A strong majority of the Democratic Socialists of America’s New York City chapter is white, according to an internal survey.
The NYC-DSA compiled a demographic report indicating that 60% of the group’s active members identify as white. NYC-DSA said the data comes from optional surveys that 63% of its 15,600 members chose to fill out, according to City & State NY.
Recommended Stories
In total, 60% of survey respondents identified as white, 12% as Jewish, 14% as Hispanic, 9% as Black, 10% as Asian, 5% as South Asian, 4% as Middle Eastern, 2% as Native American, and less than 1% as Pacific Islander. The overall New York population is roughly 34% white, 22% Black, 29% Hispanic, and 15% Asian, according to U.S. Census estimates.
The last comprehensive demographic survey of DSA membership was in 2021 and showed that 85% of its nationwide members were white.
The data comes after New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who was elected the city’s first socialist mayor in November, was pressed last week about concerns DSA is “a white movement.”
“One thing I’ve appreciated about New York City DSA,” Mamdani said during the radio interview with Clay Cane, “is that it has been one of the engines behind the creation of a new generation of black and brown leadership, the likes [of which] we haven’t seen in quite some time.”
During his mayoral campaign against former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who ran as an independent, Mamdani captured a higher percentage of the black, Asian, and Hispanic vote than his rival, according to exit polls. Mamdani also dominated the youth vote and that of more highly educated residents, while Cuomo captured more support from residents with less education, older voters, and Jewish people.
As New York’s first Muslim mayor, Mamdani won the vast majority of Islamic voters. About 9 in 10 Muslim voters supported Mamdani, according to the AP Voter Poll.
