Not your grandma’s socialism
Democratic socialism is on the rise … Let's make a deal (without insurance) … And oops!
Democrats had a good week. But it’s democratic socialists who were pulling the attention in headlines.
And if you think that sounds wild in Arizona, you haven’t met the new left.
In Tucson, democratic socialist Miranda Schubert won a seat on the city council with a sweeping 67% of the vote. And that victory is giving democratic socialist Bobby Nichols some added momentum in his campaign to join the Tempe City Council in its March primary election.
Democratic socialists are no longer just outliers — they’re part of a broader shift among Arizona’s progressive Democrats who argue even their party has let down the working class.
What is a Democratic Socialist?
The Democratic Socialists of America — the country’s largest and most prominent socialism-inspired organization — describes its mission as creating “equitable and sustainable resource distribution, gender and racial equality, and liberation from all forms of oppression.”
The Democratic Socialists of America is not an actual party — it’s a political organization or movement that endorses Democrats who reflect its values, which means candidates who run as “democratic socialists” are usually just Democrats who self-identify as such.
But as the label becomes better understood and candidates start winning under its banner, you’ll probably be hearing it a lot more.
“You’ll find that many democratic socialists are progressives, but not all progressives are democratic socialists,” Nichols said. “And democratic socialism is a reshaping of the economic and political structures that exist within our current society by the use of democratic means in order to establish a world that is built on equality instead of extraction and cooperation, instead of coercion and growth, instead of greed.“
Nichols was the chapter chair of Phoenix DSA from 2023 to January 2025, where he worked with Tucson DSA — whose most recent success was Schubert’s win.
“I don’t know if anybody knocked on more doors this year than Miranda Schubert did,” Lee Ziesche, the co-chair of Tucson Democratic Socialists, said. “And was just listening to what people’s problems are, and then I think you can present them this alternative future and say, ‘Yeah, that’s actually socialism.’”
Schubert’s victory makes her the first city-level democratic socialist candidate to win in Arizona that we know of. (Tucson Unified School Board member Sadie Shaw identifies as a democratic socialist, but she narrowly lost her bid for the city council in the Democratic primary this summer.) But the movement is gaining steam, and Schubert probably won’t be the last.
Democratic Socialists of America has 216 chapters and committees across the country, with four in Arizona — Flagstaff, Phoenix, Pinal County and Tucson.
People of the movement
Think Bernie Sanders, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and a growing list of left-leaning candidates who reject the idea of being known as “corporate Democrats” or “middle-of-the-road.”
Most recently, the New York City mayoral race was watched across the country for internet sweetheart — and corporate media enemy — Zohran Mamdani. The mayor-elect focused his platform on making a more affordable city.
Arizona’s democratic socialists are running on similar campaign promises to Mamdani. Nichols’ slogan for his Tempe city council run — “For an affordable Tempe” — sums up what the democratic socialists are focusing their campaigns on and why they’re drawing support.
While campaigning, Schubert said she wouldn’t necessarily lead with being a democratic socialist, but as she talked with voters, she explained why the movement aligned with what they had concerns about.
“It’s not like I was going around telling people, ‘Hi, I’m a democratic socialist,’ but my campaign was very much grounded in those priorities,” Schubert said. “It has to do with bringing these ideas to life and talking about what we’re really trying to do.”
Schubert’s campaign emphasized fixing homelessness, expanding affordable housing and improving street safety — issues that resonate across political lines. Yet despite the broad appeal of these priorities, the term “socialism” still carries decades of baggage.
“There’s a lot of misunderstanding, and of course, there’s historic baggage around, you know, leaders of the past who were socialist. But I think it really just comes down to having conversations with people and letting them know exactly, in specific terms, what we’re talking about when we say we are democratic socialists,” Schubert said. “I heard Zohran Mamdani say, ‘I’m a Democratic socialist because I believe in the dignity of all people,’ and I think that’s a really beautiful way of putting it and that definitely encapsulates how I feel.”
The other red wave
The elections across the country have shown that Democrats are dissatisfied with the status quo.
DSA has over 85,000 people registered as members for the movement and has brought Young Democratic Socialists of America chapters to campuses, which have existed since DSA, but YDSA says its “rejuvenation can be traced back to 2016.”
“We live in a country that has been experiencing, at the very minimum, 100 years of what I like to call a Red Scare propaganda,” Nichols said.
When it comes down to it, all the democratic socialists we spoke to said the same thing: People should have widespread access to basic needs. Over the next year, democratic socialists plan to sell their platform to voters, reclaim “socialism,” and make waves in elections across the country.
If the age of “socialism” as a bad word is on the outs, then Nichols said this change has a lot to do with people starting to understand what democratic socialism actually is.
“The rich will still be the rich,” Nichols said. “But we will have a world where all of the people, all the workers, have the ability to meet their needs and have those needs met.”
Deal or no deal: The U.S. Senate signed off on a deal that would end the federal government shutdown, which is the longest in history, thanks to a pack of Democrats who are breaking ranks and supporting a spending bill that doesn’t include a continuation of the Affordable Care Act subsidies, per the New York Times. But Arizona’s two Democratic senators, Mark Kelly and Ruben Gallego, aren’t on board, the Republic’s Ronald J. Hansen reports. Kelly said “families shouldn’t have to choose between putting food on the table and their health care,” while Gallego said he wouldn’t accept a deal unless it kept the health insurance subsidies intact.
