State Rep. Angie Nixon, a DSA member, won Florida's August 18 Democratic primary for the U.S. Senate special election over Alex Vindman, 55.7% to 44.3% with 88% of votes counted, after Vindman raised $16.27 million to her roughly $975,000; left challengers lost the same night to Jared Moskowitz in the redrawn 25th District and Debbie Wasserman Schultz in the 20th. Bernie Sanders endorsed Nixon on August 20, and Axios reported an August 21 call between Nixon and Florida Democratic Party chair Nikki Fried that included a yelling match over socialism. In Portland, public records obtained by the Portland Mercury showed Portland Solutions staff coordinating with Urban Alchemy's public relations firm on press coverage of the nonprofit's $90.4 million shelter contract, and Willamette Week reported on IBEW Local 48's July rescission of its endorsement of Councilor Mitch Green. A Brookings analysis counted 282 DSA-chapter-endorsed candidates in the 2026 cycle, 10 of whom won in districts rated less than D+10. Portland City Council held no sessions August 18–24, so the Portland section runs on records reporting and campaign news.
Public records obtained by the Mercury showed Portland Solutions staff spent months coordinating with Riff City Strategies, Urban Alchemy's public relations firm — sharing draft responses to reporters' questions, alerting the firm to publication dates, and connecting it with Mayor Keith Wilson's top staff. Complaints against the nonprofit, which holds a $90.4 million five-year city contract through 2028, have reached at least 156 since it came to Portland in 2023; a June email from the mayor's deputy chief of staff named Councilors Green, Kanal, and Avalos as the contract's "most outspoken skeptics."
Councilors Avalos and Kanal issued a memo on May 8 requesting more city oversight of Urban Alchemy's contract.
The Oregonian/OregonLive · 2026-08-20 · on an elections complaint against Councilor Mitch Green
Two Portland residents filed a complaint alleging Councilor Mitch Green improperly used public money and staff time to make a video that functions as campaign advertising. The complaint argues the video's campaign-style branding and messaging amounted to political advocacy and self-promotion, and asks the city auditor to investigate whether public resources were used to produce or distribute it.
Green is seeking reelection in District 4 in the November 3, 2026 election.
WW reported that around 1 in 6 members of IBEW Local 48 is out of work and that Portland-area union electricians are moving by the hundreds to Boise, where the Micron fabrication campus expansion pays $65 an hour plus a $200 daily stipend. The article reported that Local 48 gave $400,000 to Gov. Kotek's reelection campaign in June and, with Ironworkers Local 29, rescinded its endorsement of Councilor Mitch Green in early July over his opposition to the $2.5 billion Bull Run filtration project and the proposed $600 million Moda Center remodel. Green retains endorsements from AFSCME and the Portland Association of Teachers.
IBEW Local 48 has around 6,000 members; Local 48 business manager Garth Bachman called Green's opposition a "betrayal of the working class" when the endorsement was rescinded.
AFSCME Local 88, which represents about 4,000 Multnomah County employees, endorsed Commissioner Julia Brim-Edwards for county chair, days after the Oregon Nurses Association did the same. Per the latest state filings reported by WW, Brim-Edwards has raised $162,503 this year to Shannon Singleton's $23,095; WW reported that Singleton has significant progressive support of her own, including from the left flank of the Portland City Council.
Brim-Edwards already held endorsements from all six mayors in Multnomah County as of April 2026.
Shelterforce reported on Portland's social housing pilot, funded by a $17.5 million council allocation in April 2026 as part of a $56 million package drawn from previously unbudgeted housing funds, which will seed a revolving loan fund to buy commercial properties for conversion to permanently affordable housing. Councilor Mitch Green told Shelterforce he is optimistic the money will be a downpayment on further policy change rather than a one-off experiment; Councilor Candace Avalos said the private market produces housing that is "grossly expensive and inaccessible" and that social housing can create "systems that last."
The council-ordered social housing study's final report and recommendations are expected by the end of August 2026.
State Rep. Angie Nixon, a Democratic Socialists of America member, defeated former National Security Council aide Alex Vindman in Florida's August 18 Democratic primary for the U.S. Senate special election, 55.7% to 44.3% with 88% of votes counted, per the Associated Press. Vindman, recruited by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, raised more than $16 million to Nixon's roughly $975,000 through July 29 and issued an election-night statement supporting Nixon. Nixon faces Republican Sen. Ashley Moody, who won her primary with nearly 80% of the vote, in the November special election.
The seat is a special election for the final two years of the term Marco Rubio won in 2022; Moody holds it as Gov. DeSantis's appointee.
Rep. Jared Moskowitz won the Democratic primary in Florida's redrawn 25th Congressional District over DSA-endorsed challenger Oliver Larkin, taking more than two-thirds of the vote. Moskowitz said in his victory statement, "I faced a challenge from the DSA. They threw everything at me and I didn't change who I am or what I believe…" Larkin conceded Tuesday night and said he committed to helping Democrats win the seat in November; former Boca Raton Mayor Scott Singer won the Republican nomination.
