Two weeks out from the November 3 election, the Democratic Socialists of America are turning on one of their own. Los Angeles City Councilwoman Nithya Raman, the DSA-backed challenger to Mayor Karen Bass, now faces a push from hardline Marxist caucuses that could strip her endorsement or even expel her from the organization.
The New York Post reported that Reform & Revolution and Bread & Roses have joined forces to demand Raman answer for her positions on Israel and Palestine. They introduced a resolution to the National Political Committee calling for a members-only meeting by October 25, preferably with Raman present. If national leaders decide her views remain incompatible with DSA’s anti-Zionist creed, they could vote to expel her by a two-thirds majority.
This is the same organization whose Los Angeles chapter endorsed her in September. Of the 1,473 members who voted, 937 backed Raman, 484 opposed her, and 52 abstained. That left her with roughly 64 percent support and more than a third of participating members either against the endorsement or unwilling to support it. Hardly a united front.
She Is Not One of Them
Reform & Revolution put it bluntly in its October 19 statement. “Raman is not a socialist,” the caucus wrote, noting that she neither publicly identifies as one nor advocates for socialism. They accuse the LA chapter of violating national rules by endorsing her without properly questioning her on the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement. Under Resolution 22, consistent public opposition to BDS and Palestinian liberation can trigger expulsion.
Raman has a record of friction with the group. In 2024, DSA-LA censured her for accepting an endorsement from Democrats for Israel-Los Angeles. She also publicly criticized the national DSA’s response to the October 7, 2023 Hamas attacks, calling it devoid of empathy for Israeli communities. The hardliners contrast her with New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who openly campaigned on the organization’s anti-Zionist line. Raman, they say, has distanced herself.
The Fox News noted that Raman has called Israel’s actions in Gaza a “genocide” and described BDS as a “legitimate form of peaceful protest” while insisting those issues are not part of her municipal platform. She has also said she will continue treating DSA as a “partner” if elected. That is the co-governing model the radicals demand, even as she tries to sound more flexible on the trail.
A Purity Spiral With Real Consequences
The timing is revealing. Raman’s campaign has spent months trying to present her as an independent progressive who can attract a broader coalition than pure DSA doctrine. National hardliners are now insisting that such distance is a betrayal. The local chapter defended its process. National factions rejected that defense and are forcing the issue right before voters cast ballots.
This is what happens inside movements that treat ideological tests as non-negotiable. Support for Israel’s right to exist, skepticism of BDS, or even a refusal to center foreign policy grievances above local governance becomes grounds for expulsion. The same organization that helped elect Raman to the council in 2020 is now auditing her for insufficient radicalism on Palestine.
Los Angeles voters should watch this closely. Raman has already shifted on issues such as police staffing and the mansion tax once she held office. The DSA’s own members are arguing over whether she can be trusted to advance their program at all.
That program, as the Post has detailed, includes seizing private housing, cutting sworn officers, expanding noncitizen voting, and running city-owned businesses. Raman refused to give clear yes-or-no answers when asked about sixteen specific planks.
Scripture warns against those who sow division over doctrine. “Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned; and avoid them.”
The DSA’s internal war shows exactly that pattern. One faction demands absolute loyalty to an anti-Israel line. Another treats political pragmatism as a crime. Neither is focused on the practical needs of a city struggling with crime, homelessness, and basic competence.
Karen Bass is no conservative alternative. The choice before Los Angeles is between an incumbent Democrat and a socialist-adjacent councilwoman whose own radical allies are now trying to purge her for not being radical enough. That purge attempt, coming days before the election, is the clearest signal yet of what these groups expect from the politicians they back.
Voters who want functional government rather than purity tests should take note.
