The Democratic Socialists of America can't even agree on how to pick a presidential candidate, and the fight is getting ugly. DSA's National Political Committee voted 14, 13 on Sunday to reject a proposal that would have let all 120,000 members weigh in on the group's 2028 presidential endorsement through a nationwide poll. The razor-thin margin left the decision to the organization's existing convention process, with the next biennial gathering not scheduled until August 2027. That timeline has infuriated members who want to rally behind Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez now.
The result: open warfare on social media, accusations of lying from both sides, and warnings that the organization has been "set down a dangerous path."
The internal clash, first reported by Fox News Digital, centers on whether DSA's governing body short-circuited grassroots democracy to block an early endorsement of Ocasio-Cortez for 2028. Gustavo Gordillo, co-chair of the New York City DSA chapter, the organization's largest, fired off a post on X within hours of the vote.
"DSA's national leadership (the NPC) just voted to overturn our convention & took away rank and file members' right to vote in an all-member poll on presidential endorsement."
Gordillo added that his chapter sends roughly $2 million per year in dues to the national organization, framing the vote as taxation without representation, an ironic complaint from an outfit that styles itself as the vanguard of collective action.
NPC committee member Amy Wilhelm shot back, calling Gordillo a liar. "NYC members deserve co-chairs that don't lie," she wrote on X. Wilhelm insisted "there was never intention to prevent" members from participating in chapter-level polls and said the resolution, as it stood after Sunday's vote, still allowed chapters to poll their own members through standard methods.
Another X user, posting under the handle "tylerisposting," told Gordillo to "stop lying" and "stop trying to foment a split." Whether that user holds any formal DSA role remains unclear.
Behind the procedural fight sits a bigger strategic gamble. A DSA internal faction called the "Groundwork" caucus has been pushing for an early presidential endorsement, and its preferred candidate is no secret. A petition circulated by the caucus declares that Ocasio-Cortez is "on the precipice of running for, and potentially winning, the presidency of the United States" and urges the organization to "endorse AOC on day one."
The petition's authors argue that AOC's rising poll numbers and her joint "Fight Oligarchy" tour with Sen. Bernie Sanders "have shown that there is energy all across the country to support a bold, democratic socialist presidential campaign." One tour stop in Nampa, Idaho, on April 14, 2025, drew 12,500 attendees, event organizers claimed.
"DSA should be ready to position ourselves as the political home for the millions of people that will be inspired by AOC's message and position our organization as the vital core of AOC's campaign."
The Groundwork faction wants that positioning to happen months before the August 2027 convention. Waiting, they warn, means "6 months+ of vital AOC campaign time where the masses will be mobilizing without intervention by DSA." Their petition adds bluntly: "If we drag our feet, we will have forced ourselves into the backseat and miss the opportunity to strike when the iron is hot."
J. Ryder, the founding editor of a magazine on communism, echoed the frustration. He called the NPC's decision to block the all-member poll "severely disappointing" and warned it "will inevitably put DSA on the back foot in the 2028 moment."
"The worst part is, the members want to mobilize, they see the opportunity that this moment represents for socialism and want so desperately to grasp it. The fact some sectarians on the NPC are suppressing even a non-binding poll shows that they know this, and are scared of the implications of member democracy and mass politics in DSA."
Massachusetts DSA member Eve Seitchik described the fallout as "a massive escalation of factional tensions." Her conclusion carried a note of alarm: "I'm afraid DSA has been set down a dangerous path."
The four-term congresswoman from New York has not directly said whether she will launch a 2028 presidential run, though she recently posted what Fox News Digital described as a "campaign-style video on social media" that fueled fresh speculation. Whether that buzz translates into an actual candidacy remains an open question.
Her relationship with DSA is anything but smooth. In 2024, the national organization withdrew its endorsement for Ocasio-Cortez's re-election, citing her failure to meet conditions that included opposing all U.S. funding to Israel and publicly supporting boycott and sanctions against the country. The New York City chapter broke with national leadership and retained its endorsement.
Then, in the summer of 2025, DSA issued a statement condemning Ocasio-Cortez for voting against an amendment that would have blocked an additional $500 million in U.S. funding for Israel's Iron Dome missile-defense system. For a socialist organization that has made opposition to Israel a litmus test, AOC's vote was an act of apostasy.
That history makes the Groundwork caucus's enthusiasm all the more revealing. Despite the ruptures, DSA's activist base apparently sees Ocasio-Cortez as its best, perhaps only, vehicle for national relevance. The petition acknowledges as much, calling the moment "years in the making." The NPC majority, by contrast, appears to prefer a slower, more controlled process that keeps the endorsement question bottled up until the convention.
Some progressives have also floated the idea that Ocasio-Cortez could challenge Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer in a primary rather than run for president. That scenario would reshape the 2028 landscape in a different way, but DSA's internal fight is plainly oriented around the presidential track.
Not everyone views the prospect of a DSA-backed presidential campaign as merely a matter of intraparty drama. A spokesperson for Canary Mission, an organization that has tracked anti-Zionist activism for more than a decade, offered a pointed warning to Fox News Digital.
"An AOC presidency would give that movement more than influence: it would give its agenda access to the full power of the executive branch."
The spokesperson went further, arguing that "putting that power in the hands of a movement that repeatedly places ideological allegiance above America's national interests, regards America and its allies as the problem, and shows sympathy toward their adversaries would not be political progress. It would be a profound national-security risk, and could be devastating for the country."
Canary Mission also characterized DSA as "the primary vehicle through which radical ideology is translated into political success," adding that the organization "presents its agenda as a project of reconstruction, but much of its politics begins with dismantling the institutions, alliances, and economic system that sustain those achievements." The group's representatives remain unnamed for security reasons.
Those are strong claims, but they track with DSA's own stated positions. An organization that pulled its endorsement of a sitting congresswoman because she wouldn't oppose all funding to a democratic ally is not hiding its priorities. Ocasio-Cortez's careful media strategy around 2028 speculation suggests she understands the tightrope, even if her would-be backers in the Groundwork caucus do not.
The 14, 13 NPC vote is a window into a broader tension that has dogged DSA since it surged in membership during the Trump years. The organization's activist base wants mass politics, rallies, endorsements, campaigns, the whole machinery of electoral engagement. Its governing committees, stocked with ideological purists, want doctrinal control. Those two impulses are colliding head-on over AOC.
Fox News Digital reached out to both Ocasio-Cortez's office and DSA for comment. Neither response was included in the reporting.
Ocasio-Cortez has emerged as the dominant figure on the progressive left after potential rivals faded from the 2028 conversation. That dominance makes DSA's internal paralysis all the more conspicuous. The group that claims to speak for 120,000 democratic socialists cannot even agree on whether those members should get a vote.
An organization that lectures America about democracy while fighting to keep its own rank and file away from the ballot box has told you everything you need to know about how it would govern.
