Note: This article reflects only the views of the author and not Portland DSA.

You just got home from work on Tuesday, May 19, and it’s the last day to turn in your ballot. You’re frantically thumbing through the Oregon voters guide to finish your ballot. Yes, you heard that ballots get lost in the system and that the vote-by-mail system is under attack by Trump, but perhaps you live in a district with only uncontested primary races, or maybe there’s just not much to get excited about. While you leaf through the rather anemic voter’s pamphlet, you pass the section on… Measure 120? And it has a whopping 28 “No” arguments vs 7 “Yes” ones? Oh, this is that Gas Tax thing that’s been in the news for a year? It’s not even clear how you should vote on it, AS a socialist!

What if I told you that this might be the most impactful vote many Oregonians make this year? 

First, we should establish what Measure 120 even does. After the failure of our state government to pass a transportation package last summer, Governor Tina Kotek called a special session and successfully passed a less ambitious package, House Bill 3991. Although 3991 was heavily compromised to secure the support of the most conservative Democrats and to prevent Republicans from walking out, Republicans played to win and gathered enough signatures to refer *elements* of it to the voters. 

A “Yes” vote simply allows the legislature to enact the bill they passed. A “No” vote cancels some chosen elements of the package, while retaining others. Which ones? 

Well, you have to follow some legislative horse-trading to figure out what’s at stake with Measure 120. Democrats once again succumbed to GOP “bait” during the recent session, when they agreed to water down the spring session’s attempt at a transportation package to get something through (transit funding, sidewalk funding, raising the gas tax enough to make up for inflationary losses). Concessions in hand, the Republicans then executed the “switch” and referred the parts they didn’t like to the ballot anyway.  

A “No” vote on 120 erases specifically any benefits for our side, but retains the parts of the deal we don’t like. It’s just not a good deal! On that alone, a “Yes” vote should be the obvious choice.

While Portland DSA takes no position on Measure 120, the chapter’s May 2026 Voter Guide (comingn soon!) offers excellent guidance for evaluating ballot measures, when it asks voters to consider 3 benchmarks:

1. Whether a ballot measure is endorsed by member-led organizations or unions.
2. Whether a ballot measure increases funding for broad public services, like public schools, fire departments, or public transit;
3. That a ballot measure does not support or empower local, state, or federal police.

For Measure 120, the answer to all three questions is “Yes”!

Tepidly, the Portland Mercury agreed: 

“We encourage a “yes” vote because Oregon is in desperate need of more funding in order to provide basic transportation services to its residents, and because the debate here has been exploited by Republicans who are misrepresenting the Oregon Department of Transportation’s (ODOT) accountability problems for their own political purposes. But we aren’t going to try that hard to convince you to vote for this, either—why would we, when Oregon Democrats aren’t even putting in the effort to campaign for the bill they worked so hard to pass?”

Just like the progressive, tax-the-rich ballot measures socialists have championed in the past, the referral tells a narrative: state and local governments are flush with cash, they just need to have waste and inefficiency rooted out (this usually ends up meaning cuts to programs used by people of color & lower-income people, with the preservation of programs used by whiter & more affluent people). When your suburban municipality serves as a tax haven for Portland wealth, it’s very easy to look around at your well-maintained, sparsely used roads and assume everyone else is doing just as well.

If you know me for any one thing, it’s probably my single-minded dedication to transit funding. Maybe you’ve heard that the package will affect Trimet Revenue. Candidly, the Democratic Party of Oregon has already sacrificed transit funding at the altar of bipartisanship. If you followed the 2025 Transportation Package from beginning to end (sorry), you might remember the initial ask by Trimet of a 0.4% bump to the Statewide Transportation Improvement Fund (STIF). That would go on to be negotiated down to a 0.2% bump in the final package, which would tragically fail. The governor’s special session again negotiated the bump down to 0.1%, and to add insult to injury, sunset that meager 0.1% after 2 years. 2 years of additional funding for a transit agency is not very useful; you aren’t going to hire new bus drivers for 2 years! 

The HB 3991 transit funding is just treading water until a comprehensive transportation package can (hopefully) be passed in 2027. Transit is too important for me to pretend that life raft doesn’t matter.

