant struggles that the district’s most vulnerable residents face. Hyperfocusing on teen crime—an issue that Lewis George will eventually have to address—may not have landed well while hundreds of National Guardsmen roam the streets of D.C. at the behest of the president. His ties to Bowser (who has a dismal 49 percent disapproval rate) and the city’s centrist political establishment didn’t help either, as the outgoing mayor gave him her support without offering an official endorsement.
It’s easy to make comparisons between Lewis George and New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani. Two DSA members ended long reigns of neoliberalism in two major East Coast cities, and expanded their voting blocs well into the Black and brown working class even as pundits expected them to be successful only in “commie corridor” neighborhoods from Bushwick to Mt. Pleasant. But there are notable differences. Lewis George never got a Bernie Sanders or AOC endorsement. Lewis George stated that she has no relationship with Mamdani. And D.C. operates in a different landscape given its lack of statehood—another unique issue Lewis George will face as she likely squares off with President Donald Trump, who has had no qualms about strong-arming D.C. leaders.
Lewis George will certainly face a host of doubts and challenges in her tenure, as will DSA as a whole. Of course this movement would be nowhere without the college educated, mostly white transplants that move to cities like New York and D.C. But it’s equally true that they have made legitimate connections with older, more moderate natives that are skeptical of them. That tension will remain. But Lewis George’s victory—bucking stereotypes and punditry to deliver a resounding, mandate-securing election—shows that democratic socialism can no longer be viewed as a disqualifier for Black working-class voters. It’s mainstream now.
