Megan Romer for Co-Chair
As DSA’s National Convention rapidly approaches and the 2023-2025 NPC term draws to a close, Red Star would like to shine some light on the stakes of the co-chair race and make the case for Megan Romer’s re-election. We have offered our own accounting of the past two years, shared Megan’s own thoughts on what she has brought and will continue to bring as DSA co-chair, and included testimonials from DSA members across the country. We urge delegates to rank her first for co-chair.
Why does the NPC Co-Chair matter?
DSA members have surely all sat through hours and hours of meetings. Sometimes these meetings feel dreary and confusing and attendees leave unsure of what even happened, let alone what their part is in what comes next. Other times, meetings have a clear direction, and crisp, firm facilitation. These meetings leave attendees with action items, and a clear understanding of what was decided, and how they can contribute to decisions that were made. The facilitator, in this case the co-chair, is responsible for the way the meeting proceeds, and the impression it leaves on its participants. When people feel respected and invested in the democratic decision making of a body, they become part of a larger, cohesive whole.
In the same way, the NPC co-chairs define the character and function of the NPC, and the national apparatus as a whole. At the national level, and from the start of this term, DSA has struggled to meet the challenges that face the US left both at present and over the past two years. Our national response to Al-Aqsa Flood and Israel’s escalation of its genocidal occupation of Palestine was equivocal, a rushed both-sides condemnation. DSA was unable to come to agreement about our orientation toward the 2024 presidential election – resulting in two competing inside-outside campaigns attempting to leverage the stakes of the election, Uncommitted and No Votes for Genocide. In the face of a strategic impasse, factions who are unable to achieve a majority for their approach have attempted to circumvent member democracy, passing off outside campaigns as organization-approved. This inflexible approach has hampered our ability to find a functional unity in the face of rising fascism.
Despite these significant challenges, this past NPC term has been far less acrimonious than the ones before it. In the 2021-2023 NPC term, DSA nationally was riven with conflict between the BDS Working Group, the NPC, and Jamaal Bowman. This conflict played out partially behind closed doors, partially in chapter meetings, and spilled out all over Twitter, leading to burnout and many organizers leaving DSA. Conflict this term – for example, tensions between the NYC-DSA Steering Committee and the NPC over electoral endorsements – has played out in a much more civil and straightforwardly political manner. People may be frustrated, but they are not quitting en masse; in fact, the organization is still in the upward swing of its second-largest growth trajectory in its modern history. Megan Romer’s tenure as NPC co-chair has pushed the org in a more mature direction; a direction that leads us to struggle through conflict productively and forge the unity that we’ll need in order to build DSA into a revolutionary party that can strike a blow to capitalism in the heart of the beast.
Megan’s Tenure
Megan was elected as one of DSA’s inaugural member-elected chairs after the 2023 convention, and she took office in January of 2024. As chair, she has made DSA’s national leadership more transparently democratic and accountable to members. One key shift has been a strong commitment to parliamentary procedure. Clear procedure is crucial for a well-functioning democratic body, and before this NPC term, such procedure was often not followed, leading to unclear deliberation and confusing decisions. Megan is a strong chair, with a good working knowledge of Robert’s Rules, and has led the NPC to a much more consistent democratic practice. Motions are well-defined, amendments are debated thoroughly, and minutes are taken. NPC members have made a great effort to get those minutes out to the membership, though some difficulties remain. Another part of a functional democracy is keeping pace with changing conditions. This term the NPC moved from a quarterly meeting to a monthly meeting and clarified the online voting process, increasing the cadence, participation, and buy-in of our highest elected leadership. Megan wrangled the schedules of a 18-person body and made sure these meetings got on the calendar and happened as scheduled.
Megan has also led the way through some key political shifts that have taken place, namely the balance of power between staff and membership. This term Megan has pushed tirelessly toward transparency and toward empowered member-led organizing, while demanding respect for the work and role of staff within a democratic member-led organization. This journey started early in the term, when the newly-elected NPC refused to sign the previously-staff-mandated “confidentiality agreement,” continued through a messy budget fight where political opponents weaponized personal connection and political alignment with the organization’s paid staff, and finally resulted in a functional and mutually-respectful relationship between the staff and the NPC.
