Compassion is not weakness, and concern for the unfortunate is not socialism.
— Hubert H. Humphrey
The Twin Cities DSA chapter has grown from a small activist group into one of the most organized political forces in Minneapolis. In 2025, they organized over 1,000 door-knocking shifts and knocked on more than 50,000 doors for their endorsed candidates.
DSA-endorsed candidates now hold a working majority on the Minneapolis City Council, seats in the Minnesota Legislature, and work alongside DSA-adjacent allies at the county and federal level. Here's who they are.
DSA member or DSA-endorsed
DSA-adjacent — supports DSA candidates and aligned causes
As of January 2026, four council members identify as Democratic Socialists. Robin Wonsley leads them as Minority Leader; Aisha Chughtai serves as Majority Leader. DSA-endorsed members voted together 95–96% of the time during the 2024–25 term.
Robin Wonsley
Minneapolis City Council — Ward 2 (Cedar-Riverside, Prospect Park, Seward)
DSA Member
- Runs as an independent socialist — not on the DFL ballot line. Uses "Democratic Socialist" as her official ballot designation.
- Endorsed by Twin Cities DSA in 2021, 2023, and 2025. Also endorsed by DSA National.
- Minority Leader of the City Council as of January 2026.
- Key champion of rent control, public housing, and police accountability.
- Endorsed by U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar in 2025.
"Our current two-party system isn't serving ordinary people."
Jason Chavez
Minneapolis City Council — Ward 9 (East Phillips, Longfellow, Powderhorn Park)
DSA Member
- DSA member and Twin Cities DSA-endorsed since 2021. Re-elected in 2023 and 2025 with large margins (77% in 2025).
- Part of the original three-member DSA bloc elected to the council in 2021.
- Said Democratic Socialists "hold themselves accountable to those most affected by legislative policies" unlike traditional DFLers.
Aisha Chughtai
Minneapolis City Council — Ward 10 (Lowry Hill East, Uptown, Whittier)
DSA Member
- Twin Cities DSA member, endorsed by DSA in 2021, 2023, and 2025. Re-elected in 2025.
- Majority Leader as of January 2026.
- Fell short of DFL endorsement in 2025 (52%) — reflecting tension between DSA and traditional DFL delegates.
- Part of the original DSA trio elected in 2021. Predicted the Democratic establishment would "pit the three of us against each other."
Soren Stevenson
Minneapolis City Council — Ward 8 (Powderhorn, Central)
DSA Endorsed
- DSA-endorsed in 2023 (lost narrowly) and 2025 (won with 56%).
- Also received the Minneapolis DFL endorsement in 2025.
- Housing policy advocate and homeless outreach worker.
- Campaigns alongside Omar Fateh, Jason Chavez, and other DSA-endorsed officials.
Council math: With Wonsley, Chavez, Chughtai, and Stevenson, plus several progressive allies (Aurin Chowdhury in Ward 12, Elliot Payne in Ward 1), the progressive/socialist bloc holds a working majority on the 13-member council — enough to pass legislation, though not always enough to override a mayoral veto.
Returning members are positioned by their pairwise voting agreement rates (Jan 2024 – Jun 2025 roll call data). New members are placed by their Jan. 5, 2026 organizational votes. Hover for details. Line thickness = agreement rate.
DSA endorsed
Progressive ally
Swing
DFL
DSA core agreement
95–96%
Wonsley, Chavez, Chughtai
Progressive bloc
7 of 13
Majority, not veto-proof
DFL bloc
5–6 seats
Whiting as potential swing
Veto override requires
9 votes
Neither side has enough
Data: Josh Martin's published voting dataset via Minneapolis Times analysis. Reflects 3,079 council actions (Jan 2024 – Jun 2025). New members shown with dashed outlines.
Lines connect council members to the PACs, unions, and political figures who endorsed or backed them in 2025. Two distinct political machines operate behind what voters see as a single "DFL" label.
Data: Twin Cities DSA, All of Mpls PAC, Mpls for the Many PAC, SEIU MN State Council, candidate filings, and media reports.
Multiple Twin Cities DSA-endorsed candidates won seats in the Minnesota Legislature in 2022. Both represent Hennepin County districts in South Minneapolis.
Omar Fateh
Minnesota State Senate — District 62 (South Minneapolis)
DSA Member
- Twin Cities DSA member since before his 2020 campaign. Self-described democratic socialist.
- Endorsed by Twin Cities DSA for State Senate in 2020 and 2022.
- Won the Minneapolis DFL endorsement for mayor in 2025 — but lost the general election to incumbent Jacob Frey.
- Has called for "dismantling the fossil fuel industry," canceling rent, and instituting "MinnesotaCare for all."
- Chair of the Senate Higher Education Committee.
- Returned $11,000 in donations linked to the Feeding Our Future fraud scandal.
- Brother-in-law convicted of perjury related to handling of absentee ballots in Fateh's 2020 campaign.
Zaynab Mohamed
Minnesota State Senate — District 63 (South Minneapolis)
DSA Endorsed
- Endorsed by Twin Cities DSA in 2022. Won the general election.
- Previously worked as community advocacy director with the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-MN).
- Sister-in-law of fellow DSA member Omar Fateh.
