Democratic Socialists of America: History, Ideas and the Idaho Chapters

Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) is a membership organization that calls itself socialist, works through organizing and elections, and says, in its preamble, that it rejects "brutality and violence in defense of the status quo" and commits to free speech, independent unions and multiple parties. It is a separate organization from the Communist Party USA, the Socialist Party USA and every group in lessons 7 to 10. This lesson keeps it separate in the text too. Where the lesson reports what critics say, it names the critic and the source. Where it reports what DSA says, it names DSA.

DSA is its own category

This module sorts its subjects by what each group says it believes and what the records show it did. DSA is a membership organization that works through elections, labor and tenant organizing and protest. It is not a white supremacist, white separatist or Nazi group, and the module does not file it with them. It is also not the same organization as 50501 or the No Kings coalition (lessons 12 and 13), even where members, speakers or events overlap; an overlap is a fact to report with its source and not a reason to merge two groups. It is separate from the Communist Party USA. Where a critic uses the word "communist" for DSA, the critic is named and DSA's answer is given. Where the lesson reports a chapter's position, it says whether the position belongs to that chapter or to national DSA.

Where DSA came from

The Socialist Party and Michael Harrington

According to Wikipedia, the Socialist Party of America formed on July 29, 1901, and Eugene Debs, whose 1912 Idaho vote lesson 3 covered, ran for president in every election from 1900 (before the party's formal union) to 1912 and won 901,551 votes nationally in 1912.¹ The party broke up in 1972 and 1973. Its co-chairman Michael Harrington (1928 to 1989), the author of The Other America (1962), resigned in October 1972. His idea, commonly called "realignment," was that socialists should work inside the Democratic Party and not run their own candidates. Wikipedia summarizes his theme as the "left wing of the possible within the Democratic Party."²

DSOC and NAM

Harrington's group became the Democratic Socialist Organizing Committee (DSOC), which held its founding convention on October 12, 1973, in New York with about 500 people. Its early membership was about 840 and reached nearly 5,000 by the early 1980s.³ The New American Movement (NAM) was a separate New Left, socialist-feminist group founded in December 1971 in Davenport, Iowa, after the collapse of Students for a Democratic Society.⁴

The 1982 merger

The two groups merged at a Detroit convention on March 20 and 21, 1982, creating DSA with about 6,000 members, nearly 5,000 of them from DSOC.³⁵ Barbara Ehrenreich became co-chair with Harrington the next year.⁵

What DSA says it believes

DSA's website calls it the largest socialist organization in the United States and says: "At the root of our socialism is a profound commitment to democracy, as means and end."⁶ The preamble language, which the Southeast Idaho chapter reproduces in its bylaws, says DSA seeks "a truly democratic and socialist society, one in which the means and resources of production are democratically and socially controlled." It rejects "an economic order based solely on private profit, alienated labor, gross inequalities of wealth and power" and "brutality and violence in defense of the status quo." It also commits to "a freedom of speech that does not recoil from dissent," independent unions and political parties, and "a freedom of religion that acknowledges the rights of those for whom spiritual concerns are central."⁷

DSA's structure page describes direction set by delegates at a convention held every two years, and the lesson found no single binding platform. Resolutions and national campaigns guide it.⁸ Examples from the convention documents: in 2017 the delegates passed resolutions to withdraw from the Socialist International and to fully support the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, which DSA described as a call from Palestinian civil society, and to move toward monthly dues.⁹ By 2019, DSA National had endorsed Bernie Sanders's presidential campaign within the Democratic Party, as the 2019 convention documents state.¹⁰

Three words that are not interchangeable

Wikipedia's summary of the scholarly literature separates three ideas. Democratic socialism backs political democracy plus some form of socially owned economy, with stress on economic and workplace democracy, by gradual or revolutionary means, depending on the author. Social democracy accepts capitalism and builds a strong welfare state and regulation, leaving most business privately owned. Marxism-Leninism is the doctrine of the Soviet-type one-party state and vanguard party, which Wikipedia says lies outside the democratic socialist tradition. The same article cautions that the terms have shifted over time and that political scientists often treat them as overlapping.¹¹ A writer who calls DSA "communist" is making a claim that DSA and Mamdani deny and that Wikipedia's summary of the literature distinguishes from democratic socialism, though it notes the terms overlap; a writer who says "DSA calls itself democratic socialist" is reporting. Both are different from saying DSA is right or wrong.