Throughout this term, she has also led the way in sharing information with the membership in a number of key ways. After the NPC enabled the National Tech Committee to take control of the national DSA forum, she encouraged broad engagement with it, both formally by specifying forum use as part of National proposals, and individually, by making herself available to membership there. She collaborated across tendencies to open up the National Communications Committee to a wide section of DSA. She drove forward reforms to one of our most important national bodies, the Growth and Development Committee. There’s still certainly work to be done in empowering membership in National DSA, but Megan has driven substantial progress in opening up the inner workings of the national organization to the NPC.
Megan’s Contributions
During this NPC term, Megan has had a laser focus on member-facing organizing work. In between logistical co-chair duties, Megan finds time to develop chapter leaders from all across the country. She spends hours on the phone calling through lists of chapter leaders, sharing national resources, asking about ongoing or future campaigns, and generally being a sounding board for developing socialist organizers. Megan is active and engaged on the rejuvenated national DSA forums, where she routinely shares information about NPC decisions and processes, connects members to national resources, and shows a willingness to wade into contentious topics to answer tough questions directly from membership. This direct interface with members is important internal-facing communications work and shows her ability to deliver substantive responses on the fly, and willingness to be directly accountable to DSA’s membership.
Megan’s chapter visits frequently bring her back to her roots as a 20-something tour manager for bands doing strings of one-nighters. As co-chair, Megan has visited 17% of DSA chapters in person, a figure which rises to just under 40% if you count online visits. There are fewer than 20 total chapters/OCs (out of 200+) where she hasn’t had at least a 1-1 call with a member of leadership. Her recent attendance at Socialism Conference anchored an 11-day trip where she visited 7 different chapters, traveling by bus, plane, or train (but not by car, because the fearless road warrior has night blindness). She met with chapter leadership, held educational events, joined political discussions, had 1-1s with leaders, and met as many members as possible to offer advice and inspiration. She also took time to just facilitate getting folks together to have a drink and shoot the breeze – sometimes the most generative political discussions come out in casual settings.
Megan is also diligent about her practical responsibilities to DSA beyond just being a figurehead. This administrative work takes many forms: scheduling zooms, setting online NPC votes, reminding people to actually participate in these votes, scheduling meetings with chapter leadership, writing and approving the newsletter that goes out to 100k socialists, and monitoring the inbox where everyone from new chapter leaders to distinguished foreign leaders reach out to share information with (or request some from) our organization. Megan does the lion's share of this admin work because otherwise it wouldn’t get done. Ideally, a Chief of Staff would fill the administrative void left by the departure of some of DSA’s director-level staff. However, until that role is filled, and even after, there will always be a degree of administrative work that needs doing.
During the Co-Chair panel debate, the other candidates for co-chair – Ashik and Alex – both expressed disdain for what they called “admin work” and made clear their intention to spend as much time as possible pursuing media appearances instead. Media and visibility for DSA is clearly a primary piece of the Co-Chair job – Megan has made several excellent print and other media appearances this term. However, internal facing leadership development is an equally crucial part. DSA’s organized, active base is the entire reason we are a notable organization: it’s what enables us to approach class struggle as an independent base of socialists, rather than a Democratic Party constituency or an irrelevant sect.
This term, Megan has demonstrated a commitment to member development, unglamorous “admin” work, and facilitating the internal dynamics of DSA. Megan’s focus on meeting with chapter leaders and developing their capacity and courage to act enables DSA to knit together. This focus plants seeds that grow into political struggle that pushes DSA and the working-class cause forward, which gives meaning to the photo ops and earned media. Beyond the technical work of campaign tactics, communications, or other specialized elements of DSA’s national operation, the role of the co-chair is to cohere the parts and the whole. This practical and relational work binds DSA together. It’s worth noting that Ashik and Alex – both young men, both without children – minimize the role of political leadership in organization-facing contexts; the invisible work of social reproduction within the movement is disproportionately feminized in the predominantly-male DSA, the left writ large, and patriarchal society. We bring this up simply to underscore its importance: there’s only one candidate in the race who will adequately prioritize this vital internal development, and that’s Megan.
