California DSA Delegates and Candidate Statements for 2023

I’m running for CA DSA Delegate because I think our membership has so much potential to build statewide power. I want to collaborate with members across the state to align on strategies that will empower workers, elect socialist leaders, and pass policies that will benefit the working class.

Describe your previous organizing experience.

I work at a healthcare union as political coordinator, and before this role, I organized a shop of 1200. I also trained over 100 DSA-LA members on how to run for office at the hyper-local level.

What is your vision for California DSA?

I would love to see DSA in Sacramento lobbying for socialist policies. I want more electeds to feel accountable to us and to seek our opinion with legislation. I want labor across the state to see us as allies and count on us to build power.

Andre Arguelles

Why are you running for California DSA delegate?

DSA has strong local and national structure, but the United States is vast and CA DSA bridges the in-between, regional gap. I’m running to strengthen the relationship between the Los Angeles local and CA DSA. There are a plethora of avenues to advance socialism that are too monumental for any local, but equally too myopic for national.

Describe your previous organizing experience.

I have held the Recording Secretary position on our local’s Steering Committee since 2022, working to build out chapter internal structures to promote cohesion. Prior to that, I’ve worked with chapter leadership to ensure chapter resources are functioning and serving them as needed through Admin Committee. Additionally, I’ve volunteered time to canvass and phonebank for chapter electoral and labor work, and worked as a volunteer for the Bernie campaign in 2020.

What is your vision for California DSA?

I believe CA DSA has the potential to be the bridge between the locals within one of the largest and most populous states in the union. I would like to see CA DSA become the primary point of contact for statewide drives and campaigns, able to leverage the collective resources of California’s locals to take the fight for democratic socialism to Sacramento or to support the growth of smaller locals.

Andrew S

Why are you running for California DSA delegate?

I am running as an exceptionally well qualified candidate for CA-DSA delegate because of my near-decade of experience operating as an open socialist in electoral and CA Democratic Party politics in California.

Describe your previous organizing experience.

2015-2016 Bernie Sanders supervolunteer and organizer and joined DSA
2017 Participated in CNA’s massive SB-562 Medicare For All Californians push, contributing to its successful passage by the California state Senate. Organized with hundreds of other activists and insurgent Democratic delegates and nearly won control of the Chairship of the California Democratic Party on behalf of Nina Turner-backed candidate Kimberly Ellis
2018 Joined the Board of Feel The Bern Democratic Club as Communications Director and endorsed dozens of California’s strongest progressive and leftist candidates locally and statewide from school board to Governor.
2019 Elected ADEM Delegate to the California Democratic Party, once again supported insurgent progressive candidates to leadership and for Democratic Party endorsements to go to the most progressive candidates running. Organized statewide campaign across many Democratic clubs, county party committees, and the statewide California Democratic Party to endorse the position that the 2003 federal agency ICE should be abolished. Organized a unanimous vote for the resolution by the Los Angeles County Democratic Party. Took the resolution to many other Democratic clubs, county central committees, and delegates for over 100 signatories to the resolution in the end.
2020 Elected 2020 DNC Delegate and volunteer for the Bernie Sanders 2020 campaign. Also, ran on the public ballot for Board of the Los Angeles County Democratic Party.
2023 Re-elected as ADEM delegate in the California Democratic Party.
Along the way, I have won the organizational endorsements of many progressive organizations: DSA Long Beach, DSA Orange County, DSA-LA, Sunrise Movement LA, Our Revolution, Progressive Democrats of America, Courage Campaign, RootsAction, California Democratic Renters’ Caucus, Progressive Delegates Network, Youth Climate Strike, SEIU United Healthcare Workers West, Streets For All, Abundant Housing L.A.

What is your vision for California DSA?

I ask for your vote because my strongly held vision for CA-DSA to fulfill the need for a statewide Californian shadow party to highlight the contrast between well-organized socialists and a corrupt corporatist establishment of capitalists wearing blue ties. I believe deeply held Californian beliefs will never be realized even by a Democratic supermajority statehouse without a vocal insurgency of socialists in office and candidates presenting a better alternative. I have been involved in the formation of CA-DSA including assisting in chapter feedback of the bylaws and inaugural convention through DSA Long Beach and since then through DSA-LA. There are many seats available for the DSA-LA chapter, please include me in your vote and I will bring significant electoral organizing and Democratic insurgency experience to the delegation from the DSA-LA chapter to the state council.

Arun Ravendhran

Why are you running for California DSA delegate?

I have been looking for opportunities to get more involved with dsa and i was encouraged to run for this position by Mark Gaynor and other core members of dsa-LA after having conversations about calcare and other measures that require statewide efforts.

