Candidate Endorsement Process for the Memphis-Midsouth Democratic Socialists of America
This document outlines the candidate endorsement protocol for the Memphis-Midsouth chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America. This language was approved after a vote of the chapter membership was taken at the General Meeting held on the night of January 13, 2026.
What Our Endorsement Means For Your Campaign
For the Memphis-Midsouth Democratic Socialists of America (MMDSA), our power is not in capital, but in people. Our theory of change for the Memphis-Midsouth community is based on strategically organizing around a credible plan to win meaningful power for the working class and the cause of democratic socialism. Our endorsements are contingent on this theory of change, and our support will solely go to those candidates who center the cause of the working class in their struggle against capitalism. Building economic justice, ending the carceral state, advancing gender and racial equality, protecting the undocumented migrant community, supporting organized labor to the hilt – all of these policies, and more, are core objectives that MMDSA is pursuing, and our endorsed candidates must be committed to furthering these causes loudly and persistently in the halls of power.
Because we seek to foster with our candidates a deeper understanding and a co-governing relationship through our shared struggle against capitalism, our endorsement will always mean more than just a logomark on a social media account or campaign flyer. It will mean a complete chapter mobilization through canvassing, phone banking, communications, social media, and fundraising, engaging a broad section of our chapter’s members due to our core commitments to democratic organizing and grassroots volunteer work. The MMDSA will provide critical campaign support with shoe leather and top-level strategizing, and once the campaign is won, our work will continue. The MMDSA will not abandon our elected representatives to fend for themselves amongst hostile coalitions and corrupt bureaucrats – we will continue to provide critical support and staffing to elected representatives to ensure that the struggle continues in the halls of power as the work of the people, not just one person.
Endorsement Requirements
- Must be an MMDSA member in good standing for not less than six (6) months, actively attending at least one committee’s meetings and activities, and provide not less than three (3) written recommendations from fellow MMDSA members in good standing attesting to their leadership and reliability in the organizing activities of the chapter – one of which must be a Co-Steward of the committee they are active in.
- Extraordinary Qualification – If a candidate does not qualify on the grounds of membership or organizing activity within the chapter, they may apply only if they have a longstanding record as a leader in organizing work with our allies or in past work with MMDSA. In this instance, the candidate must obtain three (3) written recommendations from surrogates within MMDSA who are members in good standing – one of which must be a member of the Executive Committee. The Executive Committee must then vote with a 70% supermajority in favor of approving the candidate’s extraordinary qualified status before consideration of their Candidate Endorsement Questionnaire – and the start of their endorsement process – may begin.
- Must pledge not to accept campaign finance funds from certain PACs or lobbying groups designated by the MMDSA Executive Committee on advice from the Electoral and Policy Committee – small donor donations will be strongly preferred.
- Must commit to uphold and aggressively pursue MMDSA’s policies, interests, and priorities.
- Must use their campaign as an opportunity to promote MMDSA, including but not limited to expressly driving recruitment to MMDSA, developing leaders within MMDSA by providing campaign experience, and using MMDSA’s logo, color scheme, and messaging in campaign materials.
- Must commit to caucusing with fellow elected DSA endorsees and socialist-in-office committees, where applicable.
- Must identify as a socialist or as a democratic socialist in private and public statements and commit to uphold and defend all official policy positions endorsed and agreed to by MMDSA in its bylaws and governing documents, including the full freedoms and self determination of the Palestinian people including the end of Israel’s colonization and occupation of all Arab lands, equality, and the right of all refugees to return to their homes and properties.
- Must commit to a class struggle electoral campaign and tenure in office, placing their work as a socialist organizer first and as a legislator second.
Endorsement Process
- Candidates must fill out the MMDSA Candidate Questionnaire
- Within a recommended two (2) week period of submitting the MMDSA Candidate Questionnaire, the candidate will then attend an in-person Candidate Meeting with the Electoral Coordinator, the Co-Steward of the Electoral & Policy Committee, and at least one (1) Chapter Co-Chair.
- Within a recommended forty-eight (48) hour period after the Candidate Meeting concludes, the MMDSA officers who interviewed the candidate will give a report on the content and character of the Candidate Meeting to the Executive Committee, a summary analysis of the candidate’s responses to the MMDSA Candidate Questionnaire and an overall recommendation on whether or not MMDSA should endorse the candidate.