How it is organized

• Convention. Every two years, the highest authority. The 2025 convention met in Chicago in August 2025; the American Prospect reports 1,200 delegates, and Mother Jones gives "more than 1200" in its text and "around 1000" in a photo caption.⁸¹²
• National Political Committee (NPC). Elected by the delegates, functioning as the board. DSA's structure page says delegates voted in 2025 to expand it from 16 to 25 seats; Wikipedia and City & State say 27. The lesson does not resolve the discrepancy, and a copy of the structure page read in a later check still showed 16 seats, which may be a stale cached copy, so the number stays unresolved.⁸¹³
• Leaders now. National co-chairs Ashik Siddique and Megan Romer, per DSA's structure page. Maria Svart, national director since 2011, resigned in January 2024, according to Wikipedia.⁸⁵
• Chapters. Wikipedia says 201 chapters and 42 organizing committees in 48 states as of July 2026; the ADL says about 220 chapters. Alaska and Wyoming have none.⁵¹⁴
• Dues. Yearly options on DSA's dues page run from $20 (student) and $27 (low income) to $55, $70 (standard), $100, $125 and $200, with monthly options from $5 to $50. A share goes to the local chapter. Contributions are not tax-deductible.¹⁵
• Money. DSA is dues-funded. A caucus publication (the Socialist Majority Caucus, an internal faction) reported a deficit of about $1.7 million on about $5 million in annual revenue in early 2024. No major named donors turned up in the sources read, and the budget figure comes from a faction's own account.¹⁶

Growth

DSA had about 6,500 members in May 2016, over 14,000 within weeks of Donald Trump's election according to In These Times, and Wikipedia gives 24,000 by July 2017. Svart told In These Times, "You could literally see the moment when Trump was declared the winner."¹⁷ It reached 55,000 at the end of 2018, a peak of about 93,000 to 94,000 in 2021 (Wikipedia gives both figures) and 64,000 in October 2024, and then grew again around Zohran Mamdani's campaign.⁵ Wikipedia reports 100,000 in February 2026 and both Wikipedia and the ADL, an advocacy source, give over 120,000 in July 2026.⁵¹⁴

Wikipedia also reports that median member age fell from 68 in 2013 to 33 in 2017 and that the largest chapters are New York City, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C.⁵

Elections

DSA does not run its own ballot line. It endorses candidates who run as Democrats, Working Families, Greens or independents.⁵ Wikipedia lists wins that include Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Rashida Tlaib in the 2018 House primaries, a six-member socialist slate on the Chicago City Council in 2019 and five legislators in New York in 2020. Wikipedia says over 250 members held office in 2025, while its own officeholder list shows fewer entries, so the number is approximate.⁵¹⁸ Zohran Mamdani joined NYC-DSA in 2017 and won the November 4, 2025 mayoral election with 1,114,184 votes, 50.78 percent, running on the Democratic and Working Families lines, according to Wikipedia.¹⁹

The factions

DSA describes itself as multi-tendency, meaning it deliberately holds members with different views. Members can join caucuses that run slates for leadership. A January 2026 City & State article groups them roughly into reformist caucuses and caucuses that call themselves Marxist or communist. The Socialist Majority Caucus favors winning Democratic primaries and passing working-class policy. Groundwork is reformist and ecosocialist. Bread and Roses is Marxist and labor-centered. The Marxist Unity Group, which grew around Cosmonaut magazine, wants DSA to act as an independent party with its own program. Springs of Revolution, which City & State calls technically a network rather than a caucus, is the most committed anti-Zionist group. City & State calls Emerge a "catchall communist caucus," and the Prospect calls it "the communist Emerge Caucus." Other caucuses named in sources include Red Star, Reform and Revolution, North Star and the Afrosocialists and Socialists of Color Caucus.¹³²⁰ Seat counts for each caucus differ between Wikipedia and City & State, so none are given here.

The main fault lines, as the sources describe them: whether to keep running on the Democratic line or build an independent party; how hard to criticize DSA-backed officials such as Ocasio-Cortez; electoral work against labor and tenant organizing; Israel and Palestine; and whether Leninist ideas belong in the organization. DSA calls itself "multi-tendency," Bread and Roses' Mausser told the Prospect the disagreement is intentional, and the group says its stated principles bind members.²¹

Controversies, attributed

Israel and Palestine

This has been one of the sharpest disputes. The 2017 convention passed the BDS resolutions quoted above.⁹ After the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, DSA issued a statement that the attack was "a direct result of Israel's apartheid regime," which the Washington Examiner and the Algemeiner, an outlet focused on Jewish and Israel issues, report and criticize.²² The historian Maurice Isserman, a longtime member, quit in 2023, calling the October 7 attacks an "anti-Jewish pogrom" and accusing "entryists" of reshaping the group, per Wikipedia.²³ In July 2024 the NPC revoked its endorsement of Ocasio-Cortez after she voted for a House resolution that DSA said labeled denial of Israel's right to exist as antisemitism; NYC-DSA kept its own endorsement.²³²¹