Describe your previous organizing experience.

My most notable experience organizing was as field staff with the Bernie Sanders campaign in 2020 both here in LA as well as New York. I most recently worked for Hugo Soto-Martinez as a lead organizer for his field team. In 2021, I was the progressive policy director with the Casitas group that consulted and organized with several progressive candidates throughout the country, most notably Gary Chambers. I have also organized with DSA-LA, Sunrise Movement LA, Our Revolution, and Ktown for all.

What is your vision for California DSA?

I strongly believe in strengthening DSA by connecting with other chapters, unions, and organizations by focusing on important statewide policies — universal healthcare, green new deal measures, high speed rails, etc. I believe that growing our presence in the most populous state in the US with the fifth largest economy in the world is integral to our sustainability.

Azadeh (“Azi”) Hosseinian

Why are you running for California DSA delegate?

Through my work as a civil rights and housing attorney, I have extensive legal and policy experience on the housing crisis, evictions, affordable housing development, criminalization of the unhoused community, and housing discrimination matters. I hope to use this experience to contribute to setting priorities and crafting policies for CA-DSA and DSA-LA that empower poor, working class, and under-resourced communities.

Describe your previous organizing experience.

I have extensive experience representing and providing legal counsel to housing organizers. I also worked on the CLEAN Carwash campaign and volunteered for various DSA-LA backed candidates.

What is your vision for California DSA?

That we continue to to build power and have a greater impact on the political landscape and priorities of the state. CA-DSA should prioritize diverse expansion of our membership, including by focusing resources in ways that build power in under-resourced communities and communities of color. By expanding our community, we continue to build power.

Benina S

Why are you running for California DSA delegate?

I’m running for delegate because the past year CA-DSA has created an ambitious foundation for 2024 work, especially in creating a socialist state assembly slate. I would like to ensure the state body strongly supports these slates and connect that state work to DSA-LA’s priorities as well.

Describe your previous organizing experience.

I currently serve on DSA-LA’s Electoral Committee, and served last year, where we saw an ambitious, busy, and successful election cycle. I’ve been a branch coordinator as well.

What is your vision for California DSA?

Coordinated statewide campaigns (electoral, labor, etc.) regular communication and support between chapters, collaboration in political education/programming between chapters

Cailyn N

Why are you running for California DSA delegate?

Our city is not an island, LA impacts the state and the state impacts LA. Whether we a drawing lessons from successful campaigns from comrades in other regions or coordinating for big wins, we need to think beyond our county lines. Simply, I’m running because I think this is important and that I would do a good job.

Describe your previous organizing experience.

Within DSA:
-I was a canvas captain and then a field lead in the working group to elect Hugo Soto Martinez. I helped develop canvas plans, trainings, scripts, and helped lead weekly canvasses for a year. We knocked on every door we could get to in Echo park, twice, and won.
– I have pitched in on campaign planning and exploration in the CD14.
– Since the start of the year, I have been focusing on branch organizing in the EastSide/SGV branch, setting up one on one’s with members and helping them take on a larger role in the chapter.
– Most recently, I have gotten involved in Mutual Aid’s Skill Share working group as a bottom liner, with a goal of build out a launching a Free School. Free schools are a radically democratic view on education where anyone can teach and everyone can learn.
– I have consistently pitched in on other campaigns through phonebanks and showing up.
Professionally:
– I have worked in higher education policy for 4 years, two on a national level and two focusing on CA, with a focus on student consumer protection and access to course materials. In those roles, I have written legislation and moved it through the CA legislature, worked with educators and student leaders to design local campaigns, written and designed original research on my issue area, worked with governing agencies and community groups, and worked with the media as an issue area expert and to get earned media coverage.
– Three years as a full time community organizer on college campuses, recruiting, training, and developing student leaders on campaigns ranging from voter registration to right to repair. In this role I also coordinated large volunteer run membership drives, adding thousands of student members to the organization.
– Three years and a canvasser/field organizer, fundraising and building membership for organization or winning votes for electoral campaigns. I am most proud of having knocked doors for a year in support of diplomacy with Iran during the nuclear negotiations.

What is your vision for California DSA?

We can have a state where actions for statewide goals are strategic and targeted, where lessons and resources for mutual aid projects are shared collaboratively, and where we start building the power it will take to create a society based on human flourishing instead of extraction. To do that, we need to work in good faith and solidarity as a whole rather then as fractured regions. Lasting wins take time, discipline, and flexibility. We can and must build a state wide organization that puts us on that path.

Chris Bonfilio

Why are you running for California DSA delegate?

