They want to seize the means of party production.
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s campaign guru admitted the DSA’s ultimate goal is to “take over” the Democratic Party — by running lefty darling Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for president.
Andrew Epstein, 38, recently told a Belgian newspaper that the Democratic Socialists of America want to build on victories from over the last year, such as Mamdani’s election and comrades Darializa Avila Chevalier and Claire Valdez soon-to-be joining AOC in Congress.
“I think we want to take over the Democratic Party,” he told Dutch-language outlet De Tijd, according to a translation of the Tuesday article.
To achieve its aim, the DSA needs to run one of their own for president, with the clear choice being AOC, the far-left political strategist said.
“I cannot imagine any other politician who can mobilize the electorate needed to win the presidency,” Epstein was quoted as saying.
“You can only change a party by putting forward a president,” he said, adding, “Just look at how [President] Trump has transformed the Republicans.”
Epstein was the spokesperson and creative mind behind Mamdani’s Democratic mayoral primary campaign that saw the little-known state lawmaker trounce ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo in a stunning upset that made global headlines.
During the general election that followed, Epstein was moved out of the spotlight during the general election and replaced as campaign spokesperson.
But he continues to have the ear of Mamdani, one of the most influential DSA members in the country.
More recently, Epstein worked on Valdez’s winning campaign in the June Democratic primary for New York’s Seventh House District representing western Queens and north Brooklyn.
Both Valdez and fellow NYC-DSA-er Avila Chevalier were endorsed by Mamdani and are all-but-sure to cruise to victory on November 3 in their overwhelmingly Democratic congressional districts.
The extreme left-wing is looking to score a handful more wins in congressional races next week — with Chris Rabb running in Pennsylvania and Mai Yang and Angela Gonzales-Torres in California.
The DSA is also is also attempting to add to its elected ranks at various levels of state government around the country while riding a socialist wave that many credit to the Big Apple mayor.
Local DSA chapters have endorsed Los Angeles mayoral candidate Nithya Raman and Washington DC mayoral hopeful Janeese Lewis George.
Beyond the midterms, the NYC-DSA have publicly voiced support for a potential Ocasio-Cortez presidential run in 2028.
AOC has been toying with the idea, recently popping around New York state to campaign with local Democrats — though she has not formally announced any potential plans.
Her potential bid has the Democratic establishment — and even some on the left — scrambling.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom, another frontrunner for the party’s nod in 2028, recently warned that the DSA would be an influential force in the next presidential race.
“The DSA, the energy and the desire for bold change, not incremental change, is very much going to be the dominant… I mean that is going to be the mainstream Democratic movement. Absolutely. No question in my mind,” Newsom said.
Epstein told De Tijd he believes the political pendulum has swung in favor of the far-left, with a large swath of millennial voters feeling the “failure of capitalism” after the 2008 financial crash and no longer see the “problems” created by socialism, or even communism.
“The association with socialism is no longer a problem, so they now use the word ‘communist,’” he claimed to the outlet about attacks launched by critics.
“The further we are from the Cold War, the more that anti-socialist culture disappears. Voters want something new now.”
A recent New York Times/Siena poll found that 51% of American voters held an unfavorable view of socialism.
Epstein told The Post that his remarks only represented his own opinions, not those of the DSA.
