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A new X account called DSA Watch launched on June 24 to systematically track Democratic Socialists of America officials and candidates — a movement that openly calls to "replace" capitalism with socialism and whose members have advocated for abolishing police, nationalizing airlines, and fighting for the "total eradication of Western civilization," with one openly calling to bomb the Iranian and Cuban diaspora communities.
The monitoring effort, which has amassed over 86,000 followers in just 24 hours after launching, arrives as DSA candidates and candidates backed by Mayor Zohran Mamdani won multiple democratic primaries in New York and have displayed increasing momentum within the broader party.
Abolishing Police and Dismantling Institutions
DSA Watch’s feed highlights Wisconsin gubernatorial candidate and DSA member Francesca Hong’s social media history calling for police abolition. “I support defunding the police as a first step towards abolishing the police,” Hong posted in August 2020. In October 2021, as an elected state representative, she wrote: “Police exist to uphold white supremacy. Defund then abolish. Reform can’t be an option.” When questioned by Fox News about these statements, Hong refused to clarify whether she would move to defund police as governor, saying only “There is no way I want to cut resources for public safety.”
Michigan Senate candidate Abdulrahman El-Sayed, whom DSA Watch identified as supporting DSA positions like defunding police, quietly deleted thousands of social media posts before launching his campaign. In a June 2020 post, El-Sayed wrote: “Most major US cities spend WAY TOO MUCH on police departments to police poverty & WAY TOO LITTLE on public schools, health departments, recreation departments, & housing to eliminate poverty. Fixing that is what the #Defund movement is about.” When CNN pressed him on why he deleted these posts, El-Sayed dodged the question three times, saying “we have to get past the past.”
Nationalizing Industries and Abolishing Border Security
The DSA Watch also documented New York congressional nominee Claire Valdez calling to “abolish pre-check and nationalize the entire airline industry.” DSA Watch similarly flagged Michigan congressional candidate Aisha Farooqi as wanting to “abolish ICE” — a position held by the DSA’s platform, which maintains an “Abolish ICE Commission“ and calls for ending immigration enforcement agencies.
These positions align with DSA’s organizational platform, which states: “Capitalism is a system designed by the owning class to exploit the rest of us for their own profit. We must replace it with democratic socialism.” The organization, which claims over 90,000 members, advocates to “collectively own the key economic drivers that dominate our lives, such as energy production and transportation” and lists “defunding the police/refunding communities” as part of its path to socialism.
“Total Eradication of Western Civilization”
Perhaps most striking is DSA Watch’s documentation of DSA member Darializa Avila Chevalier, who won New York’s 13th congressional district Democratic primary. Chevalier co-founded Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD), a group that went on to state in a now-deleted Instagram post:
“We are Westerners fighting for the total eradication of Western civilization. We stand in full solidarity with every movement for liberation in the Global South.” The post continued: “Our Intifada is an internationalist one — we are fighting for nothing less than the liberation of all people.”
CUAD's orbit has continued to draw scrutiny at Columbia, where DSA-aligned candidates recently shared a stage with Twitch streamer Hasan Piker at a CCP-linked Manhattan venue.
The Jewish Exclusion Requirement
Beyond documenting radical policy positions, DSA Watch’s emergence coincides with growing scrutiny of DSA’s requirement that endorsed candidates must effectively exclude Jewish institutions from political engagement. Metro DC DSA’s endorsement questionnaire asks candidates to pledge to refrain from engaging with “the Israeli government or Zionist lobby groups” — a category that includes the overwhelming majority of Jewish political organizations.
Ron Halber, CEO of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington, described this as “an antisemitic manifesto” and “an ideological straitjacket” that “rules out ties to a vast majority of synagogues and Jewish institutions because of their Zionist beliefs.” He said DSA is “trying to do in America what [the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement] seems to do internationally, which is to make being Jewish unacceptable in polite society.”
Washington, D.C., mayoral candidate Janeese Lewis George, seeking DSA’s endorsement, wrote in her questionnaire response: “I will refrain from going on any political junkets to Israel. I will also not attend events focused on obfuscating the realities of occupation or promoting Zionism and apartheid.”
The Anti-Defamation League has documented DSA chapters co-sponsoring events featuring antisemitic imagery, including a Houston rally where protesters displayed posters equating Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with Hitler and the Star of David with the swastika, and a Colorado State University event where participants chanted “There is only one solution; Intifada, revolution” while displaying imagery of Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine terrorist Leila Khaled.
From Fringe to Frontrunner
DSA Watch’s systematic documentation arrives as the movement reaches unprecedented electoral success, with voters in multiple states facing decisions about DSA-backed candidates in upcoming primaries and general elections. NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani represents DSA’s highest-profile victory, while the organization has backed winning congressional candidates including Chevalier and maintains endorsements of sitting members of Congress.
DSA Watch’s emergence reflects growing concern among critics that a movement calling to dismantle capitalism, abolish police forces, eradicate Western civilization, and exclude mainstream Jewish organizations from political life has moved from the margins to winning major Democratic primaries carrying an agenda fundamentally at odds with America’s constitutional system and Jewish community inclusion.
This is so disingenuous and MAGA-coded. Besides, DSA Watch is based in the Netherlands. You select a few people to illustrate your point, but any faction can do the same. Those few are not the gestalt. I'm in rural East Tennessee, and a progressive leaning towards DS. Abdul was correct on how law enforcement polices. I'm sure he deleted the post because defund has a negative connotation. I sure hope he wins in Michigan. I pray for an influx of blue in November.