I am passionate about helping to improve CA DSA, and I am looking to increase my involvement within DSA. I believe I have good ideas to bring to the table, and can accurately represent the folks in my Chapter as a state delegate.

Describe your previous organizing experience.

I am a rank-and-file organizer in my union, IBEW Local 11. I am an officer on multiple committees, working to get more members involved in union activities. For DSA-LA, I am a Branch Organizer for the SFV Branch, and as part of the GND4PS Campaign, I have been active in assisting the campaign through canvassing and political education at events.

What is your vision for California DSA?

My vision is for CA DSA to be THE organization leading the charge on achieving the socialist vision for our future, working closely with community groups and local leaders. I see a CA DSA that grows quickly as young and working people shift their ideology to the left. I also envision an organization where its members are all active and passionate about the campaigns it prioritizes.

Collin B

Why are you running for California DSA delegate?

I’m running to be a delegate for CA DSA because I want to help facilitate the growth of the statewide organization. This is a massive undertaking as this is essentially the first time a group of local chapters are attempting to form this level of a unified organization – it’s not an easy task and I feel like I’ve developed the right experience in my time organizing for DSA-LA that I can lend my skills to continue building CA DSA.

Describe your previous organizing experience.

During my time in DSA-LA, I’ve been heavily involved in electoral organizing. In 2020, I was a co-chair on Konstantine Anthony’s working group for his Burbank City Council campaign where he won, and eventually has become the first socialist Mayor in Burbank.
After that, I was a part of the subcommittee that wrote our chapter’s Democratic Socialist Program for Los Angeles, which involved months of research and interviews with local working group leads as well as the actual process of writing the document. I’m incredibly proud of what we were able to accomplish with the Program and set forward a democratically decided vision for what the chapter sees as our near term goals.
Most recently, I was a co-chair on Hugo Soto-Martínez’s working group for his LA City Council campaign, easily the most intensive, but rewarding, campaign I’ve been a part of and I was lucky enough to learn an unbelievable amount of lessons from the comrades who joined us in this effort. I’m now serving on the Electoral Politics committee as we develop our Socialists in Office strategy to maintain our connection with our electeds and build the level of cogovernance and collaboration we have with them.

What is your vision for California DSA?

My vision for CA DSA is to help create a cohesive organization that has the ability to build and shape the direction of projects and campaigns happening at the state level. In order for socialists to take what we are doing at the local levels and begin to apply it on a much broader scale, we need an organization that has a reliable infrastructure in place and I believe my time in DSA shows that I have the ability to lend myself to the task of solidifying that infrastructure.

Denis P. Recendez

Why are you running for California DSA delegate?

It is important that California-DSA join campaigns and projects adopted by the state council and help organize them statewide. This purpose should be mandatory, not optional. There are socialist causes that have been organized at the regional chapter level that need to be organized at the state level, causes including but not limited to housing as a right , democracy in the work place and in live spaces, immigration justice and healthcare as a right. I want to be a part of that.

Describe your previous organizing experience.

I have dedicated myself to organizing for guaranteed comprehensive not-for-profit healthcare for all (e.g., expanded and improved Medicare For All) for may years. It is important to fight for healthcare as a right at the federal level, but maybe more so at the state level.
I also organized for the 2016/2020 Bernie Sanders campaigns. I truly believe in the campaign slogan of #NotMeUS. I have also assisted in the organizing of several local and state elections of corporate-free candidates.
My past organizing for economics justice and democracy includes canvassing, tabling, texting, car caravans (especially through the pandemic) and lobbying elected representatives (local, state and federal).
I am the current co-chair of the Healthcare Justice Committee where I have been responsible in assisting the convening of meetings for the committee as well as organizing campaigns for it. I took on this role to get more educated on the many problems of our current broken for-profit healthcare system, and to find ways to organize other socialists and allies against that system.

What is your vision for California DSA?

Reflect on the causes, organizing and lesson learned of regional DSA chapters in California and expand their fight for democratic socialism to the state level.

Ed Keenan

Why are you running for California DSA delegate?

Because Statewide DSA is the best path towards Healthcare for all in California. We must build statewide.

Describe your previous organizing experience.

Bernie 2016, Bernie 2020, Fatima for CA Assembly, various Unite Here Local 11 campaigns, various DSA-LA campaigns

What is your vision for California DSA?

Fight for Healthcare for all Californians. Fight for better state environmental and education and transit policies. help distribute work to build up local chapters.

Edgar Ortiz

Why are you running for California DSA delegate?