Megan's Anti-Imperialism
This term has demonstrated the necessity of internationalism and anti-imperialism as cornerstones of the socialist movement. We are just past the six-month mark of the new federal administration, and the US-backed assault on Palestine, rising tensions in a new Cold War with China, and deepening ties between neoliberal and neofascist forces in the Americas continue to remind us that the United States is the center of a global system of domination that extracts wealth and labor from countries in the global south. This imperialist global order is the “primary contradiction” in the world right now; it’s the conflict that shapes everything else. This is why it’s so important to have a co-chair with strong anti-imperialist commitments. Megan pushed hard for DSA to join the NIAC No War With Iran coalition and engaged coalition leads in planning around collaborative organizing opportunities. She also advocated against the aspects of the Organizational Security memo which have chilled Cuba Solidarity organizing. In an example of anti-imperialism as well as skillful chairing, when she found out during an in-person NPC meeting that Cuban embassy staff were in the same building, she rearranged the agenda in real time to allow for an impromptu solidarity address to the NPC.
Megan is – and will continue to be – unafraid of supporting movements against US empire even as the stakes get higher. This bedrock principle is one that DSA must continue to enshrine if we wish to challenge capitalism in our time and place. De-emphasizing the role of imperialism out of pragmatism or an excessively narrow focus on American unions and workers does nothing to help us struggle more effectively or meet the moment at home. Alex P. represents Bread and Roses, who self-consciously occupy a center position on the NPC, voting with the left and right bloc alternately. Ashik represents Groundwork, which has proven an eagerness to compromise on socialist principles to shield elected officials from criticism. Both other candidates voted shortly after October 7th to condemn Palestinian resistance. An Ashik-Alex cochairship would be a huge step back for DSA’s anti-imperialist turn and for our alignment with the socialist cause globally.
Megan’s Approach
Megan’s outlook on leadership within DSA and on the left is embodied by the idea that “It’s more powerful to be together than to be right”, a theme she reiterates often. She also grounds her political vision in Marta Harnecker’s concept of mass protagonism – the ways that merging theory and praxis in the process of developing political subjectivity enables people to develop as revolutionary actors. These ideas illustrate her approach to politics: we are stronger together. DSA is more powerful as a cohesive whole. But unity and cohesion are not achieved when we compromise. Rather, they are achieved when we synthesize. This is the revolutionary potential of DSA: the energy of thousands of passionate organizers motivated by a cutting analysis of the tasks at hand and a genuine will to power, in pursuit of a flag to call our own.
Whether Red Star as a bloc wins or loses a vote, whether DSA wins or loses a campaign, we can never lose sight of the fact that DSA is our vehicle. There is no other place where socialist democracy is being built to the same extent in the United States. We can’t take our ball and go home, because there is nowhere else to go. DSA is it, so we need to pull together. We can’t paper over ideological and strategic differences or compromise and trade concessions back and forth. Neither can we delude ourselves that DSA will be strengthened by simply purging factional opponents. We need to struggle together until a unifying plan of action emerges. Iron sharpens iron, and struggling together to find a synthesized approach leads to incredibly powerful results.
Megan Romer is the candidate who embodies this unifying approach to politics. This orientation towards a holistic unity of action didn’t drop out of the sky – it is the basis of every revolutionary movement. A unifying approach is also about how we handle politics when disagreement feels intractable. It’s about how we show up even when the vibes are off. Driving for this unity requires both depersonalizing political differences and understanding the relational aspects of organizing. It fundamentally comes down to people, relationships, and feelings. The best organizers know how important this balancing act is.