At the August 2025 convention a resolution titled "For a Fighting Anti-Zionist DSA" passed, by about 56 to 43 percent according to the Algemeiner, and the Prospect says 40 percent of delegates opposed the unamended resolution. The Prospect reports it allows action against members or endorsed officials over "material support" to Israel or lobbying groups such as AIPAC, and the Algemeiner reports that statements such as "Israel has a right to defend itself" become an expellable offense subject to an NPC vote. The ADL says anti-Zionism is antisemitic "in intent or effect" and says 54 chapters have adopted similar resolutions since March 2025. The resolution's supporters dispute the ADL's reading, and the lesson did not read their statements in full. The lesson did not read the resolution text itself.²¹¹⁴²²

"Communist"

President Trump called Mamdani a "100% Communist Lunatic" in June 2025, per CBS New York. Mike Gonzalez of the Heritage Foundation told Fox News Digital that Mamdani is "absolutely a communist."²⁴²⁵ Stu Smith of City Journal, published by the Manhattan Institute, argued in July 2026 that a majority of the NPC identifies with Communist or Marxist ideology, citing a second-hand social media breakdown from a group called Fight for a Future, which City Journal itself calls a far-left news aggregator and which the lesson could not verify; Smith also notes that CNN's Kaitlan Collins said "socialism, much less democratic socialism, is not communism."²⁶ Mamdani told CNN in early October 2025, "No, I'm a democratic socialist. I've said that time and again."²⁵ A sorting rule: City & State and the Prospect describe at least one DSA caucus as communist and others as Marxist, while no source here shows DSA as an organization being the Communist Party. Whether the label fits the organization is the dispute itself.

From inside the socialist movement

Critics inside the socialist movement argue the opposite. In 2023 the convention rejected a full "clean break" from the Democratic Party, and NPC member Renee Paradis said, "Most working-class voters still heavily identify with the Democratic Party."²⁷ Jacobin's Micah Uetricht said socialists must criticize their officials while recognizing the movement has "just a toehold on power."²⁷ Revolutionary caucuses fault the reformist leadership for electoralism, and reformists call those caucuses sectarian.²⁶

The Idaho chapters

How many?

A Boise State Public Radio piece dated July 8, 2026 is the source this lesson gave for a list of Idaho chapters including Boise, Moscow, Pocatello and the Sun Valley region; that page was not re-opened when the lesson was updated.²⁸ A different Boise State Public Radio piece, dated July 7, 2026 ("What do Democratic Socialists want?"), is a national interview segment with no Idaho chapter content and should not be cited for the list.⁵² The chapters named are documented independently in the sections below. Other sources mention a North Idaho DSA (a December 2021 letter to the Bonner County Daily Bee) and a Southern Idaho DSA (a co-chair wrote in Partisan in August 2025). The State Policy Network's October 5, 2026 report lists zero Idaho chapters from 2013 to 2018, two in 2019 and 2020, one in 2024 and four in 2026.²⁹ SPN supports independent state policy groups, and its report is written from an opposing viewpoint on socialism, so it is an advocacy source. Whether the chapters in the sources are the same bodies under different names is not established. The next section lays out what each chapter's own documents and the press show about when it formed.

When each chapter formed: dates and confidence

No Idaho chapter states its founding date on a page that was read for this update, except Southeast Idaho DSA, whose bylaws record when they were adopted. Everything else is an earliest-seen date. The table gives each date, what it rests on, and a confidence label. "Primary" means the chapter's own document. "Single source" means one outlet or page. "Unresolved" means the exact date is not established.

Chapter	Earliest date found	What it rests on	Confidence
Boise DSA	2017 (organizing meeting January 10, 2017)	A wiki entry (KeyWiki) records the meeting at the Boise Public Library; it was not opened for this update. The earliest capture of boisedsa.org in the Internet Archive's availability record is September 8, 2017. The chapter's site states no charter date.51	Single source plus archive inference
North Idaho DSA	By December 7, 2021	A letter to the Bonner County Daily Bee by a writer who disputes the founder's commitment to democracy. Formation date unknown; whether the chapter is active now is not known.46	Single source, partisan; formation unresolved
Southeast Idaho DSA (Pocatello; Idaho Falls to American Falls)	March 2024	Chapter bylaws say they were originally adopted March 9, 2024 and approved by the National Political Committee on March 22, 2024. The PDF was cited by this lesson and not re-read in the update pass. A web capture of the site dates to September 13, 2024.	Primary (the chapter's own bylaws), not re-read
Palouse DSA (Moscow and Pullman)	By May 28, 2024	A web-archive capture of the chapter's site and a sign-up form show it existed; no formation date or article was found.53	Existence only; formation unresolved
Southern Idaho DSA (Twin Falls and south-central Idaho)	By August 4, 2025	A co-chair published an essay in Partisan on that date. Maxine Durand calls herself a founding member. An account on X posted about June 2025, and the earliest capture of the chapter's site is October 30, 2025. The site could not be read.54	Two first hand statements that it existed; exact date unresolved (probably 2024 to 2025)
Sun Valley DSA	About September 2025	The Idaho Mountain Express reported in July 2026 that the chapter formed about ten months earlier, with about 30 members.35	Single source
Coeur d'Alene, Idaho Falls (separate chapters)	None found	Idaho Falls falls within Southeast Idaho DSA's stated area. No separate Coeur d'Alene chapter turned up.	Not found

These dates do not line up with the State Policy Network table above. SPN shows no Idaho chapters from 2013 to 2018, though a Boise organizing effort is dated to 2017, and it shows one in 2024, though Boise DSA and Southeast Idaho DSA both appear to have been active that year. That does not show SPN is wrong, since a chapter may be counted from a formal charter and not from a first meeting, but it is why SPN's numbers are attributed and not used alone. The national organization's chapter list would settle these dates, and it could not be read for this update.