I am running to be a California DSA delegate because I believe it is important to not only build worker power locally, but for all of us to work in solidarity to advance an authentically socialist vision at the highest levels of government in California. We cannot view local and state issues in siloes as we are sometimes prone to do. California DSA can play an important role in mapping out the ecosystem of elected officials, policies, and local dynamics to support all chapters. With important labor issues set to be on the ballot in 2024, including an increased minimum wage, protections for fast food workers, and more, California DSA is positioned to play a decisive role in winning big for workers and our communities.

Describe your previous organizing experience.

Professionally, I have worked in community and labor spaces for the past 5+ years at the local and state levels. During my time at LAANE, I worked as a researcher on important campaigns to improve working conditions public school educators and grocery workers across Los Angeles, while strengthening coalitions comprised of labor and community stakeholders. Currently, I work with the California Immigrant Policy Center to help advance policies that support immigrant communities and build intersectional power across the state.
As part of DSA-LA, I most recently worked with the Green New Deal for Public Schools (GND4PS) working group to help our chapter advance a climate justice agenda in partnership with parents, educators, students, and other allies in the district. I also participated in several canvassing events for Rocio Rivas who was elected to the LAUSD School Board, tilting the majority on the school in favor of labor. Finally, I currently serve on the DSA-LA Electoral Politics Committee.

What is your vision for California DSA?

To work in conjunction with local DSA chapters across the state to develop a critical analysis of the current systems and structures at the state level, and identify opportunities over the next few years to scale local socialist victories to victories in the state legislature and other statewide offices. In addition, I see California DSA as being a space for local chapters to share best practices, insights, and resources with one another.

Flynn N

Why are you running for California DSA delegate?

I’m running for a second term as a California DSA delegate to continue the development of the state organization’s budget and funding. It’s work that takes a lot of discussion with chapters across the state and I intend to see it through.

Describe your previous organizing experience.

I was in the old membership committee, facilitator for DSA 101, a member of the comms team, and a harassment grievance officer. I am currently in the foodservice labor circle. I also organized a union drive at my old job.

What is your vision for California DSA?

I believe California DSA is in a position to act as a network for chapters to coordinate and share resources. This can build capacity for smaller chapters and strengthen relationships across the state, allowing us to further build organizational strength and take on bigger campaigns.

Hannah Kessel

Why are you running for California DSA delegate?

I’m running to be a delegate for a second term because I believe in the power of organizing and coordinating at the statewide level. As the fifth largest economy in the world we have a crucial role to play in agitating for socialism.

Describe your previous organizing experience.

I’m currently the California DSA Treasurer as well as a member of DSA’s National Electoral Committee. I’ve previously served on DSA LA’s Steering committee, worked on the Bernie 2020 campaign, and helped run the Yes on Prop 15 campaign in DSA.

What is your vision for California DSA?

I’m most excited about identifying opportunities to organize statewide that involve building power electorally and by revitalizing the labor movement through strategic industries in our state like logistics, healthcare, and education.

Jason Boxer

Why are you running for California DSA delegate?

It is my view that we don’t have a strong chance of getting CalCare passed until we have a working statewide structure. I believe participating as a delegate will help build out Cal DSA and create important organizing space for single-payer healthcare in California.

Describe your previous organizing experience.

Trustee, Manhattan Beach Unified School District (2020 – 2022)
DSA-LA Branch Organizer, Westside Bernie
2020 Paid Canvasser / Neighborhood Captain for South Bay area

What is your vision for California DSA?

I believe Cal DSA’s initial priority should be to align the various chapters statewide in their pursuit of a single-payer healthcare system in California. It is becoming increasingly clear in the Los Angeles chapter that there are many urgent issues facing working class Californians that cannot be adequately addressed on the chapter level, but a statewide single-payer system seems to be the quintessential example of this phenomenon. Our influence over the CA State Legislature can at best provide us with only two or three reliable votes out of 120 state-level elected offices, a far cry from the requisite number to pass such a bill through the Senate and Assembly. Even with a hyper-mobilized group of LA organizers, our reach can only have a significant impact over the jurisdictions of our limited and highly-localized coalition of socialism-friendly officials, leaving us at the will of state agencies and elected offices who are not responsive (and sometimes outright hostile) to DSA’s interests. Without an adequate base of power in state government, a CalCare campaign in LA amounts to little beyond a futile “demand” placed upon government bodies who we know will not take us seriously.
Furthermore, the utility of a coherent, centralized strategy is becoming very apparent to our members in LA. We are seeking to build a unity of purpose, disciplined messaging, and strong organizing follow-through across the various deliberative bodies of our chapter – the Steering Committee, local Branches, issue-specific Committees, and more. Our Steering Committee is helping align all of our chapter’s work, and I believe CalDSA should seek to replicate this strategy at the state level. I believe single-payer healthcare can be a successful vehicle for building out the democratic infrastructure necessary for inter-chapter alignment.