Staying grounded: Meanwhile, the government shutdown led to hundreds of flights at Sky Harbor being delayed or cancelled, reports 12News’ Adam Correa. The Federal Aviation Administration cut back on flights at 12 airports, including Sky Harbor, to deal with the shortage of air traffic controllers. And lines are also long at the St. Mary’s Food Bank in Phoenix as the future of SNAP benefits remains uncertain during the shutdown, ABC15’s Nick Ciletti reports.
Beg your pardon: President Donald Trump issued pardons for more than 75 fake electors and their allies over the weekend, the Washington Post reports, including Arizona fake electors Turning Point COO Tyler Bowyer, state Sen. Jake Hoffman, former AZGOP Chair Kelli Ward and her husband Michael Ward. None faced federal charges and the president can’t pardon for state-level charges, so it’s not exactly clear what the pardons do.
Looming deadlines: Officials in Arizona’s bigger cities have their eyes on a January 1 deadline to make their zoning ordinances satisfy a state housing law, per the Capitol Times’ Jakob Thorington. Cities must allow more “middle housing” like duplexes in certain areas. If they don’t, they could lose their state-shared revenue, which in Phoenix’s case is about $700 million a year. The Phoenix City Council won’t adopt the new ordinances until later this month, but it’s already dealing with Phoenix residents who filled the council chambers last week. Arizona cities are also gearing up for expected cuts to their share of Colorado River water, the Republic’s Austin Corona reports. Cities like Phoenix and Tucson haven’t had to bear the brunt of cuts in recent years because of deals the cities struck with tribes and federal funding deals. Those deals run out at the end of next year.
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Somebody better call HR: An employee at Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., which has big factories in the Valley, sued over alleged workplace discrimination and now says the company retaliated against her by bullying and harassing her, the Republic’s Sasha Hupka reports. At the Cartwright Elementary District, an employee is getting ready to sue the school district for unfairly placing her on administrative leave, per the Republic’s Alexandra Hardle. Rounding out the workplace lawsuits, Liberty Elementary School Board Member Kellie Zimmerman is suing the district and her fellow board members for censuring her, KJZZ’s Wayne Schutsky reports. The censure came after an outside attorney concluded Zimmerman “seriously humiliates” district staff at meetings.
In other, other news
The Arizona Attorney General’s office is investigating the Fountain Hills Town Council for allegedly violating open meetings laws by voting on an issue that wasn’t on a meeting agenda.1 (Matthew Casey / KJZZ) … And the state Auditor General says the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors also violated open meetings laws when the board sued the Auditor General without discussing the matter in public first (Graham Krewinghaus / Nogales International) … Arizona State University students, alongside Democratic lawmakers, urged ASU administrators to not sign a deal with the Trump administration, if the offer ever is made to ASU (Jerod MacDonald-Evoy / Arizona Mirror) … The City of Scottsdale is taking the next steps toward building a memorial to Charlie Kirk (Haley Williams / 12News) … Democratic U.S. Rep. Yassamin Ansari visited the Eloy Detention Center for the third time last week to call for better health care for an immigrant detainee who is suffering from leukemia (Noah Cullen / PinalCentral).
Uh-oh.
The Maricopa County Elections Department on Friday found a few thousand ballots from Tuesday’s election that were just sitting in a pair of bins that had been misplaced.
The bins were still secure with their tamper-evident seals, but that did not dissuade the People of Twitter from popping off with stupid-ass conspiracies.
Hank was a poll worker once. So trust us when we say that it’s far more likely that some tired, part-time/seasonal, under-trained poll worker put the bins in the wrong spot than whatever theory you read on the internet.
Don’t forget: The AG’s office closed out more than 100 open meeting complaints earlier this year without even investigating.
This is tricky as I grew up during the Cold War. The Cold War is over and my interpretation of democratic socialism is that capitalism and socialism are not mutually exclusive. We can go back to Eisenhower, a Republican. He built the great American highway system and the tax rate was high for high earners. FDR of course the father of democratic socialism with lasting programs that are the third rail of politics. The pendulum has swung. Musk with his trillion dollar package, Trump tearing down the East wing as a dictator and the 1% that own most of the country. The internet where everyone has an opinion? When 1 in 8 people need food assistance and also work, when children and their parents can’t afford health care, we are in trouble. Insurance companies profit and horribly people drop out. Is this a government responsibility, keeping people healthy so they can work and make this country great? What makes us the greatest country in the world?
Democrats spend entirely too much time worrying about labeling themselves. "Democratic Socialist" is a term that invites the kind of red meat (actually Red Scare) reaction Republicans are so good at exploiting. Forget labels; just tell us exactly what you want to do and how you plan to accomplish it. Best potential campaign slogan from the article: "People should have widespread access to basic needs." As a Tempe resident and an enrolled Democrat, I'll take a good look at Bobby Nichols, despite the self-inflicted inflammatory label which will give many voters pause.