Boise DSA

The chapter's website describes work on tenant and labor organizing, mutual aid, electoral work and direct action. It says it works "to oppose both parties of the capitalist class." Its structure is a coordinating committee elected yearly, made up of two co-chairs, a communications facilitator, a membership coordinator and a treasurer. Its committees include Labor Organizing, Mutual Aid and Tenant Organizing (tied to the Treasure Valley Tenants Union), and its site mentions an electoral working group.³⁰ A wiki entry (KeyWiki, not a news source) records an organizing meeting on January 10, 2017 at the Boise Public Library, shortly after the national post-election surge; the chapter's official charter date is not stated on its site.³¹

In 2025 and 2026 Boise DSA supported a tenants union at a manufactured home community in Eagle, formerly called Riviera Estates and now Elevate Eagle Manufactured Home Community. The Idaho Press reported on November 10, 2025 that owner Demetre Booker Jr. took over the park in June 2025, that the tenants announced the Treasure Valley Tenants Union on October 25, and that 33 of 38 occupied units had joined after the new ownership announced a rent increase from $705 to $770 a month plus new monthly fees of $150 or more. Booker told the paper he would confer with his legal team. The Idaho Press article does not mention DSA.³² The chapter's own articles say it supported the union through canvassing and pressure and describe a roughly 40 percent rent increase, which does not match the Idaho Press figure of about 9 percent for base rent. The fees the Idaho Press also reports could account for part of the gap, but the chapter's arithmetic is not shown, so that explanation is unconfirmed. The chapter's article index also lists a May 25, 2026 post titled "Demetre's Public Persona Versus Reality"; only the title was seen, and the post is the chapter's own advocacy.³⁰ Boise DSA also posted about a campaign for Proposition 1, the Reproductive Freedom and Privacy Act initiative on the November 2026 ballot, with a first campaign meeting on August 25, 2026 and an October 20 article urging a yes vote. Many non-DSA groups support Prop 1, so it is not a DSA-only campaign.³⁰

No Boise DSA endorsed candidate turned up in the sources, and the Wikipedia list of DSA officeholders shows no Idaho entries, so no DSA-identified Idaho officeholder is documented.¹⁸ A statewide candidate, Maxine Durand, is covered under "Candidates" below.

Southeast Idaho DSA

The chapter describes itself as based in Pocatello and organizing from Idaho Falls to American Falls, with "rural roots." Its bylaws say they were originally adopted March 9, 2024, approved by the NPC on March 22, 2024, and last amended March 7, 2026.⁷³³ Its posted resolutions include a "clean break" from the Democratic Party, under which the chapter would not endorse anyone running as a Democrat, and a resolution making the chapter anti-Zionist. Those are chapter positions and not national DSA policy, and the clean-break position differs from the national convention's decision to keep the Democratic ballot line open for 2028, as the Prospect reports. The chapter's resolutions also include provisions on members campaigning for Democrats and on expulsion, which the lesson does not detail.³⁴²¹ The chapter's site notes that Pocatello for Palestine has held weekly Saturday protests in Pocatello since December 2023. No news coverage of the chapter turned up.

Southern Idaho DSA

The chapter covers Twin Falls and the Magic Valley. Its website could not be read for this update; what is known comes from two first hand statements. Co-chair Isaac R. wrote an opinion essay in Partisan on August 4, 2025, and identifies himself as a co-chair of the chapter and an Emerge member (Emerge publishes Partisan).³⁹ Maxine Durand says she is a founding member (see "Candidates"). Both are self-published or opinion material by people inside the chapter. No news story that describes the chapter's size, officers or activities was found.⁵⁴

Sun Valley DSA and the Allen and Company protest

The Idaho Mountain Express reported that Sun Valley DSA formed about ten months before July 2026, has about 30 members, and is co-chaired by Olivia Pinson and Ethan McKee-Bakos. The chapter organized a "Workers over Billionaires" march on Saturday, July 11, 2026 from Ketchum toward Sun Valley during the Allen and Company conference, drawing about 50 people, according to the Express, with speakers including Maxine Durand, Joshua Bode of Boise DSA and the singer Carole King. The Express reports that police asked marchers not to trespass and that the group turned back at an intersection; KMVT reported the march returned to Ketchum Town Square. Boise State Public Radio's preview gave a Friday date, while the Express and KMVT give Saturday, July 11. Boise DSA's own account says the march was planned with Sun Valley DSA, DSA National and Idaho 50501.³⁵³⁶³⁷