Jeremy Bong

Why are you running for California DSA delegate?

I am running for California DSA delegate because I am sick of these big tech companies ruining our state! 😀
I am the anti-techbro techbro – but specifically, after having worked at a big tech company for almost a decade, I understand how the authoritarian capitalist structure within big tech companies prevents tech workers from forming solidarity with each other. I believe that my background, which is of Asian immigrant tech worker, can be valuable to California DSA’s organizing at the state level and will be useful in building a stronger membership within California’s large base of tech workers.
I am also passionate about healthcare, climate change, public transportation and housing. I want CalCare, clean renewable energy powering everything, California high-speed rail, social housing – which are things that can be fought at the state level. I want to help these statewide efforts, and help get us the California we DESERVE!

Describe your previous organizing experience.

I was heavily involved with my chapter’s GND4PS priority campaign from start to end:
1. I helped organize on-site canvassing, postcarding events and townhalls for the campaign, which helped educate communities about the effects of climate change on education and getting them to hold their elected school board members accountable.
2. I researched schools and school board members in LAUSD which influenced how we selected locations to canvass and how we would message to local communities about our campaign.
3. I experimented with different tactics on building local support for our campaign, such as talking directly to students and teachers right after school.
I canvassed for 4 of 5 chapter endorsed candidates in 2022. After canvassing for all these candidates, I gained insight to what works well and what does not work as well.

What is your vision for California DSA?

California has the national reputation of being one of the most left-leaning states. However, we know that this is not always true and is much more nuanced.
Big tech corporations wield tremendous power in California, and are able to affect our laws in a neoliberal capitalist fashion that ultimately benefits their bottom line at the expense of California’s working class.
I vision a California DSA that is able to build power and organize statewide, such that we will be able to do things like repel right-to-work laws and pass CalCare.
To do this, we must have strategy, communication and coordination at the state level.
We can do this by building strong engaged membership at every chapter in California, and to do that, the larger chapters must help smaller chapters organize (e.g. LA must help Long Beach, OC, etc).
When California DSA is able to show that it can get things done at the state level, many other states will follow our example. Then, will California’s politics actually catch up to its reputation!

Josh Cain

Why are you running for California DSA delegate?

I believe that the left needs to expand its base of power in California government. The material concerns we advocate for – workers’ rights, healthcare, education, and housing, to name a few – are significantly influenced by state politics. To that end, over the past few months I have been contributing to an electoral committee project designed to further develop that power. I would like to continue this work as we move it into its next phases.

Describe your previous organizing experience.

My organizing experience is largely in the “back-office,” performing volunteer data work to support voter targeting and outreach efforts using VAN and other software tools. I started doing this type of organizing as part of the Bernie 2020 Vanguard team, and have continued with members of that team to support other candidates including Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Jamaal Bowman, Summer Lee, and Fatima Iqbal-Zubair.

What is your vision for California DSA?

A statewide body should synthesize its members’ objectives, both universal and specific, into strategic, effective action. Such an entity should seek to aid all levels of organizing – coordinating the efforts of many chapters and people towards statewide initiatives, while also providing knowledge and resources to those looking to drive change at a local level.

Marc Krause

Why are you running for California DSA delegate?

I am running for CA DSA because I want to advance the power of DSA on a statewide level. As a delegate in 2022, I focused on statewide ecosocialist organizing and strike solidarity for the statewide UC Strike. If re-elected as a delegate, I plan on continuing statewide ecosocialist organizing and getting involved with the project to build a CA DSA 2024 State Assembly Slate. Further, because I am involved with national Green New Deal organizing, I aim to continue strengthening the connections between national campaigns and DSA chapters in California that want to strengthen their ecosocialist organizing.

Describe your previous organizing experience.

Since joining DSA in 2019, I have focused my capacity on labor, climate, and electoral organizing. I have served as co-chair of DSA-LA’s Yes on Prop 15 – Tax the Rich campaign, Labor Committee, Rocío Rivas for LAUSD Board District 2 campaign, and Green New Deal for Public Schools LA campaign. Nationally, I have served as the co-chair of the Green New Deal Campaign Commission since 2022.

What is your vision for California DSA?

My vision for CA DSA is a mass organization that can run robust campaigns, coordinate labor organizing across chapters, and hold power in the state legislature. I believe CA DSA must prioritize external-facing organizing that develops leaders, equips our chapters with hard campaign skills and experience, and builds the capacity of the socialist movement across California.

Marissa Ayala

Why are you running for California DSA delegate?

I am running for CA DSA to continue shaping a statewide organization that gives structure for our chapters to amplify each others power and challenge statewide power and organized capital.