- Within a recommended seven (7) day period following this report, the Executive Committee must then vote on a recommendation for or against endorsing the candidate.
- Within a recommended twenty-four (24) hour period following this vote, the Electoral Coordinator will report to the chapter about the content and character of the Candidate Meeting, a summary analysis of the candidate’s responses to the MMDSA Candidate Questionnaire, and the Executive Committee’s recommendation for or against endorsing the candidate.
- If a candidate is recommended for endorsement by the Executive Committee, the candidate must attend either the next MMDSA General Meeting or attend an extraordinary chapter-wide meeting as outlined in the by-laws – whichever is more expedient – where they will address the audience as well as answer questions.
- If a candidate is not recommended for endorsement by the Executive Committee, the candidate may introduce a resolution at the next General Meeting for their endorsement to be considered by the membership at large. The candidate may attend the General Meeting at which the second and final reading of the resolution occurs and address the audience, as well as answer questions, as part of the deliberative process prior to the chapter’s vote on the resolution.
- Within a recommended seven (7) day period after such a General Meeting or extraordinary meeting, whether a candidate was recommended by the Executive Committee or sought their endorsement via direct resolution, MMDSA will conduct an electronic vote to decide on whether or not to endorse the candidate. Certifying an endorsement will require an affirmative vote from a 70% supermajority of MMDSA members in good standing.
- Candidates who attempt to circumvent the above steps by attempting to have an endorsement considered by the membership at large by introducing a resolution at a MMDSA General Meeting, on their own or through a surrogate, without completing the MMDSA Candidate Questionnaire or the Candidate Meeting, or by pre-empting the Executive Committee’s vote on whether or not to recommend endorsing the candidate, will result in the candidate being both disqualified from being endorsed by MMDSA and barred from applying for an endorsement for a period of not less than one thousand four hundred sixty-one (1461) days from the date of the resolution’s proposal. Members who act as a surrogate in an attempt to help a candidate circumvent this process will be subject to censure or possible expulsion from MMDSA.
Read more at Memphis-Midsouth
Monthly Round-Up – February 2026
This article is written by a DSA member and does not formally represent the views of MADSA as a whole or its subgroups.
Welcome to Vol. 7 of the monthly round-up! The content in this publication overlaps significantly with our DSA newsletter and monthly General Membership Meetings. To sign up for the newsletter or check out an upcoming General Membership Meeting, visit: https://madison-dsa.org/events/
ICE Out Hub / Strike Out ICE!
MADSA has launched a centralized resource for community defense and related organizing in Madison. Members in the February GMM debriefed about MADSA’s ICE-related efforts so far, and approved a proposal for Strike Out ICE!
MADSA’s goals are to support other groups already doing this work – especially Voces de la Frontera – while also developing networks of mutual aid, supporting MADSA members in becoming active organizers, and building towards a national general strike on May 1st. What is most exciting to this author is that the strike plan is a movement backed by real strategy and community ties, not just a random internet call to action. The chapter is working on political education, building community bonds, spreading the word among coworkers and friends, and coordinating with other organizations, including unions. The strike could be a historic step in taking back the people’s power across the nation and in turning the tides of politics in the United States, if people embrace the spirit of making real, concrete demands, and shutting down the economy to ensure they are met.
You can check out the hub here: https://madison-dsa.org/ice-out-hub/ The hub also contains weekly strike reports, and members will receive these reports in their email inboxes as a newsletter.
I encourage all members to take action today, whether that’s joining a neighborhood group chat, attending an educational meeting about strike history or organizing skills, being trained as a legal observer, or talking to people in your life about the strike. And remember – millions of people participating imperfectly will always outweigh a few dozen participating perfectly. Embrace uncertainty and imperfection as a normal part of your political process!
MADSA Endorses Heidi Wegleitner for Re-Election
Members voted in the February meeting to endorse Heidi’s re-election campaign for Dane County Board. Heidi has served as a delegate to the South Central Federation of Labor, is in a leadership role with the United Legal Workers union in Madison, and has a long history of fighting for housing rights. She will be running in District 2, which includes most of the Isthmus north of E. Washington Avenue, including neighborhoods around James Madison Park, Tenney Park, and Demetral Park. Elections will take place on April 7th, 2026.
Additional Organizing
Other important efforts this month included the following:
- No Appetite for Apartheid held a launch party, and is now regularly hosting Grocery Scouting with DSA. At these 1 hour events, you can meet a MADSA member at a specific grocery store and learn how to spot products for boycotting, and how to build your voice for pressuring stores to stop carrying companies that are complicit in the subjugation of Palestinian people.
