In Support Of A National Endorsement For Carlos Rosa For Congress

The Chicago local of the Democratic Socialists of America has voted overwhelmingly to endorse Carlos
Rosa’s Congressional campaign, and has requested that DSA give Carlos a national endorsement. This
decision lies with the National Political Committee. Some members of the National Electoral Committee
(an unelected advisory body created by the NPC) have put forward the view that DSA’s National Political
Committee should deny or defer this request. We, members of the NEC and of the NPC, support
Chicago’s request and urge the full NPC to offer a national endorsement to Carlos Rosa at its January
meeting.

Background

Carlos Rosa is running for the Illinois 4​th​ District House of Representatives. Incumbent Luis Gutierrez is
retiring. Other candidates in the race include

· ​ ​Jesús Chuy García​,​ ​Cook County Commissioner​,​ 7th district

· ​ ​Proco Joe Moreno​,​ ​Chicago Alderman​, ​1st Ward
· ​ ​Sol Flores
· ​ ​Richard Gonzalez
· ​ ​Raymond Lopez

Carlos is a DSA member. He spoke at the DSA Convention in Chicago in August and recently
participated in a conference call on Medicare for All with DSA activists. After the convention Carlos
received a feature profile in both ​The Nation​ and ​The Chicago Reader​ that highlighted Carlos’s stature as
a movement elected official dedicated to building socialism from below.

Carlos came into the spotlight in Fall 2017, when he was selected by gubernatorial candidate Daniel Biss
as his running mate. Carlos was excoriated by much of the state’s Democratic Party establishment, who
used his DSA membership and the 2017 DSA convention’s support of a Boycott, Divestment, and
Sanctions resolutions to smear him. Extraordinarily, Rosa did not back down, and defended DSA and his
membership in it. Biss ultimately dropped Rosa from the ticket. In doing so, Carlos demonstrated exactly
the qualities DSA seeks from its candidates.

The priorities resolution passed at last summer’s convention expressed a clear stance toward electoral
engagement. It states in part, “In accordance with our long-term objective of building a mass socialist
political formation in the United States, it is essential that National DSA prioritize cultivating and
supporting socialist candidates who will be accountable to DSA’s political agenda and who can serve as
the base for increasingly assertive and widespread independent socialist electoral activity in the coming
years.” Rosa’s candidacy fits this criteria, falling firmly inside the priorities expressed democratically by
our membership.

Some have called for deferring the endorsement until DSA has developed a comprehensive “electoral
strategy.” While we agree with the need for a comprehensive strategy, it is abundantly clear that running a
popular socialist deeply tied to DSA for Congress would be a part of any such strategy. We have heard no
compelling arguments that Carlos’s campaign will be anything but a boon to Chicago DSA and the
national organization as a whole; given this, we view DSA’s lack of a comprehensive “endorsement
strategy” as a non sequitur, and are in this case inclined to defer to the local’s endorsement and to the
sentiments of the priorities resolution.

It is true that our 2017 candidates were all subjected to a lengthy vetting process; we would be expediting
this process significantly for Carlos. We believe that there are in fact times when it is appropriate to
expedite a process, and the candidacy of a proud socialist who has run for and won elected office multiple
times, going through extensive vetting, in a special election with a narrow timeframe and full-throated
chapter support, certainly qualifies.

We are eager to get to work on this race. DSA chapters have made tremendous strides in running field
campaigns that build DSA’s independent capacity to organize; a popular socialist Congressional
campaign offers the opportunity to do this across Chicago. While he remains an underdog, facing a
better-funded and undeniably progressive opponent (among others), Carlos is certainly running to win;
even in the event of a loss, we believe this race will be a productive organizing campaign for DSA on a
local and national level.

Below, we have compiled a list of the various arguments made for A) an endorsement and B) a timely
endorsement of Carlos Rosa for Congress.

Why should the NPC endorse Carlos Rosa for IL-4?

1. Carlos is a democratic socialist; he is a member of DSA and has supported DSA in a variety of
efforts.
2. The Chicago DSA Local has voted overwhelmingly to endorse Carlos and has requested that
national DSA do so as well.
3. Carlos has sought our endorsement.
4. Carlos is actively using his campaign to build the capacity of Chicago DSA through canvassing as
well as actively soliciting member participation in writing his campaign policy platform.
5. Carlos is a movement elected official through and through. He uses his district office and staff
budget to organize community-defense committees and does participatory budgeting with constituents.
He refers to himself as an organizing alderman and believes in socialism from below in which both he and
his community learn how to govern together and take on our opponents and win back control of our lives.
6. Carlos has proven on the highest stage of any elected official within our organization he stands
with us before anyone else. His refusal to back down on BDS during his Lt Governor stint should be a
model for what all of our electeds what do in a similar position. He’s fought our fights even when it’s just
him by himself - he was the sole ‘no’ vote on Chicago’s proposed $95 million police academy recently.
7. During his 2015 election he was ​endorsed​ by CTU, NNU, SEIU, AFSCME, United Working
Families and multiple high ranking elected officials. In 2017, he joined a gubernatorial campaign and has
been vetted up and down by progressive organizations and unions for years.

Why should the NPC endorse Carlos Rosa now?

1. The Illinois primary is on March 20. Waiting until the NPC meeting would allow only 53 days to
organize before the primary, which would make it more difficult for the national organization to assist
Chicago in building independent political capacity.

2. An early national endorsement would facilitate DSA’s efforts to foreground the organization in
press coverage of the race.
District 4
The 4​th​ District is one of the most gerrymandered Districts in the US. Democratic incumbent​ ​Luis
Gutiérrez​ has represented the district since 1993. He was reelected with 79.81% of the vote in 2016. A
day after filing petitions to run for reelection, Gutierrez announced he would not seek re-election in 2018
and retire at the end of his current term. The district is 72% Hispanic (predominantly Puerto Rican in the
northern portion, predominantly Mexican in the south), with a median income of $39,744.