Candidates: Maxine Durand

Maxine Durand ran in the May 19, 2026 Democratic primary for governor and received 14.53 percent (7,178 votes) against Terri Pickens's 61.42 percent, finishing third.⁴³ Her DSA membership is documented in her own words. In a February 6, 2026 post on her Substack, "How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Joined the Democratic Party," she says she is a DSA member and a founding member of Southern Idaho DSA in Twin Falls, that DSA members helped her campaign, and that she is a progressive socialist.⁴¹ That is a self-published, first hand statement, and it is the basis for reporting her membership. KMVT had reported on August 29, 2025 that multiple DSA chapters endorsed her campaign, and on July 12, 2026 called her "a former gubernatorial candidate and Democratic Socialist."⁴²³⁸

Three claims should be kept apart. Membership: Durand's own statement. Endorsement: KMVT's August 2025 report that multiple chapters endorsed her. A rescinded endorsement: the Wikipedia article on the 2026 election lists the DSA endorsement as rescinded after she switched parties, citing her post. Her post, as read for this update, does not mention a rescission, and no other source for it was found, so that claim is unverified and is not repeated here as fact. The sources also differ on where she lives: the Idaho Capital Sun gives Twin Falls and the Idaho Mountain Express describes her as a Lincoln County native who has worked in farming and public service; both are in the Magic Valley and may both be true. She launched her campaign as an independent on July 4, 2025 and joined the Democratic Party in February 2026, according to her post and KMVT.

Source	Date	What it says about Durand and DSA	Stance and type
Durand's Substack	Feb. 6, 2026	DSA member; founding member of Southern Idaho DSA; DSA members helped her campaign; progressive socialist	Self-published; first hand
KMVT	Aug. 29, 2025	Multiple DSA chapters endorsed her	Local television; second hand
KMVT	July 12, 2026	Calls her "a former gubernatorial candidate and Democratic Socialist"	Local television; second hand
Idaho Mountain Express	July 2026	Describes her as a Lincoln County native who has worked in farming and public service and ran for governor; does not use the DSA label	Newspaper; second hand
Wikipedia, 2026 Idaho gubernatorial election	Oct. 2026	Lists the endorsement as rescinded	Tertiary; not confirmed by her post; unverified

DSA and the Idaho Democratic Party

No document shows a formal relationship either way. Boise DSA's rules say it opposes both parties of the capitalist class, Southeast Idaho DSA's resolution would bar collaboration with Democrats, and a Southern Idaho DSA co-chair wrote in Partisan that Democrats are "conceding battles to Republicans before they have even begun," an opinion the lesson could not confirm with a party source; the author is identified as a Southern Idaho DSA co-chair and Emerge member.³⁰³⁴³⁹ Durand's own account points the same way from a different position: she joined the Democratic Party in 2026, and she says socialist organizing outside it is "still in its infancy."⁴¹ The Idaho Democratic Party's response to DSA or to her statements was not found.

The October 19, 2026 text blast

KBOI/CBS2 reported on October 19, 2026 that registered Republican voters in Idaho received a text addressed to "Fellow Democratic Socialist" claiming that Idahoans with socialist values endorse Sen. Jim Risch's reelection because no Democrat is on the ballot, criticizing two named candidates and urging a vote for Risch on November 3. The station said it was unclear who sent the message. The Idaho chapters of DSA said the texts "did not originate with DSA," called it a "mass fake text" and said any DSA communication about Risch would focus on his support for the Iran War as chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Risch's team had not responded at publication, and no investigation or sender was reported.⁴⁰ The conclusions the report supports are narrow: the sender is unknown and DSA denies sending it. The station says it appears the message was sent without the knowledge of Sen. Risch or DSA, and Risch's team had not responded at publication.

The label in Idaho politics

The 1950 and 1954 episodes in lesson 6 show how "communist" was aimed at a political opponent. The 2025 and 2026 examples here use the labels as well, though critics such as Smith offer evidence about caucus self-identification, which DSA's defenders dispute. The sources show both the label and the person's own answer. The test from lesson 1 still works. Ask what the speaker means, what the group says it is, and what record supports each.

In their own words and in the record

This section gathers what DSA members, chapters and the people who comment on them said, labeled by who wrote it: a chapter's own page is self-published, a news story is second hand, an opinion essay is the author's view. Quotes are short and exact; the rest is summary.

Maxine Durand, in her own words and as others describe her

Self-published, first hand (Substack, February 6, 2026). Durand writes that socialist organizing outside the Democratic Party is "still in its infancy," that running a statewide campaign strained Idaho's socialist groups, and that DSA may someday form its own party.⁴¹ She wrote this to explain why she was joining the Democratic Party, so it is a candidate's account of her own decision.