Describe your previous organizing experience.

I spent the 2021-2022 cycle organizing as a co-chair of the working group to elect Hugo Soto-Martínez. That working group ensured that DSA is backing up our endorsement with real force and numbers, played a meaningful part in his eventual win, and developed our membership through skill development and training. Now, as a member of our chapters electoral politics committee, I am focused on implementation of a Socialists in Office program that sees our electeds as organizers, and works proactively to bring wins for the working class as City Hall.

What is your vision for California DSA?

My vision is one where California DSA has strong connections with other organizations, while maintaining strong and principled socialist goals that differentiate our work. Statewide, DSA should ally with organized labor and other groups, while always seeking opportunities to create new socialists and build our organization.
I also see this structure creating a connected network between chapters.

Michael Lumpkin

Why are you running for California DSA delegate?

As a trade unionist and socialist I seek to organize a politically independent working class. I am running for delegate on the CA DSA state council to help build this political independence by building our solidarity through struggle; by coming together to leverage our power and win the healthcare, housing, jobs, and infrastructure we deserve. I believe that we can do this when we unite for social and economic justice in our workplaces and at the ballot box.
California is an important site of struggle in the US. Its political and economic terrain presents opportunities and risks to our movement, it is up to us as organizers to advance our class’ interests as best we can. We must contest and win power in the state, beat back employer offensives, provide a real alternative to the status quo, and develop leadership through class struggle. I look forward to working with other delegates to achieve those goals.
I grew up in a single parent family in social housing. I am committed to the empowerment and emancipation of my brothers and sisters from capitalist domination and believe that the labor and socialist movements are our only hope. We can win social justice and democratic socialism by organizing against the capitalist class at the ballot box and at work.

Describe your previous organizing experience.

I served as cocoordinator on DSA-LA labor committee leadership between 2019 and 2021. I am currently a staff organizer with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. I am a socialist and trade unionist and have organized in the labor movement in the UK and US as a union member, UK labour party member, and a member of DSA since 2017.

What is your vision for California DSA?

I want to see a CA DSA that can contest state power in the assembly and senate. I want to see a CA DSA that can project the political aspirations of organized workers. I want to see a CA DSA that stands with workers in our struggle for dignity. I want to see a CA DSA that organizes for a California far the many, not just the few.

Paul Zappia

Why are you running for California DSA delegate?

I am running to be a delegate of California DSA to continue the work I’ve been a part of in the statewide organization since 2022.
I’ve served on the communications committee, where I have:
1. Created our website that will launch in May 2023
2. Designed merchandise for fundraising
3. Worked with chapters across California to grow our list of CA members
4. Begun to design a library of assets for future communications
I have also served on the electoral committee, where I:
1. Worked with my fellow committee members to write and pass an electoral vision for 2024
2. Facilitated monthly open calls for all members in CA
3. Helped a research effort to map out our state and determine strategic districts to run assembly candidates in 2024
4. Have begun (with my committee members) the work of bringing chapter and electoral committee members together to strengthen our coordination for future struggles

Describe your previous organizing experience.

I am the current chair of the Starbucks Solidarity Working Group in Los Angeles and have been active in organizing and hosting many actions with our working group members in supporting baristas.
I also have created literature and picket line materials for our members and baristas. I have worked locally with our communications committee creating merchandise, visual assets for social media, posters for events like May Day, chapter branding, and our mascot Bud the rose.
I have served as a member of the California DSA and National Electoral Committees since 2022. My first electoral campaign with DSA-LA was for Prop 15 in 2020 and I was an active volunteer for Pasadena for Rent Control in 2021-2022. I also was active in canvassing, recruitment, and phone banking for Bernie in 2020.

What is your vision for California DSA?

Working together with my fellow state council members to create and connected and powerful statewide organization that is able to build and wield power for the working-class. I look forward to having a slate of candidates for assembly in 2024, facilitating communication and resource-sharing with our locals, and inspiring other Californians to join us in class struggle. Almost 1 in every 9 people that live in the United States lives in California. We have a long road ahead of us, but the positive impact that our organization can have on the working-class cannot be overstated.

Preeti S

Why are you running for California DSA delegate?

To help the effort to build out California DSA; and think about the possibilities for the CA assembly landscape.

Describe your previous organizing experience.

In DSA-LA: Eunisses Hernandez Working Group; Labor Commitee Coordinator; outside: activist and other movements for tenant’s rights, (service) worker’s rights, and gender justice.

What is your vision for California DSA?

To reduce harm vis-a-vis co-governance, particularly around a core set of issues: social housing, a just economy, climate reparations, and abolition, intersectionally.

