What is a DSA Endorsement of a candidate or ballot measure?

Our chapter wages class-struggle elections. This means that we run campaigns that directly confront the billionaire class and win material improvements for the working class. For our endorsement to successfully empower the working class, it must be able to enlist a substantial proportion of our membership, offer opportunities for those members to develop as leaders, and enable the organizational growth of our chapter. All of our chapter’s electoral decisions are determined through the democratic votes of our dues-paying members.

If you receive an endorsement from Colorado Springs DSA (COSDSA), that means that our members are ready to launch a grassroots, working-class movement inside your district that will be door-knocking, phone banking, and recruiting new volunteers to do the same. Rather than simply a rubber-stamp of support, we reserve endorsements for the candidates we are ready to truly fight for. Our campaigns are modeled after the DSA Difference, an electoral strategy that transforms volunteers into seasoned organizers by empowering them to take mass, collective action. When we endorse a candidate, we are committing to developing a sustained relationship with them throughout their campaign, and–if they succeed–as they govern. We believe that electoral endorsements are critical to building democratic socialism, because elections are the primary avenue through which the vast majority of working people experience politics.

In addition to endorsements, COSDSA also offers recommendations through our COSDSA Voter Guides. Recommendations are decided by COSDSA’s Electoral Committee with input from members who volunteer their labor to research and write the voter guide, before being voted on by the whole chapter. A recommendation does not entitle a candidate or ballot measure to any chapter resources, including use of our logo.

Mobilization

Colorado Springs DSA Endorsement & Recommendations Process

Let Us Show You the DSA Difference!

De-Endorsement

What are the steps in the COSDSA Endorsement Process?

Our endorsement process is thorough, democratic, and lengthy. We strongly encourage you to engage well in advance of caucus and assembly. If you are interested in endorsement, email cospringsdsa@gmail.com with your full name, pronouns, the office or ballot measure for which you are seeking endorsement, a short bio with your reason for running, and where you are at in the process of developing your candidacy (e.g. considering running, announced, etc.). We will schedule a small group meeting for you and the candidate development team (CDT). At this meeting we’ll discuss the current state of your campaign, expectations of both you and our chapter, and answer any questions you may have about the process and that we may have of you.

Questionnaire & Securing Support

After meeting with the CDT, please review and respond to the Endorsement Questionnaire.

We will share the completed questionnaire with the chapter at least one week before scheduling a virtual/hybrid candidate forum. At this forum, you will have an opportunity to make your pitch to the chapter and answer questions from our members. This forum will be recorded and remain accessible to our members. At the close of the forum, you will be asked to leave and the CDT will lead a discussion about your candidacy and invite members to sign a resolution to endorse you at a subsequent general meeting. 

The Electoral Committee will meet to discuss your candidacy and hold an advisory vote to be submitted alongside the resolution for your endorsement. You must secure 3% of the chapter as signatories to your resolution for endorsement, and they must pledge to volunteer for your campaign for at least 6 hours a month through the election.

Motivate Your Endorsement at a General Meeting

If you have completed all of the aforementioned steps, at the General Meeting, you will have the opportunity to speak in favor of your own candidacy and answer any remaining questions that arise during the debate over the endorsement resolution. You must secure the support of two-thirds (66%) of the vote to receive our endorsement. Our chapter will contact you and subsequently make a public announcement, in consultation with you and your campaign.

Following a successful endorsement resolution, the Electoral Committee will contact all signatories to the resolution to set up a preliminary meeting between the Candidate Working Group (consisting of the signatories), the chapter steering committee, and the candidate/campaign staff. This meeting should involve creating a memorandum of understanding setting guidelines for the candidate/chapter relationship (including setting standing meeting times, which should occur at least once a month), a discussion about the needs of the campaign and the ways that the chapter is able to provide support, and a discussion about the messaging that the chapter should use around the candidate.

The Candidate Working Group should begin meeting immediately after the conclusion of the endorsement process. A designated slack channel will be created for the Working Group and the Working Group should seek to expand its membership amongst other interested members of the chapter. At the first meeting of the Working Group it should elect a Chair, who will be responsible for setting meeting agendas and staying in regular contact with the campaign.

The Candidate Working Group will be responsible for all work done to support the candidate within the chapter, as well as organizing members to support that work. This includes applying for National DSA endorsement, organizing phone banks, canvasses, town halls and fundraisers for the candidate, managing DSA social media posts about the candidate, and calling or canvassing members to involve them in campaign actions. 

The Candidate Working Group should stay in regular contact with the Electoral Committee and any other active Candidate Working Groups to ensure coordination and efficiency of their work.

Ballot Guide Recommendation Process

Expectations

Our priority election campaigns come with the promise of hundreds of hours of members’ time, which is why we ask that members signing the endorsement resolution commit to working at least 6 hours a month if the endorsement passes. If the chapter endorses candidates but fails to do the necessary work to elect them, it devalues our endorsement and weakens our political power.

Likewise, we have expectations of prospective endorsed candidates. You must:

Identify as a democratic socialist and a DSA member during your campaign.

Pledge not to take corporate, real-estate, fossil fuel, pro-Israel, or police union donations.

Use your office to draw attention to issues affecting the multi-racial working class in the Pikes Peak region and Colorado.

Commit to advancing and fighting for universal programs that benefit everyone, paid for by taxing the rich and recapturing the wealth generated by workers.

If elected, continue to work with COSDSA and its other elected politicians to organize a working class majority and demand socialism in Colorado.

Understand that COSDSA’s electoral strategy requires us to be sparing in our electoral campaigns. That means that we may elect not to endorse your candidacy even if you have a strong left campaign.

And similarly for ballot measures. You must work with a chapter working group to develop a work plan that identifies at a minimum: terms of engagement for how COSDSA and the ballot measure sponsors interact, maintain political independence, collects and shares contact lists; understanding of a class struggle analysis of the proposed law; and disclosure of financial supporters of the ballot measure and signature gathering efforts.

If members find an endorsed candidate in substantial disagreement with the values of DSA or the expected behavior of a DSA elected, they can introduce a resolution for de-endorsement. This can be approved by a two-thirds (66%) majority vote at a General Meeting. If such a resolution passes, the Campaign Working Group will immediately be dissolved and any support for the candidate from the chapter will cease. If a de-endorsement is issued, the Steering Committee, in concert with the motivators of the de-endorsement resolution, should release a public statement explaining the reasoning behind the decision.

In addition to endorsements, our chapter makes recommendations in our voter guides. Recommendations state voting preferences but are not accompanied with material support. If you are not interested in being endorsed but are interested in being recommended, you do not have to fill out the endorsement questionnaire or go through the other steps of the endorsement process. Instead, please email us at cospringsdsa@gmail.com, say you’re interested in being recommended, specify what office you’re running for, and we will set up an opportunity for you to make your case to the Electoral Committee before a voter guide is written. Additionally, any member may submit a recommendation by contacting the Electoral Committee and making their case before a voter guide is written.