Second hand. KMVT's August 29, 2025 profile introduced her as a new gubernatorial candidate and reported chapter endorsements.⁴² The Idaho Capital Sun reported her third-place finish in the May 19, 2026 primary.⁴³ At the July 11, 2026 Sun Valley march, according to the Idaho Mountain Express and KMVT, she was one of the speakers.³⁵³⁶

Chapter voices

Isaac R., Southern Idaho DSA co-chair (opinion essay in Partisan, August 4, 2025; self-published). He writes that religious leaders in rural Idaho have been "both our greatest friends and our most fierce enemies," and that the Idaho Democratic Party is "dispassionate and disconnected."³⁹ Those are the opinion of one chapter officer, not a chapter or national position.

Southeast Idaho DSA (resolutions on its own site; self-published). The "clean break" resolution bars the chapter from endorsing or collaborating with any Democrat and sets out a three-strike path to expulsion for members who break it. A second resolution makes the chapter anti-Zionist. These are chapter rules; national DSA decided in 2025 to keep the Democratic ballot line available, as the American Prospect reports.³⁴²¹

A letter from North Idaho (Bonner County Daily Bee, December 7, 2021; partisan, single source). A letter writer named a founder of the North Idaho chapter and disputed his commitment to democracy. The letter is the writer's opinion, and the person it names did not answer in anything found.⁴⁶

Sun Valley, on the record

The Idaho Mountain Express reported that Sun Valley DSA co-chair Olivia Pinson said, "We think billionaires shouldn't exist at all," and that co-chair Ethan McKee-Bakos said deals made at events like the conference "change the world." Sun Valley Police Chief Kim Orchard told marchers not to trespass on resort property; organizers urged compliance, and the Idaho State Police, Sun Valley police and the Blaine County Sheriff escorted the march. The paper reports that it did not get a comment from Allen & Company by press time.³⁵ The paper's account has the marchers walking the public bike path and Sun Valley Road to the edge of resort property and turning back at an intersection; it reports no arrests.

Officials and the label

No Idaho official statement about DSA itself was found, and neither was an Idaho Democratic Party statement about DSA. What exists is use of the word "socialist" by officials. In July 2020 Tom Luna, then Idaho Republican Party chairman, called the Boise City Hall agenda "liberal, socialist" and warned of "the next Seattle"; Mayor Lauren McLean replied that the report was a set of recommendations.⁴⁴ On November 1, 2025 Rep. Rob Beiswenger, of the Idaho Freedom Caucus, called Zohran Mamdani a "self-proclaimed Ugandan Communist" and urged opposing "socialist and communist ideas" in the Democratic Party.⁴⁵ Neither statement mentions DSA or an Idaho chapter; the labels are the speakers' own.

National voices

Michael Harrington. Reviews of Maurice Isserman's biography, a sympathetic account, describe a man of courage who was uncomfortable with a saintly image, and who aimed for what he called the "left wing of the possible."⁴⁷ The 1982 era. The Washington Tribune called DSA "decidedly unstrident" in December 1982, as quoted in the Metro D.C. DSA chapter's own history, a sympathetic, chapter-written source; the history places national membership near 7,000 when Barbara Ehrenreich became co-chair in October 1983.⁴⁸ Today. City & State reported in May 2026 that Mamdani and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez endorsed different DSA legislative candidates in New York, and that Sen. Bernie Sanders endorsed most of the slate.⁴⁹ The Washington Examiner, read only in summary, reported in August 2026 that Ocasio-Cortez had renewed her DSA membership after a lapse that DSA dated from 2019; treat that as one outlet's relay of DSA's account.⁵⁰

People and personalities

These profiles say who each person is, how they acted in the documented record and how others treated them. Membership is stated only where the person, a chapter or a record says so.

Michael Harrington (1928 to 1989)

Socialist Party co-chair who resigned in October 1972, founded DSOC in 1973 and was DSA co-chair from 1982. Author of The Other America (1962). Admirers describe courage and unease with a saintly image; critics inside the socialist movement faulted his strategy of working inside the Democratic Party. Sympathetic biography: Isserman. Second hand, sympathetic.

Barbara Ehrenreich and Maurice Isserman

Ehrenreich became DSA co-chair in October 1983, according to the Metro D.C. DSA history. Isserman, Harrington's biographer and a long-time member, quit DSA in 2023 over its response to the October 7 attack, according to Wikipedia, which is the only source seen for that departure.

Maxine Durand

Reported as Twin Falls transit director from 2023 to 2025, then a candidate who launched an independent run for governor on July 4, 2025, switched to the Democratic Party in February 2026 and finished third in the May 2026 primary. She is a DSA member by her own statement. She describes socialist groups in Idaho as young and strained by her campaign, and she spoke at the Sun Valley rally. The path from city staff to a statewide campaign backed by socialist chapters is unusual in Idaho.