Ryan Andrews

Why are you running for California DSA delegate?

I’m running to help coordinate CA-DSA’s electoral interventions, as well as our participation in and support of workplace struggles across counties and industries throughout California, in order to build a movement capable of inspiring the whole CA working class to fight for itself. As a public school teacher and member of UTLA, I believe our success in building CA-DSA’s ties to the CA labor movement hinges on our ability to leverage and increase our involvement in rank-and-file labor struggles.
CA-DSA can play a role in supporting and coordinating such struggles, and will be better positioned to do so when CA-DSAers are on the front lines of these fights.
I look forward to being able to support other socialist unionists in the aforementioned and other strategic industries, and to increasing the strength and organization of the broader labor movement as we connect it to our larger project of moving toward a democratic socialist transformation of society in California.

Describe your previous organizing experience.

My journey in the labor and socialist movements began in 2016 in Chicago after I joined DSA and was elected to the chapter’s Labor Branch Steering Committee. In 2017, with the support and guidance of comrades, I became a worker-leader in a United Electrical Workers (UE) campaign to unionize with my fellow food service workers at The Second City comedy club, and went on to work as a Fight for $15 Field Organizer in Chicago.
After moving to Los Angeles in 2018, I joined DSA-LA and became active in the chapter’s Labor Committee. In 2019, I was a volunteer coordinator for LA Labor for Bernie. I helped to cohere a network of unionists in support of Bernie 2020 and worked with dozens of rank-and-file members, officers and staff of UTLA to secure a unanimous membership endorsement at the UTLA Chapter Area Meetings. This work led me to a job as a Regional Field Director for Bernie 2020 in LA, where my coworkers and I built a program to engage thousands of volunteers and hundreds of thousands of LA County voters, helping to deliver a significant victory for Bernie in CA. The political acumen and skill set I honed during my time as a Bernie 2020 staffer were put to use on DSA’s statewide campaign to tax the rich with Prop 15. We worked closely with progressive unions throughout the state, and we called over 323,000 voters, spoke to over 11,400 of those voters, and raised over $20,000 during that campaign.
Last year, I made the decision to take a union job in public education, a particularly strategic sector for socialists to intervene in, as are the healthcare and logistics sectors, in which militant workers are similarly already in motion. As a UTLA member and elected steward at my school site, I helped to ensure UTLA had supermajority participation in our recent 3-day strike with SEIU 99, which secured major wins in our respective tentative agreements with the district.
As an elected member of the CA-DSA Labor Committee, I helped to survey our component chapters about their labor work and helped to organize an event about organizing in logistics in consultation with the national DSA Logistics Committee. As an elected member of the CA-DSA Electoral Committee, I helped to write our 2024 Electoral Vision document, including our plan to recruit and run a slate of class-struggle candidates for the CA State Assembly.

What is your vision for California DSA?

I’d like to help scale up CA-DSA’s efforts to not only elect working-class candidates to state-level office, but also to build a mass constituency for our politics as well as a lasting electoral coalition with unions and other membership-based organizations on the left that can serve as the nexus for a workers’ proto-party in California.
I look forward to collectively assembling the electoral apparatus needed to run effective campaigns that challenge the status quo of the CA Democratic Party establishment, win working-class power, and build our organizational and coalitional capacities for independent political action.

Sam R.

Why are you running for California DSA delegate?

I believe that the partnership of California’s capitalist class and the corporate Democrats which has monopolized statewide political power for decades is *vulnerable*. In Los Angeles, and in “deep blue” states on the east coast, popular movements advancing class struggle programs have won victories for renters, workers, and the climate – even as minority blocs in political bodies.
We can win power in California too, if we organize at the scale of our opponents. I want to help CA-DSA grow into that organization.

Describe your previous organizing experience.

I have been knocking doors since I was energized by the election of Donald Trump, starting with Katie Hill in the 2018 “flip the house blue” midterm. In 2020, volunteering for the Nithya Raman campaign in CD-4 introduced me to DSA, which I joined in March 2020. I believe talking to our neighbors, meeting them where they are, is critical to win victories for the working class, and to keep ourselves grounded.
In 2022, I volunteered as a canvass captain for the DSA-LA for Fatima Working Group, launching canvasses in Watts, Carson, San Pedro, and Compton during the primary and general election cycle. This State Assembly district bridged across DSA-LA and DSA Long Beach and is a perfect example of how we will need stronger regional cooperation between chapters to compete in statehouse electoral campaigns.
In 2023, I joined DSA-LA’s Administration Committee, helping bridge operational challenges so that elected leaders in steering, committees, and working groups have the resources they need to carry out their programs and make DSA-LA an effective organization.

