Democratic Socialists of America
US political organization
The Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) is a socialist political organization in the United States, and the largest such organization in US history, with more than 120,000 members as of July 2026. A big tent on the left wing of the political spectrum, it is primarily organized around the principles of democratic socialism, with its members active in electoral politics, labor organizing, and direct action campaigns.
DSA was founded in 1982 from a merger of the Democratic Socialist Organizing Committee (DSOC) and the New American Movement (NAM). The merger was seen as a symbolic healing of the rift between the Old Left, represented by DSOC's social democrats and trade unionists, and the New Left, represented by NAM's activists who emerged from the social movements of the 1960s. Initially led by Michael Harrington, the DSA continued DSOC's strategy of "realignment" by working within the Democratic Party to push it to the left, functioning as a small advocacy group for its first three decades. After the 2016 presidential campaign of Senator Bernie Sanders, a self-identified democratic socialist, and the election of Donald Trump, the organization's membership swelled from about 6,000 members in 2015 to more than 120,000 in 2026. This growth gave DSA a much younger and more activist base, who shifted its strategy toward building an independent political force, though this remains a subject of internal debate.
DSA's platform calls for reforms such as a Green New Deal, single-payer healthcare, and tuition-free higher education, with a long-term aim of social ownership and democratic control of the American economy. DSA's foreign policy is anti-imperialist, strongly supporting spending cuts and footprint reductions to the US military while also supporting pro-Palestinian and anti-Zionist causes.
DSA engages in electoral politics by endorsing and canvassing for candidates who align with its values, including Democrats, Working Families, Greens, and independents.
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The record creator and administrative purpose are central evidence, because official documentation reflects both action and institutional priorities. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 22, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q164182. VIAF identifies the subject as 126106105. The Library of Congress control number is n83041099. 1 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2026, 1982, 2016 and 2015.
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This entry incorporates text from “Democratic Socialists of America” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.