To talk just about transit funding ignores the framing, very deliberately done by OR Republicans, of this as a referendum on the Gas Tax. Many socialists have, rightfully so, recoiled at the idea of an increased gas tax but from the left. It conjures ideas of out-of-touch enviros unilaterally imposing their priorities on priced-out working families. Besides, why doesn’t the state just… Tax the Rich? I want to tax the rich more than anyone! I fight for that frequently myself, but the issue of the gas tax cannot be neatly sorted into the box of “Regressive Tax” and wholly discarded. I’ve collected a few miscellaneous thoughts about road funding that I think are highly relevant:

• The gas tax is a static value charged per gallon. Because of inflation, a dollar today is worth what 97 cents was a year ago. Every year the gas tax isn’t increased, it’s actually going down. At the same time, we create more roads every year and our existing ones fall into deeper, more expensive disrepair. The 2025 Transportation Package attempted to index the gas tax to inflation, but the bipartisan austerity agenda would not have it.

• Other countries use methods other than the Gas Tax, but they all tend to be charges for “road usage”; if you drive your heavy vehicle on the road, that damages the road, and so you pay for the damage you’ve done to the road. There are more progressive ways to do this (Congestion Pricing)! For example, most states charge up-front registration and title fees so that the burden is not placed disproportionately on those who drive the most (e.g. rural households). The failed 2025 Transportation Package attempted to institute a “New Vehicle Fee” which would charge the wealthier buyers of new vehicles specifically, and a charge on distance traveled rather than gas usage, to relieve the burden on poorer owners of older vehicles.

• Wealth and income taxes are great for funding new capital projects (like Seattle’s social housing developer!) or for programs that only some of the population use at once (like universal preschool!). They are less sustainable for services that are used by most people for sustained periods. This is why Social Security is gathered from everyone’s wages, and then distributed back to everyone; broad public services need broad, stable funding. The same is true for roads, which literally every living person relies on daily.

• One example to my “Broad Services, Broad Funding” rule is school funding. Schools are funded by a mix of local property taxes, state funding, and federal funding. When you only consider the local portion, schools are funded along lines of segregation, and those in poorer neighborhoods are not funded like those in more affluent areas. This is where state funding comes in and redistributes from the richer areas to the poorer ones (if you have a functional state government, of course). Building a functional system means balancing “broadness” with redistribution. So, how does one “redistribute” transportation revenue from richer areas to poorer ones? Let’s get into that.

• Where you live, where you work, and how you get there *is* political! If it weren’t, the Columbia river wouldn’t separate the highest per-capita DSA membership from perhaps the most right-wing, ICE-loving, war-hawk democrat in congress. Wealthy residents and businesses threaten to move out of the municipality, “opting out” of taxes and shared responsibility, while still traveling into it for business and services. Portland’s ruling classes have not lived in the city center for decades; they may work here, but they live in Lake Oswego or in Clark County! This is the rationale for regional tolling, something which is very controversial on the west coast, and apparently detonated the 2025 Transportation Package (although it wasn’t even being proposed). I am not sure whether intra-state regional tolling will happen anytime in the near future, but I hope you can at least see the vision.

None of this is to say that these additional taxes and fees won’t hurt. None of this is to say that we can’t strive for a world where the rich pay to maintain our public works. I’m just saying that roads are really expensive; our decision, as a society, to make everyone drive everywhere has resulted in a lot of pavement which self-destructs if not maintained regularly. One can’t “opt out” of this responsibility, unless you consider bent wheels and longer commutes “free”. We can’t deliver socialist programs if our government can’t deliver basic governance and pave the roads.

To be crystal clear: I am not writing this in uncritical support of HB 3991 or ODOT. Just because I want to avoid a “DOGE Mentality” where cuts are always the cure, doesn’t mean that the state transportation system is totally accountable and a wise steward of tax revenue. A lot of work remains to fight for true reform in transportation, and that probably would look like fewer freeway megaprojects and more bus service. The opportunity to fight for those things is next spring, in the 2027 Long Session. We will need your energy to fight for the future we deserve and not just scraps. A “Yes” vote on 120 just ensures we can tread water until that next fight takes place.

Jordan Lewis is an Ecosocialist Working Group Co-chair and an elected member of our Socialists in Office Committee.

Name is running for Position. Bio here.

Name is part of a slate of candidates in the Socialist Cash Takes Out Capitalist Trash fundraising project!

Name is running for Position. Bio here.

Name is part of a slate of candidates in the Socialist Cash Takes Out Capitalist Trash fundraising project!

Name is running for Position. Bio here.

Name is part of a slate of candidates in the Socialist Cash Takes Out Capitalist Trash fundraising project!