The Cook Political Report rates FL-25 a toss-up; Trump carried the areas that make up the redrawn district by nine points in 2024.
Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz won the Democratic primary in Florida's redrawn 20th District with 50.5% of the vote with 67% counted, over Dale V.C. Holness at 21.1% and self-described democratic socialist Elijah Manley at 12.8%; the AP called the race at 7:24 p.m., minutes after polls closed. Manley had campaigned against her AIPAC support; JTA reported that FEC filings in the race link at least $250,000 to AIPAC.
Sen. Bernie Sanders endorsed Angie Nixon for U.S. Senate on August 20, two days after her primary win. Sanders said Nixon faced "a candidate funded by the Democratic establishment, and outspent more than 16 to 1," and said she won every one of Florida's major cities.
Axios reported that Nixon won the primary without endorsements from the DSA, Sanders, or Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
Axios reported that Nixon and Florida Democratic Party chair Nikki Fried had a call Friday that included a yelling match over socialism and campaigning in a red state, citing three people familiar with the conversation. Nixon told Fried she had not received sufficient help from the state party; a person who spoke with Nixon said Fried wants her "to back away from DSA, from socialism." Accounts of the call differ — two people who spoke with Nixon said both yelled, while a person who spoke to Fried said the chair did not yell but was yelled at.
The DSCC issued a statement supporting Nixon on primary night, in a joint release from Sen. Schumer and DSCC chair Gillibrand.
A PolitiFact fact-check carried by WLRN examined Sen. Ashley Moody's claim that Nixon's DSA membership means she supports "Defund the police, don't fund our military, open up the border, noncitizen voting," and found no evidence Nixon has supported defunding police or the military. Nixon said, "I don't support defunding the police. I do support comprehensive criminal justice reform to make sure we are addressing some of the root causes." The check reported that Nixon joined DSA in June 2026.
DSA does not require members to support all of the organization's positions.
Axios reported that although Nixon's win is being cast as a DSA victory, the national organization neither endorsed her nor anticipated the result, and that Nixon joined DSA during her campaign. Axios quoted Nixon saying "I don't campaign as a member of any organization" and "I don't believe in labels," and reported she joined to tap into DSA's grassroots organizational network and supports its positions on housing, public education, corporate power, and Medicare for All.
A Brookings count of the 2026 cycle identified 282 DSA-chapter-endorsed candidates, 29 of them carrying national DSA endorsements.
Elaine Kamarck, Riana Mahtani, and Gabriel Kraemer built a dataset of 282 DSA-chapter-endorsed candidates in the 2026 cycle and reported that more than half sought local or state legislative office, that statewide and congressional candidates won fewer than half of their primaries, and that only 10 DSA-backed candidates won in districts with a Cook PVI of less than D+10. The authors wrote that "from one perspective" the story of DSA candidates' influence "is overblown," given the scarcity of candidates and their success rates, while concluding that the high-profile wins "represent a warning to the rest of the party."
The dataset counts only candidates with a confirmed endorsement from an official DSA chapter — 29 of the 282 carried a national DSA endorsement — and was coded between July 9 and August 12, 2026.
Newsweek reported that August Siena polling found Mayor Zohran Mamdani viewed favorably by 69 percent of New York City voters but 34 percent favorable and 60 percent unfavorable in the downstate suburbs, with DSA favorability at 16 percent among suburban voters against 49 percent in the city. The piece attributed the gap in part to housing tenure — 32.8 percent owner-occupancy in the city versus 81.9 percent in Nassau County.
A November 2025 Siena poll put Mamdani at 55-31 percent favorable in New York City and 31-49 percent in the downstate suburbs.
In The American Prospect, David Duhalde, a democratic socialist organizer who has held positions in DSA and the DSA Fund, argued that DSA's membership of 120,000 reflects the death of civic society in the United States rather than the organization's limitations, and that the figure understates DSA's strength because DSA requires dues while peer organizations count free email sign-ups. He wrote that DSA "looks to be sending nearly half a dozen comrades to Congress next year."
The piece is a direct response to Harold Meyerson's August 10 Prospect essay "Why Have Less Than One Percent of American Socialists Joined DSA?"
In Jacobin, Ben Burgis argued that socialism's mainstream visibility — Mamdani's mayoralty, several DSA members likely headed to Congress, the Speaker of the House denouncing DSA's platform on the floor of Congress — means socialists are now addressing a general audience, and that the movement cannot take advantage of the opening without, in his words, "carefully calibrating our rhetoric and demands."
The piece follows DSA's release of a new national platform document, which the Speaker of the House denounced on the floor of Congress.