- Phil Gasper held a talk on Trotsky’s Marxism at the Madison Public Library.
- Southern Dane County Branch successfully had its own membership meeting.
- There is now a working group meeting regularly about Fran Hong’s campaign.
- A temporary working group is aiming to establish a physical office for MADSA to help with our growing size and work load.
- Some chapter members have been seeking to grow community ties through art and music, and are building towards a community art build in March, as well as fostering a stronger chanting and music presence at protests.
Social Events
We continue hosting recurring social events – New Member Orientations, DSA 101, Coffee with Comrades, and the Rosebuddies program. A highlight from February was a special Galentine’s day event on February 13th!
The chapter also has a newly-started reading group for The Communist Manifesto, meeting on Saturdays at 10am.
Protest Song of the Month
MADSA members highlighted a few songs this month as part of the budding art and music efforts in the chapter. A recent feature was a modernized version of The Internationale, with lyrics updated in 2020 by Billy Bragg. Check it out here – song starts at 3 minutes in!
And that concludes our monthly round-up!
QCDSA’s Trans Right Working Group fights for trans and queer people against far-right repression
The Quad-City Worker Launches Video Platform
QCDSA Mutual Aid Distribution
First Things First: Why Politics Needs to Wait
Kat Armas’s Liturgies for Resisting Empire: Seeking Community, Belonging, and Peace in a Dehumanizing World meets readers amid a renewed consolidation of Western imperialism. It is equally part memoir, spiritual and consciousness-building guide, and cultural criticism. By tracing the long history of imperialism and how its violence continues to live “unchecked” in our contemporary minds, bodies, language, and social practices, Armas points the way for how we can begin to heal through a global 
decolonization project rooted in radical Christian hermeneutics.
By emphasizing the beginning point of this comprehensive decolonization project, Armas suggests we largely hold off–for now–on the concreteness of the project’s political dimension because so many are still in a recovery phase. As such, Liturgies serves as a humbling reminder to students of liberation theology of how early we still are in the struggle and how much necessary spiritual work remains to be done on both inter/intrapersonal levels before the Christian Left (and the broader U.S. Left) can meaningfully confront and overcome empire.
The Two Tracks of Healing from Empire
Each of Liturgies’ nine chapters follows a four-part structure: a folklore tale from the colonized world; an analysis of topics long discussed in post-colonial studies (such as ideology, hierarchy, dualism, dominance, violence) and its corresponding, desired alternatives (think wisdom,kinship, paradox, connection, peace); a prayer of resistance; and last, a benediction.
“This is not just about individual transformation but also a commitment to fostering collective change.” Armas writes. “We cannot build something in the world that we haven’t first cultivated within ourselves.” Accordingly, Armas argues that the path to decolonization unfolds along two sequential tracks, reflecting liberation theology’s insistence that a commitment to God is both horizontal and vertical: first, a healing oriented toward the self, our ancestors, and all within the “kin-dom” who have been harmed by imperial power; and second, resistance to an imperialist apparatus enforced by a conjuncture of the state and its military hardware, capitalism and extractivism, and the soft power of the reactionary forces in Christianity.
Liturgies tilts heavily toward this first healing track, focusing on the unlearning of the beliefs and affective habits that Armas and other victims of empire have internalized as part of a colonized existence. We read about Armas’s experience as a young adult in Miami with an evangelist church to which she enthusiastically gave up her life to serve faithfully. But when Armas became disillusioned with her church’s aggressive, commodified push to prioritize the recruitment of “twenty thousand souls,” she pivoted away from evangelism. Armas speaks of her Cuban-American ancestry and separation from the homeland in the context of Cold War politics as well as of the trauma of her Abuela Flora’s multiple suicide attempts.
Armas’s writing evokes the voices of bell hooks, adrienne maree brown, Homi Bhabha, and especially Gloria Anzaldúa. The Anzaldúa influence is evident when Armas argues that healing rejects “clean lines of binaries” and is instead a process where we sit with the “tangled tension of human life” and embrace the “thin space” that disrupts the borders between heaven/earth and time/space. Faith is a “paradox” and the mysteries of Christian theology (Jesus/human/divine and Mary/virgin/mother) are ones never to be solved.