Olivia Pinson, Ethan McKee-Bakos, Kim Orchard and Joshua Bode

Pinson and McKee-Bakos co-chair Sun Valley DSA and led the July 11, 2026 march, which stayed within the police chief's instruction. Orchard, the Sun Valley police chief, set the boundary and the organizers followed it. Joshua Bode spoke for Boise DSA. Matthew Griffin writes for Boise DSA on transit, rats and the tenants union; his posts are the chapter's own advocacy.

Joe Turmes

An organizer with Idaho 50501 who spoke at the DSA rally, according to KMVT. His appearance shows that Idaho 50501 and DSA overlap in events; the two groups remain separate organizations (lesson 12).

Isaac R.

Southern Idaho DSA co-chair and Emerge member who writes in Partisan. He is critical of the Idaho Democratic Party and describes religious leaders as both allies and opponents of rural organizing.

Demetre Booker Jr.

Owner of the Eagle manufactured home community. Tenants and Boise DSA criticized the rent and fee changes; Booker told the Idaho Press he would confer with his legal team. He is a private business owner named in a news report, and nothing here goes beyond what the paper and the chapter's post titles show.

Rob Beiswenger, Tom Luna and Lauren McLean

Beiswenger and Luna are Republican officials who used "communist" and "socialist" as labels for opponents; McLean, Boise's mayor, answered Luna's 2020 remark by calling the report recommendations. None of the three spoke about DSA chapters in the sources read.

Source notes for reporters

• Use DSA's and the chapters' own words for what they say they are, and attribute criticism to the critic by name.
• Attribute the Idaho chapter counts to SPN and note it is an advocacy source.
• Do not call a protest a DSA event without a source that says who organized it (lessons 12 and 13).
• Do not call a named person a DSA member without a statement from the person, a chapter or a record. Maxine Durand's own February 2026 post is such a statement; an endorsement and a membership are different facts.
• Use the chapter-date table's confidence labels, and do not give a founding year for Boise, North Idaho, Southern Idaho or Sun Valley DSA as settled.
• Do not use "communist" for DSA as an organization without quoting who said it. Some caucuses describe themselves with that word; the organization does not.

Learn more

• DSA national site: The organization's own statements; attribute them to DSA.
• Boise State Public Radio: Idaho reporting on DSA chapters.
• Idaho Secretary of State, Elections: Candidate filings and campaign finance links.

