There is no compelling reason for NYC-DSA to endorse Chi Ossé in his attempt to unseat Hakeem Jeffries in the 8th Congressional District. Nevertheless, let’s enumerate a few of the reasons not to endorse him.
He is not a socialist.
We in NYC-DSA endorse, with great success, candidates who are socialists and who champion our project of democratic socialism. After joining NYC-DSA in October of 2020, Chi left only a month later because he, as someone “on the left side of the political spectrum,” did not “align” with our organization. Socialists are proud of being socialists and express and practice our socialism by being in a socialist organization. We can look at Zohran serving on the Electoral Working Group Organizing Committee as an example of what a socialist cadre-to-candidate looks like. Our most recent slate of endorsees, moreover, shows that we are precisely not lacking in possible candidates.
He is an opportunist.
NYC-DSA endorses candidates dedicated to our program of democratic socialism. Chi is dedicated to himself and his career. During the George Floyd Uprising, he and a clique of models and influencers donned black berets, called themselves ‘the Warriors in the Garden’, and sought out attention at every turn with few political principles to guide them. Now, he comes sprinting back to NYC-DSA after Zohran’s historic success in the mayoral primary and general election.
We offer Chi the incredible prospect of a dedicated and deeply effective mass electoral machine. DSA offers him an unparalleled ground game, which he could not muster without us. His desire for our endorsement is a reflection of our capacity and political influence. Success and power attract opportunism; this is to be expected. But Chi has shown no enduring allegiance or accountability to our organization, no particular affinity to our historical project, and no reason to expect any of this to change.
He’s a YIMBY.
DSA believes that working-class tenants should control the destiny of their housing, not developers and not the real estate lobby. Chi is a pro-developer celebrity-politician whose rhetoric co-opts the interests and languages of working-class tenants to obscure class conflict. In his time in office, Chi has drawn the ire of tenant unions in his district, like the Crown Heights Tenant Union (CHTU), for his wishy-washy approach to tenant organizing–openly disparaging rent strikes and speaking with faux authority on housing.
He and Crystal Hudson collaborated to push a pro-developer rezoning of Atlantic Avenue–against the express demands of CHTU and other grassroots organizations. Hudson, of course, is well known to us for lying about her real-estate funding, and for defeating DSA-backed candidate and tenant organizer Michael Hollingsworth in a city council race. A Chi endorsement would further dilute our chapter’s political orientation to the Housing Question and render us indistinguishable from market-welfare and abundance liberals.
Leveraging special connections and social media influence does not make for socialist politics.
If Ossé is anywhere close to getting our endorsement, it is for two reasons and two reasons alone. (1) He’s social media famous; he has lots of followers. And (2), he is good friends with some particularly well-positioned members of our chapter. Allowing either of these to guide our endorsement decision would be an error. We should not be fooled by Chi’s charisma or his deftness as a communicator.
Recall how Cuomo and Jim Walden disparaged Zohran as a TikTok phenomenon. We can use this as inverse example. We know what they don’t—that Zohran’s campaign transcended the possible not merely because of his charm and good communication, but because the substance of his message, his campaign and platform were principled and inspiring. Furthermore, they emerged from his activity as an organized democratic socialist.
Chi’s popularity masks a politics that, at best, doesn’t neatly align with ours, and at worst, is genuinely in conflict. Chi’s relationship with certain power-holders in our chapter should bring more, not less, scrutiny to his candidacy. Establishment political organizations are defined by patronage relationships, but DSA is different. We lead with our transformative political vision and ground our decisions in the democratic process.
We encourage eligible members to Vote No at the Electoral Working Group forum this Wednesday.