Two Chicago City Council hopefuls have won the backing of the Chicago chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America — but the expanding organization declined to endorse two incumbents in other races.
Chicago DSA backed four current members of the Chicago City Council, who are running for new four-year terms: Alds. Byron Sigcho Lopez (25th Ward), Rossana Rodriguez Sanchez (33rd Ward), Anthony Quezada (35th Ward) and Angela Clay (46th Ward).
However, the group narrowly declined to endorse Ald. Daniel La Spata (1st Ward) because he would not tell the group he considers himself an anti-Zionist, sources told WTTW News.
And Ald. Jeanette Taylor (20th Ward) was not endorsed because she supported reversing a 2023 City Council vote to phase out the tipped minimum wage and voted against spending millions of Chicago taxpayer dollars to care for migrants, Taylor said.
The group backed Kalen Luciano, who is running to unseat Ald. Bennett Lawson, whose 44th Ward includes Lakeview, and Raheem Uqdah, who is challenging Ald. Pat Dowell, who has represented Bronzeville in the 3rd Ward since 2007.
Deana Corbitt, Chicago DSA’s co-chair, told WTTW News the group’s decision not to endorse La Spata and Taylor was not a condemnation of their two terms on the City Council but a reflection that all endorsements require a two-thirds majority vote of members.
“We hope both will be reelected,” Corbitt said.
Taylor said the lack of an endorsement was no great loss.
“I’m not interested in being part of an organization that is anti-Black,” Taylor told WTTW News.
Taylor said Chicago DSA has too few Black members in a city where the population is nearly one-third Black, and the group’s decision not to endorse former Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election helped President Donald Trump win a second term in the White House.
Corbitt said she was “disappointed” to hear that Taylor believes Chicago DSA to be “anti-Black.”
“We take these sort of concerns seriously,” Corbitt said. “We are an anti-racist organization.”
Why it matters:
The internal divisions the endorsement process laid bare will complicate Chicago DSA’s efforts to expand its power and capitalize on the nationwide energy that helped catapult New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani into office, while helping more than three dozen candidates across the nation defeat more moderate candidates in Democratic primaries.
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