On December 20, the NEC held a call that included a discussion regarding the

endorsement of Carlos Rosa. A straw poll motion was made to hold off on an
endorsement until we have a national electoral strategy in place. The implication was
that this strategy would be approved at the January NPC meeting. The 12 votes were
divided equally, six voting for holding off and six voting for an endorsement to happen
now. We, the undersigned, voted to delay an endorsement based on the following
rationale.

Like a lot members in DSA, we're really excited that Carlos Rosa is running for Congress
in Illinois. Carlos is a great speaker and one of DSA's most high profile elected officials, a
Chicago Alderman. However, we do not believe that popularity and a high profile should
be the standards on which we base something as important as a national electoral
campaign endorsement. DSA should base endorsement of candidates on its national
electoral strategy and political program. As of now, we do not have a strategy that has
been debated and passed by the NPC. So, we think that any national endorsement of
any candidate before that strategy is debated and agreed upon is very premature.
Without an electoral strategy and political debate, what would we base our
endorsement on? The job of political leaders in a 32,000+ organization is to hash out
these questions.

The argument has been made that it's urgent that national endorses Carlos now
because the primary is in March 2018. This point assumes that DSA national
endorsements have historically had a significant and decisive impact on electoral races.
There is little to no evidence for this.

In fact, a recent poll conducted Dec 13-14 showed Chuy Garcia holding a large 46-point
lead over Rosa https://www.nbcchicago.com/blogs/ward-room/chuy-garcia-holds-huge-
lead-in-democratic-congressional-primary-race-464852873.html Who knows what will
end up happening, but if it's indeed true that Carlos is a long-shot for winning the
Democratic primary in March, the question we need to answer is, how does endorsing
Carlos's campaign contribute to our strategic political-electoral goals? This is not a
question that can be answered right now, because we do not have an agreed-upon
strategy.

Endorsing Carlos now runs the risks of holding future nationally endorsed candidates to
a different standard. The NEC researched each of the candidates endorsed by the NPC
last year, with detailed dossiers running through the pros and cons of each candidate.
No such dossier has been created for Carlos. Why does Carlos get a pass on standards
developed through debate and an agreed-upon strategy while other candidates don't?

The electoral campaigns of elected officials should not drive DSA national's political
decisions. On the contrary, a robust, democratically debated electoral strategy should.
Our first priorities are to build the political capacity of chapters and to build power
among the working class. We can then base our electoral involvement on these
priorities, as well as an electoral strategy developed in light of those priorities. We will
have that by the end of January. We see no need to rush an endorsement without any
debate on strategy. Political leadership bodies owe it to membership to be principled
and methodical when making important political decisions.

Xavier Aubuchon-Mendoza
Delé Balogun
Allie Cohn
Renée Paradis
Tascha Van Auken
Abdullah Younus