Zohran Mamdani ran on abolishing ICE, defunding the police, and nationalizing businesses – and New York City made him mayor.
Now his movement just quadrupled its seats in Congress with a mandate to do it everywhere.
And their first order of business is coming for every Democrat who stood in their way.
Democratic Socialists of America Now Have Eight House Seats and a 2028 Hit List
The Democratic Socialists of America entered the 2026 midterms with two House members and walked out with eight.
The organization is claiming 50 total victories across all levels of government, including Senate ally Abdul El-Sayed winning in Michigan – and they are treating this like a conquest, not an election.
The moment votes were counted, far-left online commentator Hasan Piker – one of the most-watched political streamers in the country – declared Democrats should run socialists in every primary.
DSA communication co-chair Aron Ali-McClory announced that "the socialist presence in Congress will soar to heights unseen in over a century" and called this only "a beginning."
https://twitter.com/DemSocialists/status/2117847098745847859
An early 2028 primary target is already named: Hillary Scholten, a Michigan Democrat whose only offense was refusing to endorse El-Sayed during the Senate race – the standard is now simple: endorse or get primaried.
Jacobin – the DSA's house magazine – declared after Election Night that the results "finally proved left policies and rhetoric are not the electoral liability Democratic voters have been told for decades it is."
Not one of the eight new DSA members has agreed to support Hakeem Jeffries as speaker.
The DSA Platform: Abolish ICE, Abolish the Senate, Abolish the Police
The DSA's official "Workers Deserve More" platform – not Republican talking points, their own published document – calls for abolishing ICE and dismantling the entire United States Senate.
It also demands defunding and ultimately abolishing the police and prison system, opening the borders, replacing the presidency and Supreme Court with bodies elected by and subordinate to Congress, and rewriting the Constitution to create a "democratic socialist republic."
DSA co-chair Megan Romer went on Fox News in July and defended every single one of those positions on camera.
House Speaker Mike Johnson called it a battle of "common sense," and he is right.
The candidates who just won in November swore off corporate donations and pro-Israel organizations and openly called for cutting off American military aid to Israel.
In Colorado, Melat Kiros defeated Diana DeGette – a 15-term incumbent and member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus – because DeGette was not radical enough.
In Michigan, Donavan McKinney defeated Rep. Shri Thanedar – a Democrat who voted with the Left 99% of the time by ACU standards – because even that was not radical enough for DSA.
The DSA is not running candidates against moderate Democrats – it is replacing hard-left Democrats with people who want to tear the entire system down.
The DSA Wants a 2028 Presidential Candidate and That Means Civil War Inside the Democratic Party
Democrats have been here before. In 1972, they handed the nomination to their most ideologically pure candidate, George McGovern, and lost 49 states to Richard Nixon – the most lopsided presidential defeat in modern American history.
The DSA is convinced 50 years of history does not apply to them.
Zohran Mamdani – DSA's biggest star – already refused demands from hardliners to fire New York City Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch, and the far left responded by targeting him for mob treatment in the streets.
The 2027 DSA national convention will force a reckoning between the hardline faction demanding strict ideological discipline and elected members who know they have to face general election voters.
Polling cited at the DSA's August convention in Chicago showed a majority of Democrat primary voters would back a Democratic Socialist presidential candidate in 2028.
Eight House seats today, a socialist presidential nominee by 2028, and that platform – abolish ICE, abolish the Senate, abolish the police – waiting in every Republican ad between now and November.
The DSA has 2028 circled on the calendar. Republicans should, too.
Sources:
- Jake Altman, "Run Socialists In Every Primary: Emboldened DSA Turns Its Guns On Fellow Democrats," City Journal, November 11, 2026.
- Taylor Penley, "DSA Co-Chair Embraces Abolishing Senate, ICE, Borders as Democratic Infighting Escalates," Fox News, July 26, 2026.
- Staff, "7 Ways DSA Plans to Turn America Into a Third World Communist Country," The Federalist, July 17, 2026.
- Deroy Murdock, "Far-Left Democrats Lose to Far-Far-Left DSA Challengers," The Daily Signal, August 10, 2026.
- Staff, "GOP Weaponizes DSA Leader On-Air Comments Calling to Abolish Senate and ICE Ahead of Midterms," Fox News, July 2026.
- Staff, "Inside the DSA Convention, Where Socialists Declared Dominance Over Dems and Set Their Sights on 2028," Washington Free Beacon, 2026.