I found this discussion on the tensions, contradictions, and paradoxes the most interesting feature of the book. But in this moment of political despair, my mind longs for a political and precise description of the most potent strategies for organizing a collective, decolonization project.
Constituting Theology
Certainly, the absence of a “What is to be Done?” strategy in Liturgies isn’t because Armas lacks a direct understanding of those suffering from the impact of imperialism.
Armas recounts how, during a mission trip, she helped distribute free Bibles to Haitians. One woman thanked Armas for the gift but declined it, stating that eye glasses were much more a priority. After that exchange, Armas shares that she felt “useless” for having failed to “see” what was most critical to the poor. Armas therefore recognizes the urgent need for Christians to organize to do the type of collective, political work described in Romans 1:11–12 and elsewhere.
Using “liturgy” in the book’s title evokes a distinctly Christian vision of power from below, as liturgy signals an engaged community poised for resistance. As Armas writes, empire “fears our togetherness, our longing for belonging.”
In her efforts to flesh out some sort of a specific political vision, Armas cites Acts 2 where a decentralized multitude is “wrapped in chaos” as each speaks in languages other than the language of empire, thus representing a subversive threat to empire. There are references contra state power, and “kingdom” becomes “Kin-dom” in a world decolonizing. The activities described in Jeremiah 29:5 (building houses and planting gardens) operate alongside prayer as concrete political actions that can spark “rebellion,” Armas suggests.
Both personal and collective healing–as well as political transformation and the transition to socialism–are extended political processes that don’t come with exact timetables. This has long been recognized in classic Marxist texts such as Lenin’s State and Revolution, Trotsky’s The Revolution Betrayed, Engels’s “The Principles of Communism,” and in specifically-imperialist context, Cabral’s “The Weapon of Theory.” But Armas’s political playbook for struggle includes just a handful of tactics and practices (such as land reform) in which to bring down empire–and none of them particularly revolutionary. Once again, we can’t help but seek more militant solutions that directly speak to the urgency we face on the U.S. Left. Yet the constricted political terrain available for resistance and reconstruction in Liturgies may be by design, directing readers toward the cultivation of a faith-based foundation before engaging the political structures necessary to overcome imperialism.
The Trajectory of Trauma & Political Mobilization
Like many of us on the U.S. Left, Armas is understandably pessimistic about any immediate, political insurgency to get things going in the right direction. One might be tempted to compare Armas’s political vision unfavorably with the clarity and confidence of earlier generations of liberation theologians. In the 1970s and 1980s, Juan Hernández Pico interpreted the Book of Joshua (6–9, 18) and other passages to argue that Salvadoran guerrillas and campesinos rightly embraced a “co-responsibility” with God in launching social struggles. Just as the Israelites urged Joshua to see himself alongside God as a liberatory agent for his people, Hernández Pico contended that Salvadorans, too, were called to become active protagonists in their struggle for freedom.Yet Armas surely recognizes that our present political moment is markedly different from Pico’s El Salvador of forty years ago.
This is speculation, but I believe that Armas is addressing the collective trauma that has long occupied a significant place in postcolonial scholarship. Because many aspiring revolutionaries only read Fanon’s famous first chapter (“Concerning Violence”) in The Wretched of the Earth, they’re missing out on the larger, more important point he outlines in the last chapter, which consists of a series of clinical reports on psychiatric patients (who include both the colonized and colonizers). For Fanon, political violence against empire may be necessary to decolonization, yet it is not, by itself, liberatory. Violence, then, in his account, is not an end but a catalyst for healing—a process the colonized must continue long after the achievement of state independence.
The preliminary task for the activation of healing, Fanon argues, is for the colonized to continually ask–and contemplate–during the resistance and beginning again, nation-building phases of decolonization, “In reality, who am I?” Certainly, readers of faith will welcome such non-violent, regenerative practices in constructing political alternatives to empire.
Several generations later in the never-ending struggle against imperialism and in the tradition of the colonized speaking in their own voices on the experience of trauma (including as they do throughout the Bible), Armas also recognizes that the U.S. Left is nowhere near articulating the organizational capacities and power structures that could be put into place to overcome imperialism. Accordingly, the starting point for Armas’s approach to launching such a political project is for us to be vulnerable in “bearing witness” so that we may first call things as they are–and then deploy an appropriate political response. Such a strategy is on the surface a modest one but it is vital to overcoming our despair and isolation and ultimately, activating the long struggle leading to liberation.
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