Samantha Sencer-Mura
Minnesota House — District 63A (South Minneapolis)
DSA Endorsed
- Endorsed by Twin Cities DSA in 2022. Won and re-elected in 2024.
- Ran on a platform calling for alternatives to armed police for traffic enforcement and mental health crises.
- Coordinated canvassing with DSA-endorsed Zaynab Mohamed during 2022 campaign.
Mary Moriarty
Hennepin County Attorney (2023–2027) — not seeking re-election
DSA-Adjacent
- Not a DSA member, but backed by many of the same progressive networks: TakeAction Minnesota ($231,000 in support), Faith in Minnesota, and out-of-state progressive dark money groups including Tides Advocacy ($70,000).
- Adopted a "Negotiations Policy" instructing prosecutors to consider race in plea deals — triggering a DOJ civil rights investigation in 2025.
- Drew national criticism for lenient plea deals in murder cases, including one where the victim's family, AG Keith Ellison, and the state's largest police union all objected.
- Declined to charge an admitted Tesla vandal who caused $20,000 in politically motivated damage, opting for "diversion."
- Announced in August 2025 she will not seek a second term.
Note: While Moriarty is not a DSA member, her policy approach — centering "decarceration," opposing traditional prosecution models, and drawing support from the same progressive infrastructure — aligns closely with the DSA platform's call to "end the criminalization of working-class survival" and "freedom for all incarcerated people."
Ilhan Omar
U.S. House of Representatives — MN-5 (Minneapolis & suburbs)
DSA-Adjacent
- Not a formal DSA member and has not been endorsed by DSA. However, DSA has called her a "friend of DSA" and has issued multiple solidarity statements on her behalf.
- An Omar campaign staffer publicly stated in 2018: "She is proud to call herself a democratic socialist."
- In November 2025, Omar was one of nearly 100 House Democrats who voted against a resolution condemning socialism — a resolution that referenced socialist atrocities under Lenin, Stalin, Mao, Castro, and Pol Pot.
- Endorsed DSA member Robin Wonsley for Minneapolis City Council in 2025, bypassing DFL candidates. Her staff helped train Wonsley supporters to attend caucuses and block the DFL endorsement of rival candidates.
- Described by the DFL Jewish Community Outreach Organization chair as the DSA's "patron saint in the state," adding that "many party members are fed up with what they view as the DSA's disruptive antics."
- Visited Cuba in 2024 to meet with Cuban President Díaz-Canel — a country whose normalization the DSA platform explicitly supports.
The pattern: While Omar doesn't carry a DSA card, she endorses DSA candidates over DFL candidates, her staff works to advance DSA electoral interests, her policy positions align closely with the DSA platform on foreign policy and economics, and she voted against condemning socialism on the House floor. The distinction between "member" and "ally" may matter less than the actions.
Beyond the officials profiled above, the DSA-aligned orbit in the Twin Cities includes additional elected officials and organizations.
Aurin Chowdhury
Minneapolis City Council — Ward 12
DSA Endorsed 2023
- Endorsed by Twin Cities DSA in 2023 but notably not in 2025 — believed to be a strategic calculation about the DSA label's toxicity in her ward.
- Still votes with the DSA bloc the vast majority of the time.
Nelsie Yang
Saint Paul City Council — Ward 6
DSA Endorsed
- Endorsed by Twin Cities DSA in 2023 for St. Paul City Council.
Cole Hanson
Saint Paul City Council — Ward 4 (Special Election 2025)
DSA Endorsed
- Twin Cities DSA endorsed for the August 2025 special election.
Adam Schneider & Michael Wilson
Minneapolis Park & Recreation Board — At-Large
DSA Endorsed 2025
- Both endorsed by Twin Cities DSA and DSA National for the 2025 Minneapolis Park Board races.
- Schneider led environmental justice campaigns including the Roof Depot fight.
The Support Infrastructure
DSA candidates in the Twin Cities don't operate alone. They are supported by an ecosystem of aligned organizations including TakeAction Minnesota, Faith in Minnesota/ISAIAH, Mpls for the Many PAC (which received 87% of its 2024 funding from the Massachusetts-based Movement Voter PAC), and national progressive dark money groups like Tides Advocacy.
This infrastructure provides funding, voter outreach, and organizational muscle — giving DSA candidates resources that far exceed what a small socialist chapter could generate on its own.
Twin Cities DSA was formally registered as a 501(c)(4) in 2017. In less than eight years, they went from zero elected officials to a dominant bloc at Minneapolis City Hall — all running on the DFL ballot line.
DSA-endorsed elected officials in Minnesota
Cumulative DSA-endorsed or DSA-member officials holding office after each election cycle
Sources: Twin Cities DSA endorsement pages (2022, 2023, 2025), DSA National Electoral Commission, Wikipedia. Includes city council, state legislature, and county offices. Does not include DSA-adjacent officials who did not seek endorsement.
The Big Picture
In less than a decade, the Twin Cities DSA has gone from a fringe activist group to a dominant political force in Minneapolis. They hold a majority bloc on the City Council, seats in both chambers of the state legislature, and operate with the tacit support of the city's congresswoman.
These officials were elected on the DFL ballot line — but they answer to a national platform that calls for abolishing capitalism, defunding police to zero, nationalizing major industries, withdrawing from NATO, and rewriting the U.S. Constitution.
Voters deserve to know which platform their elected officials actually believe in.