Download print version DSA San Diego offers the following guide for select local, regional and statewide races in California’s June 2026 primary. Recommendations are not comprehensive, as a substantial share of contests are effectively uncontested; in California’s top-two primary system, most offices will see a Democrat and Republican advance to the general election. While moderate [...]

Read More... from DSA San Diego’s June 2026 Primary Voter Guide

The post DSA San Diego’s June 2026 Primary Voter Guide appeared first on Democratic Socialists of America | San Diego Chapter.

The Pinellas Democratic Socialists of America Condemn Florida Redistricting & Recent SCOTUS Decision as Attack on Democracy

The membership of the Pinellas County chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America strongly condemns the recent congressional redistricting imposed by Governor Ron DeSantis and the Florida Republican Party, alongside the ongoing erosion of the Voting Rights Act by the US Supreme Court. These actions represent a coordinated assault on democratic representation in Florida and across the United States.

Over the past several days, we’ve witnessed some of the most severe attacks on voting rights in recent memory, both in Florida and the United States more broadly. First, the redrawing of Florida’s congressional districts by Governor DeSantis and the Florida Republican Party, which we condemn as explicit gerrymandering and which is in direct opposition to the Fair Districts Amendments to the state constitution. Second, the US Supreme Court’s gutting of the Voting Rights Act, which threatens to disenfranchise minority communities across the nation. These measures are part of a broader effort to consolidate political power and silence anyone opposed to the Trump regime’s agenda.

SCOTUS’ gutting of the Voting Rights Act will allow Republicans to strip representation from non-white people in their latest efforts to reassert the rule of white oligarchs over the dispossessed millions across the US. Meanwhile, DeSantis’ gerrymandering of Florida seeks to subvert democracy by ensuring that Florida is represented at the federal level by legislators that do not represent the interests of the vast majority of Florida’s population, and who are dedicated to preserving rule by the capitalist class.

While these measures most explicitly target Black political power, they will have consequences for the entirety of the working class, including restrictions on reproductive freedom for women, attacks on the right to organize and collectively bargain, and the veritable elimination of freedom of speech and assembly. These developments are not isolated incidents, but part of a long-standing pattern. For decades, the far right has used state and federal institutions to curtail democratic participation and undermine collective political power. Now, as the capitalist class perceives the power of the working class growing, and feels their grip on power loosening, these measures further accelerate the stripping away of our freedoms; a desperate gambit to preserve class rule, and the logical outcome of a political system that prioritizes elite control over genuine democracy.

The state government of Florida, which has seized for itself the privilege to determine how votes are apportioned in opposition to our own state constitution, as well as the Supreme Court of the United States, both represent undemocratic arms of class rule. We must confront these institutions head-on if we wish to truly accomplish the aims of Reconstruction, which remain unfinished more than 150 years after the end of the Civil War.

In response, the members of the Pinellas County chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America call for the new Florida congressional map to be rescinded, and for the reinstatement of the guidelines outlined in the Voting Rights Act prior to SCOTUS’s narrowing of the definition of discriminatory intent for the drawing of legislative lines.

The post Coulee DSA ENDORSES Emily Berge for Congress! first appeared on Coulee DSA.

May 2026 Newsletter

This is the monthly newsletter by the Montgomery County Branch of the Metro DC Chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America (MoCo DSA).

• Interested in building a socialist future? Join DSA.
• Want up-to-the-minute updates? Follow us on Instagram, Bluesky, Twitter, and Facebook. 
• Sign up for weekly updates (and see the archives) from Metro DC DSA.

Take Action

Our Electoral team has raised thousands of dollars and reached at least 3,000 voters on behalf of our endorsed candidates, Gabe Acevero, Josie Caballero, and Izola Shaw. But we need more boots on the ground! We’re requesting volunteers to (1) knock on doors, (2) host candidates in their homes or apartment common areas for meet and greets, and (3) coordinate and launch a canvass. Join the Electoral team by filling out the interest form and selecting the Electoral team.

MoCo DSA and the wider MDC-DSA Labor Working Group are interested in doing more labor work at the branch level. Please fill out this survey to learn which unions and industries DSA members are part of, so we can determine which campaigns to prioritize and learn what kinds of labor work members want.

Join us in demanding that Maryland’s State Retirement and Pension System (MSRPS) divest from Israeli bonds. As of December 2025, MSRPS holds $65.49 million in these bonds, which directly subsidize genocide and ethnic cleansing. Sign this letter to Treasurer Dereck Davis, Comptroller Brooke Lierman, and MSPRS leadership so they know that Marylanders do not want to foot the bill for brutality and oppression. You can also virtually sign a postcard supporting the redirection of MSRPS funds away from oppression and towards Maryland communities.

