Four of the nation's 20 largest cities are now led by mayors affiliated with the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), following Tuesday's elections that saw socialist candidates win in Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. The mayors of Seattle and New York City already identify as democratic socialists, according to reporting from Fox News Politics and other outlets.
In Los Angeles, City Council member Nithya Raman defeated incumbent Mayor Karen Bass, NBC News projected Thursday. Raman, a 45-year-old DSA member born in India, unseated Bass, a former six-term congresswoman. The result means the country's two largest cities will be led by democratic socialists, with Raman joining New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani.
In Washington, D.C., councilwoman Janeese Lewis George, a DSA member, was elected mayor on Nov. 3, according to the Associated Press. She campaigned on universal child care, city-owned social housing and stronger tenant protections.
Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson, elected last year, describes herself as a democratic socialist but is not a DSA member. New York's Mamdani, a 35-year-old former state legislator, took office six months ago and has pursued a rent freeze affecting nearly 1 million rent-stabilized apartments, pushed to tax high-end second homes and expanded free child care for 2-year-olds in partnership with Gov. Kathy Hochul.
The four cities have a combined population of roughly 14 million. Their metropolitan areas are home to about 44 million people who could be affected by the mayors' policies, according to the outlet Межа.
Speaking to supporters Thursday night at the Original Farmers Market in Los Angeles, Raman framed her victory in personal terms. "This city has given me and my family so much," she said. "The idea that Angelenos voted for an immigrant to be their next mayor at this moment in American history is so deeply moving to me."
Bass, who leaves office after a term marked by a January 2025 wildfire in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood, argued during the campaign that Raman was "not ready for primetime" after six years on the City Council. Bass faced intense scrutiny over her response to the blaze, the most destructive in Los Angeles history. The fire erupted while she was in Ghana attending a presidential inauguration; it destroyed thousands of homes and killed 12 people.
The two Democrats also differed sharply on Israel's war in Gaza. At a September forum co-hosted by the Jewish Federation Los Angeles, Raman said she agreed with left-wing influencer Hasan Piker that Israel had committed genocide against Palestinians; Bass rejected that label.
Raman's candidacy drew comparisons to Mamdani's campaign in New York, which rallied voters dissatisfied with the political old guard. The DSA endorsed her in September, though the two have not always been aligned. A national DSA panel considered rescinding the endorsement just before the election, the Los Angeles Times reported.
Their agendas differ, but the socialist mayors share some big priorities: building more affordable housing, expanding child care and public transportation, strengthening renter protections and raising taxes on corporations and wealthy residents to help pay for public services, according to the Associated Press.
In Providence, Rhode Island, DSA member David Morales, a state lawmaker and former professional wrestler, was elected mayor on Nov. 3, defeating Republican David Talan after campaigning to limit rent increases and turn vacant properties to other uses, the AP reported.
Socialist mayors have also experienced setbacks in enacting some of their more ambitious policies because they have limited power and face budget constraints, legal challenges and opposition from wealthy residents, businesses and even moderate Democrats, the Los Angeles Times reported. Most are decidedly pragmatic: one of their top priorities is to demonstrate everyday competence in the essential but mundane tasks of submitting balanced budgets and repaving streets.
Six months after Mamdani took office, he said that New Yorkers no longer had to imagine what life looks like if a socialist wins. "What we've delivered for working people are the very things we were told were impossible," he declared, noting that his administration had offered free child care to 2-year-olds, given millions of dollars back to tenants with negligent landlords, fixed 165,000 potholes and brought low crime.
Our Take
Patriots, look at the map. Four of America's biggest cities — New York, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., and Seattle — are now run by card-carrying socialists. That's not a slogan. That's the Democratic Socialists of America's own membership rolls, and it's happening in the shadow of the Trump White House.
The radicals aren't hiding it anymore. They're running on rent freezes, city-owned grocery stores, universal child care and tax hikes on anyone who creates a job. Mamdani brags about what he's "delivered" in six months while his agenda of freebies and price controls marches forward. Raman won't even condemn the genocide smear against Israel. And now she'll be governing the second-largest city in the country.
Here's the question every conservative needs to ask: How long before these mayors turn their cities into the same failed experiments we've seen in Venezuela and Cuba? Rent freezes don't create housing — they create shortages. Taxing "the rich" doesn't fund services — it drives capital and jobs to Florida and Texas. And city-owned grocery stores? Ask the Soviet Union how that worked out.
The Democrats who run these cities have no answer for crime, homelessness or failing schools. So they sell socialism as the cure. But the people living in those 44 million metro residents will be the ones paying the price — in higher taxes, fewer jobs and a lower quality of life. The only real check on this nonsense is the Trump administration's America First agenda and the voters who put him back in office. Stay vigilant. The socialist wave is real, and it's coming to a city near you.