What is your vision for California DSA?

– CA-DSA builds connections between chapters to enable strong multi-chapter or statewide electoral campaigns in the 2024 cycle (candidates and/or propositions)
– CA-DSA advances a clear class struggle alternative to the corporate Democratic status-quo – one that is legible and appealing to the Bernie plurality
– CA-DSA builds alliances with progressive labor unions and wins support away from corporate Democrats in key fights

Sam S.

Why are you running for California DSA delegate?

I was a delegate to our first state council and serve as one of our state committee members and co-chair. We’ve built out a strong structure connecting chapters to one another and to issues and sectors – labor, electoral, eco-socialism are well-represented.
I’d like, however, to continue building out our statewide work around housing and healthcare – two issues at the top of California’s agenda needing an explicitly socialist touch!

Describe your previous organizing experience.

DSA-LA: Electoral Politics Committee 2022-23, Steering 2023-24.
CA-DSA: delegate, state committee, and state co-chair, 2022-23
Working Families Party: LA steering committee ñ, 2022-present

What is your vision for California DSA?

A statewide mass organization that leads a multi-racial working class majority in struggle from Humboldt to Chula Vista, speaking with one voice at the Capitol, at the ballot, against landlords and corporate power, and on our streets and picket lines.

Stephanie Terrazas

Why are you running for California DSA delegate?

To represent the concerns of my community and the issues we face, such as healthcare, environmental and economic injustices.

Describe your previous organizing experience.

Volunteer for Bernie campaign 2016 and 2020. In between and after organizing for issues like healthcare and supporting candidates that are willing to take on corporate politicians for the will of the people.

What is your vision for California DSA?

Expand our outreach and our name to gain more members. With more members we can do more in our communities and state wide.

Tal Levy

Why are you running for California DSA delegate?

I was involved in the founding of California DSA from late 2020 through 2022, and I believe that the continued growth of a state organization is a necessary development for DSA to grow our strength in California.

Describe your previous organizing experience.

I have been an active member of DSA-LA since 2017, including two terms on the DSA-LA Steering Committee, two terms on the membership committee, and two terms on the Electoral Committee. I sat on the CA DSA electoral committee in 2021 and have been involved in nearly a dozen DSA electoral campaigns in Los Angeles, including DSA for Bernie and DSA for Hugo Soto-Martinez.

What is your vision for California DSA?

I believe that DSA can and should function like a proto-party organization, which requires a mass local membership and formalized structures for the establishment of policy and strategy and development of priorities and campaigns at various higher levels. California DSA should serve that function as a statewide organization that can identify and coordinate efforts so that the collective efforts of DSA’s many California chapters can be greater than the sum of their parts and be exercised at more than just a hyperlocal level.

Yesi Padilla

Why are you running for California DSA delegate?

I am running for delegate of California DSA because I believe in the collective power that can be harnessed with greater communication and strategic priority-setting across our state. I think that collaboration between the California chapters will lead to greater advances in our mission to build a mass movement. It would be an honor to serve as a delegate for DSA-LA, and advocate for the values and areas of interest this chapter holds.

Describe your previous organizing experience.

I currently serve as a delegate for CA-DSA, and as one of the coordinators for the Mutual Aid Committee of DSA-LA.
Prior to joining DSA-LA, I was the inaugural chapter chair of San Diego DSA in 2018. I co-founded SD-DSA’s direct action working group, of which I served as chair. I served as a delegate for San Diego at the 2019 DSA Convention. My final role in San Diego was to serve as the inaugural branch chair for the metropolitan branch of SD-DSA, where through which I spearheaded organizer trainings, political education reflective our multi-tendency nature, and
On the national level, I’ve served on the National Electoral Committee, and currently am a member of the International Committee.
My experience organizing outside of DSA has been diverse, which demonstrates my ability to advocate effectively for multi-pronged organizing strategies.
I was an electoral organizer for the San Diego Labor Council, doing field work for ballot initiatives. I also worked as the regional coordinator for the Prop 34 (SAFE CA) campaign in 2012. Most recently, I was on the communications committee for Prop 15 (Schools and Communities First Initiative), creating communications strategies at the regional and statewide level to advance the campaign.
In addition, I co-founded the current iteration of the San Diego Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) chapter, have worked extensively in the anti-border militarization movement and in migrant rights advocacy, helping to coordinate support efforts for Central American and Haitian asylum seekers in San Diego and Tijuana.

What is your vision for California DSA?

What I would like to focus on explicitly is fostering the growth of our communications program, in particular our owned media and assets. I would like to also develop comms coaching for our chapters, and build out a robust earned media program.