Preserve Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Haitians. The Trump Administration is trying to end the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Haiti. Haiti is overwhelmed by multi-factional violence from the national government, local gangs, and other paramilitary forces. It would be unconscionable to prioritize deporting Haitians, considering the conditions they’d be returning to. Ask your representative to force a vote in the House to preserve TPS status for Haiti. 

The Montgomery County Council is considering a bill sponsored by Council Members Kristin Mink and Will Jawando to levy a tax on demolitions and housing expansions to fund social housing. This legislation applies when a property owner tears down an existing single-family house and replaces it with a larger house on the same lot. This bill is gaining momentum! Use this action alert to ask your county council members to support the bill.

Upcoming Events

Saturday, May 9th – MoCo DSA Monthly General Body Meeting. Join us in person at the Silver Spring Library or via Zoom for our monthly meeting to get plugged into the latest with MoCo DSA. If you’re brand new to DSA, this meeting is open to the public.

Thursday, May 21st – MoCo DSA May Social. Come craft, hang, and enjoy the sun on Thursday May 21st at 6:30pm in Downtown Rockville! We’ll be making pipe cleaner flowers and enjoying some spring weather. Whether you’re a crafter or not, come by to enjoy some snacks and chit chat. We’ll be learning on the fly, so no experience required!

MoCo Briefs

Electoral

Our Electoral team continues to pound the pavement and encourage registered voters to support our endorsed candidates, Gabe Acevero, Izola Shaw, and Josie Caballero. MoCo DSA also held a successful fundraiser to support Gabe at the Germantown Library at the end of April.

Palestine Solidarity

We supported JVP’s Break the Bonds campaign to get Maryland’s State Retirement and Pension System (MSRPS) divested from Israel’s genocide by coordinating testimony at the Maryland State House in support of HB1455. Stay tuned for more information about a teach-in planned for May.

ICE Watch

Three important DSA-supported bills passed the Montgomery County Council in April! The Unmask ICE bill prohibits federal, state, and local law enforcement officers from wearing masks or facial coverings, with limited exceptions, requires identification while on duty, and requires the creation of an online portal to report alleged violations. The Vehicle Recovery Act reduces barriers for families whose loved ones have been abducted by ICE to recover impounded vehicles. And the ICE Out Act prohibits all privately owned ICE detention centers in the county.

Interested in building a socialist future? Join DSA

The post Moco DSA May Newsletter appeared first on Metro DC Democratic Socialists of America.

A statement from our Creating Democracy in Columbus Campaign

Today Columbus City Council is hosting a “community conversation” on the current voting system for City Council Districts. Since last spring, Columbus DSA has led the actual community conversation in Columbus on the issue of City Council Districts. Residents are sick and tired of their elected officials ignoring their neighborhood concerns while turning around and giving billionaires anything they want without question. The recent McCoy Park debacle exposes just this: the interests of the billionaire class are served over those of the residents of this city. And we saw City Council respond in their usual way: deflecting blame and performative response while maintaining the status quo. Today is no different.

Columbus’ current City Council voting system is a farce, the so-called “Districts” in this model are an illusion having no actual impact. Because we maintain at-large voting, requiring a candidate to win votes across the entire city and not just their “District”, these “Districts” could simply not exist and the outcome of the elections would be the same, as we saw in November.

At-large voting favors the well-funded and those in power at the expense of real community representation. It is why most cities have abandoned at-large elections for city council seats. Columbus is one of the very few cities of its size in this country still using this archaic system.

Our proposal is simple: eliminate at-large voting and make the Districts real. In order to represent a District, you must win the election in just that District. This gives neighborhoods a real say in who represents them in city government and makes candidates answerable to their neighbors.

We are happy to see the issue has captured Council’s attention, but we should set the record straight as to what is actually going on today: an attempt to co-opt a citizen-led initiative to build our own power. Council is not holding this hearing for the working people of this city but for their own benefit.

If Council truly cares about the District issue, they should drop the pretenses and just let us get on with our good work. We don’t want to see Council attempt to redirect this energy into any proposal retaining at-large seats. We don’t want to see any competing proposals that would confuse voters. The Our City Our Say coalition is working towards a simple true-districts amendment for this November’s election. We look forward to winning real representation for the people of Columbus!

Read more at Memphis-Midsouth