Notes

1. "Socialist Party of America," Wikipedia, on the 1901 founding, Debs's candidacies and the party's breakup in 1972. Read it online. ↩
2. "Michael Harrington," Wikipedia, on his life, The Other America and the realignment strategy. Read it online. ↩
3. "Democratic Socialist Organizing Committee," Wikipedia, on the October 12, 1973 convention, early membership and the 1982 merger. Read it online. ↩
4. "New American Movement," Wikipedia, on the December 1971 founding in Davenport, Iowa. Read it online. ↩
5. "Democratic Socialists of America," Wikipedia, on the founding, membership table, electoral record, factions and controversies. Figures are from secondary sources. Read it online. ↩
6. DSA, About Us (DSA's own description). Read it online. A primary source: it shows what DSA says, not a neutral assessment. ↩
7. Southeast Idaho DSA, Chapter Bylaws (amended March 7, 2026), Article II, reproducing the national preamble. Read it online. ↩
8. DSA, Structure. Read it online. ↩
9. DSA, 2017 convention resolutions. Read it online. ↩
10. DSA, 2019 convention resolutions approved. Read it online. ↩
11. "Democratic socialism," Wikipedia, summarizing scholars including Edelstein, Ludlam and Volle. Read it online. ↩
12. "DSA Chicago convention," Mother Jones, August 2025. Read it online. ↩
13. "Get to know DSA's internal caucuses," City & State, January 2026. Read it online. ↩
14. ADL backgrounder on DSA, updated July 2026. Read it online. The ADL is an advocacy organization and a critic of DSA's Israel positions; attribute its statements. ↩
15. DSA membership dues page. Read it online. Retrieved October 2026. ↩
16. "How the DSA deficit happened and how to fix it," The Agitator, Socialist Majority Caucus. Read it online. A faction's own account. ↩
17. "Socialism's Trump bump," In These Times, on 2016 membership growth. Read it online. ↩
18. "List of Democratic Socialists of America public officeholders," Wikipedia. Read it online. ↩
19. "2025 New York City mayoral election" and "Zohran Mamdani," Wikipedia. Read it online. ↩
20. "The Call," Bread and Roses publication, on DSA caucuses. Read it online. A faction's own account. ↩
21. "DSA convenes, argues and celebrates," The American Prospect, August 14, 2025. Read it online. ↩
22. "Democratic Socialists of America makes support for Israel's right to self-defense an expellable offense," Algemeiner, August 13, 2025. Read it online. An outlet focused on Jewish and Israel issues; attribute its characterizations. The Washington Examiner (July 23, 2026) is cited in the research notes for the October 2023 statement. ↩
23. "List of DSA controversies," Wikipedia, on Isserman's resignation and the Ocasio-Cortez endorsement. Read it online. ↩
24. "Trump and Mamdani comments about each other," CBS New York. Read it online. ↩
25. "'Absolutely communist': Mamdani dodges label," Fox News. Read it online. Includes Mamdani's CNN answer. ↩
26. Stu Smith, "Democratic Socialists of America," City Journal (Manhattan Institute), July 1, 2026. Read it online. Opinion published by the Manhattan Institute's magazine; its figures are not corroborated. ↩
27. "The left and the Democratic Socialists," NBC News, 2023. Read it online. ↩
28. Boise State Public Radio, July 8, 2026, on the Sun Valley protest. Read it online. This page was not re-opened in the update pass; the chapter list is confirmed independently in the sections above (note 52 explains a related page that should not be cited). ↩
29. State Policy Network, special report on socialism's national spread, October 5, 2026, chapter counts by state. Read it online. An advocacy source. ↩
30. Boise DSA website, including its structure, committees, chapter rules and 2026 articles. Read it online. A chapter's own description. ↩
31. "Boise Democratic Socialists of America," KeyWiki. Read it online. A wiki, not a news source; the date is unverified. ↩
32. Idaho Press, November 10, 2025, on the tenants union at the Eagle manufactured home community (formerly Riviera Estates). Read it online. ↩
33. Southeast Idaho DSA website. Read it online. A chapter's own description. ↩
34. Southeast Idaho DSA, resolutions page. Read it online. Chapter positions, not national DSA policy. ↩
35. Idaho Mountain Express, on Sun Valley DSA and the July 2026 march. Read it online. ↩
36. KMVT, July 12, 2026, "DSA holds Workers over Billionaires rally." Read it online. ↩
37. Boise DSA, "We kicked a hornets' nest." Read it online. A chapter's own account. ↩
38. 2026 Idaho gubernatorial election, Wikipedia, and KMVT's July 12, 2026 report. Read it online. ↩
39. Isaac R., Southern Idaho DSA co-chair, Partisan, August 4, 2025. Read it online. Opinion from a DSA co-chair. ↩
40. KBOI/CBS2 News Staff, "Text blast claims DSA support for Jim Risch; local chapter denies endorsement," October 19, 2026. Read it online. ↩
41. Maxine Durand, "How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Joined the Democratic Party," Substack, February 6, 2026. Read it online. Self-published and first hand; the source for her DSA membership and her view of Idaho socialist groups. ↩
42. "A new face is running for governor in Idaho," KMVT, August 29, 2025. Read it online. Local television; reports DSA chapter endorsements. ↩
43. "Terri Pickens projected to win Idaho Democratic Party's gubernatorial primary," Idaho Capital Sun, May 19, 2026. Read it online. Election-night report; percentages for Durand are from the Wikipedia table cited at note 38. ↩
44. "Luna sees Boise's 'socialist agenda' as rallying point for Idaho GOP," Idaho Education News, July 27, 2020. Read it online. Reports Luna's remarks and the mayor's reply; not about DSA. ↩
45. Rob Beiswenger, "Will a Ugandan Communist Become Mayor of New York City?," Idaho Freedom Caucus Substack, November 1, 2025. Read it online. A legislator's own words; the label is his. ↩
46. Catherine Fahrig, letter, "Don't lecture democracy when you're socialist," Bonner County Daily Bee, December 7, 2021. Read it online. A letter to the editor; the claims are the writer's own. ↩
47. Hamilton College, Maurice Isserman page on The Other American, the Harrington biography. Read it online. Promotional and review summary; sympathetic. ↩
48. Metro D.C. DSA, "The Early Post-Merger Period, 1982 to 1984," chapter history project. Read it online. A DSA chapter's own history; sympathetic. ↩
49. "Mamdani and AOC endorse DSA legislative candidates, not the same ones," City & State, May 2026. Read it online. News report. ↩
50. "AOC renews DSA membership after yearslong break," Washington Examiner, August 26, 2026. Read it online. Read in summary only; the membership dates are DSA's account as relayed by the outlet. ↩
51. Internet Archive availability record for boisedsa.org (earliest capture, September 8, 2017). Read it online. An archive index entry; the archived page itself could not be read. ↩
52. "What do Democratic Socialists want?," Boise State Public Radio, July 7, 2026. Read it online. A national interview segment; no Idaho chapter content. ↩
53. Palouse DSA website and sign-up form. Read it online. Existence only; the archived content could not be read. ↩
54. Southern Idaho DSA website. Read it online. Could not be read by the tools used; existence only. ↩