This outlook is reflected in the ways that Megan has built relationships with member-leaders across the organization. At DSA’s present juncture, who our leaders bring into the conversation about where to go in the coming years is of paramount importance. While other prospective chairs might have contacts with progressive NGOs, think tanks, and political strategists, or ties with labor reformers, Megan’s rolodex is filled with DSA leaders who are on the ground and at the front lines, from chapters of every size, and from all around the country. DSA needs a co-chair who will take seriously the responsibility of doing the deeply political work of developing our membership, and knitting our leadership into a cohesive whole. DSA deserves Megan as our co-chair again.
Megan in Her Own Words
“As Marta Harnecker put it, ‘Political cadres should be, basically, popular educators, capable of empowering all the wisdom existing among the people – that derived from their cultural traditions and their tradition of struggle as well as that acquired in their daily battle for survival – by merging it with the most comprehensive knowledge that the political organisation can contribute,’ and this general approach is at the heart of the way I think about leadership. I also don’t mind doing the large quantities of correspondence and tracking that are part of having direct and small-group conversations by the dozens; this falls into the category of “admin work” but not cleanly, and relationship-building is not the kind of task you can fully delegate. The payoff of this work is seeing an activist develop into an organizer and an organizer develop into a cadre.
“What does it mean to be a popular educator? To speak to the uneducated without an air of condescension, to the dispossessed without a sense of charity, and to the uninitiated without a sense of secrecy. I want to make National DSA work for your chapter and I believe that by keeping this work as central to my own position as I do, I am a much stronger external communicator — I have real things to say and real stories to tell, gleaned from hundreds of conversations with active members, synthesized into the broader story of how DSA is meeting the moment, empowering and shining lights on the real work that is happening across the organization.
“Are these hundreds and hundreds of conversations, emails, and meetings the most visible work? Hardly! Is it incredibly valuable for our organization to have someone who focuses on the potential of all of our members and the socio-emotional aspects of organizational health that will help them thrive? Yes! Do you see me doing it? Maybe, if you’re one of the dozens of people on my call lists any given week, but otherwise probably not! Is it something that our organization will thrive without? I do not believe it will.
“By deprioritizing essential internal communications and the constant, pressing work of connecting people with each other, answering critical questions, and empowering our organizers with resources, support, and encouragement, we would be building a shallower, less-human organization, one where the sum of its parts is just, well, the sum of its parts. I believe we can be, need to be, and owe it to each other and the global socialist movement and all future generations to be greater than the sum of our parts, and to do that, we have to be able to strike a true balance.”
Member-Leader Testimonials
In addition to her commitment to DSA’s evolving and developing democratic culture, Megan’s devotion to DSA and building the socialist movement is exemplified in her attentiveness to DSA’s members and their development into capable, protagonistic movement leaders. Red Star is pleased to share these testimonials from our comrades – and yours – across DSA about how Megan’s leadership on NPC has helped them develop and navigate their chapters’ or committees’ challenges.
Saya C, North Texas DSA and TRBA Steering:
What can I say briefly about Megan R? I’ll admit it’s difficult. What I will say is that the first time I ever met Megan was when she flew out to my city to support my chapter during a weekend of extremely important Palestine solidarity organizing. She lent herself to us for the entire weekend where she hyped me up, gave me a wild boost of confidence and assurance that the work I was doing was meaningful and impactful. Insisted that she be available to me at any time in the future, a promise which she has kept to this day. Megan is always there for me when I have needed her, often answering my messages within seconds or at most within minutes. During my first weekend with her we participated in multiple organizing events in the hot Texas summer together, spent time socially with comrades and even got matching tattoos, a tradition I know she is fond of. Before I met Megan I can remember thinking that someone like me could never become as successful an organizer and leader as her. I’ll admit that I experienced intense imposter syndrome during my first year in DSA. Megan has helped me grow into the leader I am today by offering guidance, honest advice, constructive criticism and exemplifying the standards that I now hold myself to as co-chair of North Texas DSA. I still have a ways to go but I hope to emulate her level of dedication during my time organizing. She is my comrade. