Seattle DSA Chapter Convention 2025

Seattle DSA’s annual chapter convention helps guide the overall direction of the entire chapter. It’s our largest meeting of the year where members submit changes to our bylaws, propose resolutions for priority campaigns, and elect members to the Local Council to help facilitate that over-arching direction.

DSA Members can register here and attend on Saturday, March 22nd at 11 AM.

Convention Compendium coming soon.

Important Voting Information

Please see the email with the subject “Seattle DSA Convention IMPORTANT VOTING LINKS” from [email protected] which contains your unique voting key, as well as several links you’ll need to vote and deliberate.

• Roll Call – You must sign into roll call so that the convention can establish quorum and start deliberation. Roll call opens at 9:00 am on Saturday, March 22nd.
• Get on Stack or submit a parliamentary motion
• Voting – A separate form to vote on pending motions, resolutions, and bylaws.

If you are a member in good standing and you did not receive this email, please email [email protected] and we’ll work on getting you your ballot. Though this is a hybrid convention, all voting will be done electronically VIA THE LINKS IN YOUR EMAIL, so bring your phone charged to 100%. We will have a set amount of charging bricks and a charging station with cords at the event, as well as some tech support volunteers on hand for assistance.

Local Council Candidates

List of candidates that have accepted their nominations, expand each candidate for their statement.

• Fernando MC

  Candidate Statement

  Hello, my name is Fernando and I am running for reelection to the Seattle DSA Local Council. I have been a member of DSA for almost seven years. In that time, we’ve done some incredible things together. We trounced the capitalist class and their $500k of propaganda and secured millions in revenue for social housing. We put the first socialist legislator in Olympia in 100 years. We won or helped win workers the highest minimum wages in the country three times in a row in Renton, Everett and Burien. We’ve proven ourselves as dedicated rank-and-file labor organizers and showed up for workers across the region as they fight to win worker power and democratize their workplaces. We’ve protested, boycotted and participated in direct action to end ongoing occupation and genocide of Palestinians. In my time within DSA I have worked on numerous DSA-endorsed campaigns, led working groups, contributed to committees, and built trust and coalitions with other organizations. Here is a brief and non-exhaustive summary of my participation in past campaigns (including those from electoral, labor, housing justice and more):

  • I tabled, canvassed, phone banked, or otherwise did work for Medicare for All, Tacoma for All, I-135, I-137/Prop 1A, Uncommitted WA, Boycott War Profiteers, Raise the Wage Renton, Bernie Sanders, Sarah Smith, Nikkita Oliver, Kshama Sawant, Nicole Thomas Kennedy, and Stephanie Gallardo
  • I collected over 1000 signatures and knocked at least 4000 doors for Raise The Wage Renton and have participated in similar ways with other SDSA-endorsed campaigns
  • In my estimate, I have personally spoken to over 20,000 people about Seattle DSA and our endorsed campaigns
  • I fought for and helped win Tenant Protections on the Eastside in Redmond and Kirkland with TRU and the Stay Housed Stay Healthy coalition
  • I’ve participated in labor solidarity events around King County including UAW4121 Strike Support and fundraising as well as Homegrown/Local 8 Strike Support
  • I raised tens of thousands of dollars in contributions for our chapter and endorsed campaigns from individuals, unions, and coalition partners

  Before serving the chapter on the Local Council I served as a multi-term Electoral Working Group co-chair and have mentored electoral co-chairs in the time since. I have also done work for the Tech, Communications, Member Engagement, and Finance Committees–helping with slack onboarding, general communications, new member 1-1s and socials and chapter fundraising. So, I’m intimately familiar with the core workings of our chapter. If re-elected to the LC I will work as hard as I have done over the past years to build an atmosphere of camaraderie in our chapter that is critical for building our socialist movement. I think we do this best by working on campaigns that can unite our chapter across different ideological backgrounds around one common cause. In 2025/2026 my goals are to:

  • Push for the most ambitious socialist workers ballot initiative the country has ever seen here in Seattle to fight for rights like guaranteed: paid time off, sick leave, parental leave, and reinforce discrimination protections that are eroding at the federal level
  • Fight for Palestinian liberation through our BDS efforts and other direct actions
  • Win additional seats in the Washington state legislature to form a socialist block that can promote large socialist projects like state-level social housing, the green new deal, public ownership of energy infrastructure, and universal access to health care so as to improve ordinary people’s lives and win people across the state over to socialist ideas
  • Continue to deepen our connection with rank-and-file union workers while we form and radicalize our unions
  • Promoting strong access policies in our organizing that grow our movement and give clearer differentiation between ourselves and the capitalists and fascists

  I look forward to supporting, learning from, and organizing alongside all of you. I hope we can continue to grow the political and organizational strength of our membership and work together in the fight for our collective liberation from capitalism.

  Pa’ Lante

  Fernando

  Nominations

  Joey S

  “He has been an effective Co-Chair, leading and mentoring multiple new leaders and leading effective meetings for multiple years now.”

  Matt P

  “Fernando is a dependable comrade who cares deeply about the chapter and membership. As co-chair this recent LC term and an uncaucused member, Fernando has been very capable of balancing different perspectives and holding space for disagreements while seeking consensus solutions. Moreover, Fernando has been a vocal advocate for comrades with disabilities and has led by example with insisting upon masking policies and securing venues for events that are accessible for all members. I have enjoyed serving alongside them during my brief time on the LC and look forward to Fernando serving another term.”

  Livey B

  “Fernando has been a strong and consistent leader for the chapter. They stewarded many of the chapter’s wins into existence by creating a welcoming environment and cultivating new organizers into positions of leadership. I appreciated their work in the first term in LC, and can’t wait to support them for a second.”

• Alex M

  Candidate Statement

  Hi everyone! My name is Alexander Mayben. You may know me as Seattle DSA’s chapter secretary for the previous LC term. I’m proud to announce my candidacy for the 2025-2026 Local Council! As a member of the previous LC, I’ve worked tirelessly to connect the work of Seattle DSA’s membership to the LC’s work, to fight for the autonomy of our chapter’s working groups and committees, to support efforts to democratize and expand participation in the chapter, and to remove barriers of access for our membership. I’m proud to have supported efforts to build out a participatory budgeting process this previous term, and I’ve additionally pushed to improve our chapter’s resources on democratic deliberation to make our meetings more accessible (shout out to anyone who’s arrived at business meetings early for my Robert’s Rules presentation!). Importantly, I’ve worked to maintain active participation in our chapter’s on-the-ground political organizing efforts despite my many administrative obligations on this LC, such as helping gather signatures for Prop 1A and Raise the Wage Burien, knocking doors for Shaun Scott, marching in Pioneer Square for a free Palestine, rallying for IBEW and IAM workers during last year’s strikes, and helping organize chapter-led events like Report from Rojava, Rock Out for Rojava, and the hurricane relief fundraiser last November.

  I believe in an LC that is unified with the political needs of the moment, that is willing to take initiative to fight fascist takeover in the United States, and that is driven to delegate its authority and resources to foster a rank-and-file-led movement to achieve that vision. As we confront an ongoing mainstream political shift toward fascism in the United States, it is time for the socialist movement to reckon with the reality that electoral politics alone will not save us, and the future of socialism in the United States lies in solutions driven by direct action, mutual aid, worker-led solidarity, and dual power. DSA is strongest when we offer not just a vision of a better world for the working class, but real, tangible solutions that benefit the daily lives of average workers in the modern day. I look forward to continuing that work in the coming year. Please consider voting for Alex M for Local Council!

  Nominations

  Jesse M

  “As our chapter secretary, Alex has gone above and beyond. Alex has worked with many others in the chapter on resolutions and bylaws amendments, providing a level of expertise to our rules and bylaws that is unequaled in Seattle DSA. In addition, his trainings on Roberts Rules have been a fun and accessible way for new comrades to learn how to participate in our chapter.

  Alex has participated in projects across the chapter, notably doing many canvassing shifts for Raise the Wage Renton and Prop 1a.

  Keeping Alex on the LC will make our chapter more accessible to people who want to participate, skill up people in the chapter when they learn from him, and keep our LC focused on what matters to advance the cause of socialism in Seattle.”

  Zeke D

  “Alex, both in their role as Secretary and in their whole being, is committed to the democratic spirit of DSA and empowering every member to be a full participant in deliberative democracy. He is a great comrade to have around whether in the debating chamber or the streets. He’s done amazing work in the chapter, and I can’t wait to see what he accomplishes in the coming term.”

  Matt P

  “Simply put, Alex has set the new standard for chapter secretary with his attention to detail, due diligence, organization, and mastery of parliamentary procedure. While caucused, Alex has shown himself to be committed to maintaining Seattle DSA as a pluralistic organization where differences of opinion, strategy and tactics are respected and encouraged as opposed to stifling discussion and shoe-horning members into only a handful of organizing projects. Having worked on several projects with Alex and having served with him on the LC, I look forward to him serving another term on the Local Council.”

• Jesse M

  Candidate Statement

  Hi! I’m one of the current Elected Organizers. I’ve been in DSA since 2017, when Seattle DSA showed up to support my picket line while I was on strike at AT&T with CWA 7803. Since moving back to Seattle in 2021, I’ve been mostly involved in labor organizing work in DSA. Here’s a few of the things I’m proudest of in my year on the LC:

  • Connecting the Healthcare Workers for Trans Rights organizers to DSA resources, helping them organize several actions including rallies with hundreds of people
  • Got Seattle DSA involved in the Tesla Takedown movement, in coalition with the local direct action group Troublemakers, leading to five simultaneous protests in the area totalling over 700 people
  • Helped launch the labor education subcommittee, including making an original two-hour “Organizing 101” training for people new to workplace organizing

  And here are my priorities for the next LC term:

  • More educational and training events. There’s so much going on in the world, so many things we have to teach each other, that one monthly meeting simply isn’t enough to pack it all in. My vision of Seattle DSA is one where a member, after a year of being in the chapter, could move by themselves to a brand new city without a DSA chapter and have the ability to start it from scratch.
  • More outward-facing events, things that community members will be excited to attend even if they’ve never attended a DSA event before. We can do both political education (like “what’s going on with DOGE?”) and community events like a free Super Bowl watch party.
  • A chapter focus on doing mutual aid work, including increased cooperation with existing mutual aid organizations. One of the weaknesses of DSA nationally, and Seattle DSA especially, is that we are predominantly a middle class and professional organization. Increasing our connection to mutual aid organizations, and doing more mutual aid ourselves, will help working class socialists participate.
  • Continuing to improve onboarding for new members so that people can easily get involved in projects that interest them. There’s a fine line between showcasing the broad spectrum of things Seattle DSA does and overwhelming people with too many potential projects and too much information all at once, and we need to do more work to find this balance.
  • Increasing in-person local meetups so that neighbors can build community, solidarity, and work on things at a hyper-local level.
  • Most of these things will cost money, so we should step up our fundraising, including merchandise sales.

  All of our Working Groups do outstanding stuff on their own, with little-to-no guidance or influence from the LC. One of DSA’s strengths is its diversity of projects, where members aren’t told by an authority figure what they should work on, but rather, that our chapter will support whatever they think is important and the best use of their skills. If re-elected to a second LC term, I intend to make this system work even better.

  Nominations

  Alex M

  “Jesse has done an amazing job on this previous Local Council, both in organizing the chapter around direct action, pushing for mutual aid to be a bigger chapter priority, and leading our chapter’s charge against fascism. As Jesse has expressed a desire to run for LC again, I believe he has the vision necessary to continue that work into the next LC term.”

  Zeke D

  “Jesse is an indefatigable organizer at the forefront of direct action in the chapter. His energy has been vital to mobilizing a large coalition around resistance to the new administration and bringing new waves closer to DSA and socialism. His deep connections with the labor movement and his focus on making direct positive interventions of the lives of working people in our community make him an excellent choice for LC.”

  Matt P

  “Put simply, Jesse is a dependable organizer who leads by example and desires for Seattle DSA to be a space for members to lead their own initiatives both internally as well as in partnership with outside organizations. While caucused, Jesse is committed to SDSA being a pluralistic organization that encourages a diversity of opinions, strategy and tactics instead of stifling debate and shoehorning members into a narrow set of organizing projects. Owing to his years of experience as a union organizer, Jesse is very capable at training members and delegating responsibilities as opposed to micromanaging, as well as being a very effective communicator. I have enjoyed serving alongside Jesse on the LC and look forward to him serving another term.”

• Chris W

  Candidate Statement

  I’m excited to continue serving on this new version of the LC, where I’ve had the pleasure of being a co-chair since 2022. Having been the longest-tenured member of the outgoing LC, I feel I’m uniquely positioned to help with the transition to this new leadership model. But my contributions won’t just be administrative: the re-election of Donald Trump has renewed our organization with a sense of urgency and motivation we have not seen in a few years, since the George Floyd uprisings. We’re welcoming dozens of new local members and hundreds nationally. Our political tasks only grow more important and our socialist ideas need to be spread far and wide as the answer to the crisis. The problem of the billionaire class ruling our society has never been more obvious: I will ensure that our political work reflects and responds to the class war being waged on us. We will center the role of the working class and develop our organization to be the instrument of liberation that we need.

  Nominations

  Fernando MC

  “They have served as a Co-Chair for the past year, and I hope they will continue to serve on LC.”

  Carlos J

  “Chris has extensive DSA admin experience and is a great leader.”

• Matt P

  Candidate Statement

  While an old world dies and a new one struggles to be born, I refuse to believe that now is the time of monsters. Even though the forces of reaction appear ascendent, everywhere I look I see cause for hope. I see heroes all around us. As democratic socialists, we must be radically hopeful.

  Being radically hopeful begins with holding space for marginalized and oppressed people to tell their own stories, articulate their own desires and ideas, and help them lead their own liberation in the belief that they have as much to teach organizers as the other way around. This is not to say we do not bring our own ideas about the effective mechanisms of change and what a better world might look like, but the relationship is dialectical. It is not unlike how critical pedagogists understand education, with students actively shaping their learning and informing their teachers, and each critically examining the social conditions that shape their relationship. To paraphrase bell hooks: with all its limitations, our organizing space is a location of possibility, an opportunity to labor for freedom, to demand of ourselves and our comrades an openness of mind and heart that allows us to face reality even as we collectively imagine ways to move beyond boundaries, to transgress.

  I have seen firsthand the strength of our diversity in Seattle DSA. I have been surprised at many turns, from being persuaded into leading a memorable midnight picket support action during the Boeing machinists strike and participating in the amazing creativity happening in Communications, to many of us supporting the Starbucks Workers United strike and, later, Healthcare Workers 4 Trans Kids mobilizations all at the same time we campaigned successfully for Prop1A. And now as many of us consciously work to ensure SDSA as an inclusive and accessible space for all comrades, I see the potential for something beautiful and transformative springing forth.

  From my youthful days doing antifascist actions, political prisoner support, and international solidarity work through my time in SDSA as Labor Working Group co-chair, Communications and Mobilization Committee member, occasional picket line and fundraiser musician, and recently as an Elected Organizer, I have striven to uplift voices and inspire people to exercise their own agency however they can instead of simply shoehorning them into someone else’s vision. Good leadership entails good organizing, and the best organizers always organize themselves out of a role as new faces with new ideas grow confident in their abilities and begin steering the course of the struggle. This requires the radical hope in people leading and securing their own liberation.

  If elected, I will work to empower membership to take their own initiatives, keep space for a diversity of tactics and aims, encourage generative conflict, hold each other and leadership accountable, and foster relationship-building as the core of our organizing. And if anything else, laugh, dance, and sing while we do it.

  Our collective liberation is ultimately up to us; we have it in us to win.

  Nominations

  Alex M

  “Matt graciously volunteered to fill the vacancy left by Klondike in the previous LC term. As former Co-Chair of Labor Working group, and current participant in the chapter’s Communications and Mobilization Committees, I see Matt as a do-the-worker, and I believe a comrade of their caliber is sorely needed to ensure that LC is made up of organizers first and foremost.”

  Zeke D

  “Matt has been an excellent leader in Labor, Mobilization, Communications, and everywhere else they’ve touched in the chapter, whether holding down a picket into the small hours of the night or providing sage advice to new members. They’re a tireless organizer and I look forward to seeing what they accomplish in the coming term.”

• JJ B

  Candidate Statement

  • Founding member and lead on the People’s Breakfast Program, where more than a hundred hungry people eat together—and have done so every single Sunday for the past three years.
  • Rank and file member of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 587. Former on-street social worker.
  • Commitment to <24 hour action times from local council to outside organizations and internal membership. No dragging on campaigns, endorsements, and reimbursements.
  • Commitment to bottom-lining two interesting fundraiser events during my tenure.

  Nominations

  Matt P

  “To put it bluntly, JJ is an amazing organizer and motivator as evidenced by the ever-growing success of People’s Breakfast. Having previously served on the LC, he knows the difference thoughtful and accountable leadership has on the success of the chapter, and conversely, the dangers posed by overly bureaucratic and unaccountable leadership. He is very detail orientated and adept at project planning & management, not to mention capable of inspiring people to step up and get engaged. Perhaps owing to his previous background in social work, he is also a great mediator and is not afraid to hold space for generative conflict. Seattle DSA could use someone like JJ right now”

  Dominic D

  “They’re competent, have leadership and organizing experience, and are honest.”

• Shiloh B

  Candidate Statement

  Hi folks! My name is Shiloh Beeler (she/they) and I’m running for local council in the 2025-2026 term! I’ve been a member of Seattle DSA since late 2023, and in my time being involved with the chapter I have primarily focused on organizing around Palestine and broadly internationalism as part of our Palestine Solidarity Working Group. I helped establish the working group and from January 2024-January 2025 I served as its co-chair. Collaborating with so many fantastic people as part of DSA has been an energizing force in such grim times—together we’ve taken part in many rallies, organized a sit-in and protest against Adam Smith to oppose his support for genocide, advocated for a stronger pro-Palestinian politics in local unions, and most recently we’ve built a Boycott, Divest, and Sanction campaign which has reached thousands of people locally, tabled with Shaun Scott, and built connections with other local left orgs through events like our Liberation Happy Hours. I strongly believe that the way our organization is structured is immensely impactful on the work we’re able to do—it can either be yet another obstacle to overcome in order to actually accomplish anything, or it can serve as a force multiplier for all our organizing, enabling us to lift well beyond what we might be capable of as individuals. In my time as co-chair of a brand-new working group, one which had no established structures other than those we built ourselves, these structural contradictions have become more and more urgent to me. As we enter this critical period of capitalism in crisis, one where our ability to organize and fight back is increasingly important, I want to help build Seattle DSA into something capable of standing tall in that fight. I want to enable all of you to do whatever it is that you do best within DSA! I believe in this organization. There is a path to victory. Let’s find it together!

  Nominations

  Will S

  “Shiloh has been a fantastic leader in the Palestine Solidarity and Internationalism Working Group, helping to devise a strategy for local BDS work that bridged many competing ideas and approaches. They are thoughtful, respectful, and always willing to talk things through with their comrades, and I think they would be a great leader on the LC.”

• Lucas C

  Candidate Statement

  I am running for Local Council for the 2025-2026 term to use the roles of chapter political leadership and spokesperson to fight for democracy inside DSA, in the movements of the exploited and oppressed, and in society at large. I joined DSA via the seattle chapter in 2017. My eight years as a democratic socialist have taught me the necessity of fighting for the first half of democratic socialism in order to win the second half.

  Internal chapter democracy means transparency from leadership. As treasurer I’ve proactively informed working groups and membership at large about the state of the budget and made chapter funds readily available for our work. As councilor I would continue that and work to expand that proactive transparency to the whole of the local council and all chapter infrastructure to make every member an expert of how our chapter works. A well informed membership is one that is ready to hold leadership accountable and to organize under its own initiative to pursue its goals.

  I believe one of our goals as a chapter should be to take the democracy we’ve developed internally and contrast it against the lack of democracy all around us. Our chapter has only recently started to put wins on the board electorally and this is in-part because our internal democracy was not developed enough to inspire our membership and partially because we live in an oligarchy masquerading as a democracy. High barriers to entry for seats in any meaningful legislative bodies, curtailments of municipal control, and a lack of proportional representation are all features, not bugs, of our political system. Beyond individual issue campaigns and electoral candidates our chapter needs a holistic vision of its goals and how to achieve them. This can only be arrived at through continuous debate and deliberation, not done to achieve dominance but to come to a greater understanding.

  Nominations

  Duncan H

  “Lucas is an excellent comrade who puts politics in command. He authored our LC reform and wants to use it to chart out a new direction for our chapter around a democratically built political vision that both synthesizes and elevates the work we have been undertaking the past couple of years. Additionally, he is an excellent administrator and treasurer who can help us transition comfortably to a new type of LC, where we can delegate more admin work and make political leadership the primary focus, opportunity, and ask of our leadership body.”

  Amy W

  “Lucas has been a dedicated comrade the whole time I’ve been in DSA and has done a great job on the current term of the LC.”

• Alexander D

  Candidate Statement

  I am a hard-line anti fascist and I want SDSA to reconfigure its policies towards a zero tolerance of fascism.

  Trump has begun the process of dehumanizing minorities and opposition, he is moving quickly from conservative authoritarianism to Nazism; Bannon and Musk are openly sieg heiling. It will get worse, we need to stop tolerating it.

  I feel that my hand has been forced, our DSA leadership have not put effort into supporting the recent pro Ukraine protests. Being charitable to the leadership of current SDSA they’re not actually very involved in local activism; being less charitable, someone in the local council has put effort into preventing DSA endorsement of pro Ukraine action.

  I have had individuals say things to me that implied support for autocratic governments, including the egregious example of having representatives of the Cuban dictatorship attend a meeting to speak.

  However leadership has failed to adequately support local actions opposing Russian aggression such as the 50501 movement.

  I truly hope that it’s been oversight on the part of local leaders and not support for Russia.

  Our leaders have failed to implement adequately anti fascist policies.

  I joined DSA for positive change and the hope that I could help make things better. The local Seattle chapter is cliquish and exclusionary. And seeing as I don’t drink I’m unable to participate in much of the SDSA politicking, I’m an outsider. I don’t care to win as much as I care that we change our policy on fascism. Because I have never felt more betrayed in my life than when I saw that none of the recent Ukraine protests had our support.

  There are two sides of this, people who are earnestly opposed to fascism and the ones who accept fascism.

  Trump is having people sieg heil him, and trying to deport our neighbors.

  Trump wants to work with Putin, how many of us want to work with Trump?

  If you endorse me I can guarantee you that I will work to establish anti dictatorial and anti fascist policies. And to support Ukraine in its resistance of Russian aggression.

  Slava Ukraini.

  America is a nation that is meant to represent freedom and democracy, we need to do that or our word means nothing.

  I am not a politician or an insider, I don’t really want the job, I just want to make things better.

  Nominations

  Ethan M

  “I believe that every member who’s interested in leadership should have an opportunity to make their case to the chapter.”

Submitted Convention Resolutions

• Ban Generative AI in Chapter Communications
• Meeting & Event Accessibility Policy
  • Amendment to Meeting & Event Accessibility Policy
• Governing Document General Revision
• Wellness & Culture Committee Resolution & Charter
• Endorsement: Krysteena Mann for Tukwila City Council
• Voting Item Presentation
• Organize a Robust Washington State DSA
• Program Commission
• Charter: Seattle District 3 Branch

Submitted Bylaws Amendments

• B1-2025: Democracy Budget Amendment