Our Endorsement Process
Metro DC DSA is a democratic, member-led organization. This means that members have the opportunity to review, debate, discuss, and vote on any candidate or ballot measure campaign as part of an extensive endorsement process.
All applications for endorsements are sent to our chapter’s elected Steering Committee, which works with the Political Engagement Committee (PEC) to coordinate our endorsement process. Members of the chapter are then informed that our chapter has received an application for endorsement. A formal resolution to endorse must then be moved at a subsequent monthly membership meeting by at least five chapter members in good standing. The body will have an opportunity to consider and debate the resolution before the end of the voting period of the next scheduled general body meeting. During this time in between monthly membership meetings—typically about 30 days—chapter members will have multiple opportunities to engage with candidates through recorded question-and-answer conference calls hosted by the Political Engagement Committee.
All campaign responses during the endorsement process, except those including personal contact information, will be made publicly available on this website.
Any candidate or ballot measure campaign interested in an endorsement from our DSA chapter, or any chapter member interested in sponsoring a resolution, is strongly encouraged to review the Metro DC DSA Endorsement Handbook and Section 4 of the MDC DSA Bylaws which detail the endorsement process. A summarized version of all endorsement steps can be found below.
Campaign Questionnaires
Candidates who wish to apply for an endorsement can start the endorsement process by filling out our chapter’s candidate questionnaire.
School board candidates should fill out this separate school board specific questionnaire instead.
Ballot measure campaigns should fill out the ballot measure endorsement questionnaire.
Once complete, campaigns will need to send their questionnaires to our chapter’s Political Engagement Committee at pec@mdcdsa.org. From there, the Political Engagement Committee will work with the Steering Committee to begin the endorsement process.
Important Deadlines for 2025-2026
Each year, the Metro DC DSA Steering Committee is responsible for setting two monthly membership meetings as the designated meetings during which our DSA chapter will debate on electoral endorsements. These monthly all-chapter meetings (known as general body meetings) are followed by an online vote of all members to decide whether the chapter will approve an endorsement.
The next two Metro DC DSA endorsement cycles for the 2025 General Election and the 2026 Primary Elections are listed in the table below. Associated deadlines are also in the table. This table will be updated yearly with more precise dates as we get closer to each election cycle.
Metro DC DSA Endorsement Meetings and Deadlines for Upcoming 2025 & 2026 Elections
History of Our Electoral Program
Metro DC DSA members have knocked on more than 270,000 doors and made over 61,000 phonebank calls to voters since our electoral program was relaunched in 2017. We’ve helped elect candidates as part of progressive and labor coalitions in Virginia, Maryland, and DC. Our endorsed candidates have gone on to fight for legislation that expands public housing, increases taxes on the rich, caps insulin prices, repeals anti-union right to work laws, creates social wealth funds, bans revolving door lobbying, closes corporate tax loopholes, creates a universal basic income, exposes confidential police records, and more.
Our endorsements aren’t just a recommendation to our members to vote for a particular candidate or ballot measure, but a commitment to fight to get that candidate elected or to get that ballot measure passed. We organize canvasses, phone banks, text banking, poll coverage, press releases, rallies, and more to help our endorsed candidates and ballot measures win. And once we’ve helped elect candidates to office, we have coordinated closely with them to draft legislation, organize legislative pressure campaigns, advance our shared agenda, and block anti-worker legislation.