(Daily Signal)—Two members of the Democratic Socialists of America likely to win House elections have already turned their sights toward shaping what they see as a probable Democrat majority in the chamber.
In an interview with Politico’s Dasha Burns, New York Democrat Darializa Avila Chevalier and Colorado Democrat Melat Kiros declined to commit to supporting Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, the current House minority leader, in his potential bid for speaker of the House, outlining instead their desired policy concessions that included cutting aid to Israel and Medicare for All.
“My concern is far less with who is in that position and much more with what agenda they’re going to be leading the Congress and the [Democrat] caucus with,” Kiros, the candidate in Colorado’s 1st Congressional District, said.
“I just want to make sure that whoever the next speaker is is someone who’s going to prioritize things like Medicare for All, things like universal childcare, things like withdrawing aid from Israel and withdrawing from this war in Iran,” Kiros responded.
Kiros spoke about “laying the groundwork” for a Democrat trifecta—controlling the White House and both the House and the Senate—in 2028, where “we can actually start delivering massive transformational changes.”
Chevalier, the Democrat nominee for New York’s 13th Congressional District, told Burns that she has spoken with Jeffries.
“If Democrats are taking back the House then Americans should feel that,” she said. “That should reflect in our lives, in actual policy that materializes into significant changes for the quality of life that people are living” on issues such as public housing, Medicare for All, universal childcare, or “blocking the bombs to Israel and ending the war in Iran.”
Candidates tied to the Democratic Socialists of America seem intent on shifting the Democrat Party to the Left to embrace a larger government role in Americans’ everyday lives.
The priorities Kiros and Chevalier highlighted echo the platforms of Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaigns and the Democratic Socialists of America, including government-funded health care for all, government-run child care, and expanded public housing. Both candidates are members of the DSA, the nation’s largest socialist organization.
When Burns asked the candidates to define socialism, Chevalier suggested it was a matter of dignity for workers.
“Socialism is simply the idea that the people who produce the wealth in our society—the workers, the people who work for a living—actually get to reap the benefits of that labor, they get to actually have dignified lives,” she said. “Most Americans believe that if you work a job, you should be able to afford your basic needs. You should be able to access health care, you should be able to access education.”
She claimed that “we are the wealthiest country in the history of the earth not because some billionaires decided that it was going to be that way, but because working people in that country produced that wealth and we should be able to benefit from it.”
Chevalier’s campaign did not respond to the Daily Signal’s request for comment about whether she thinks business owners or investors have contributed to America’s prosperity.
Neither Chevalier nor Kiros has yet won election to the House, though Cook Political Report rates both of their districts “solid Democratic.”
Kiros’s campaign did not respond to the Daily Signal’s request for comment about what those changes might be.
