The rise of DSA, and a platform to rewrite the Constitution.
By Shaina Cole | Contributing Writer, Rocky Mountain Voice
Six thousand people started the Democratic Socialists of America in 1982. The number didn't move much for thirty years. Then, around 2016, it did.
By July 4, 2026, DSA had 120,000 members, more than the Socialist Party of America ever had under Eugene Debs, whose dues-paying membership peaked back in 1912.
Four days before that count came out, one of the new members, Melat Kiros of Denver, won a primary against a congresswoman first elected in 1996.
The growth is one story. What the organization actually wants is the more important one.
From 6,000 to 120,000
DSA was born from a merger, not a single founding moment.
In 1982, the Democratic Socialist Organizing Committee, founded in 1973, joined with the New ...
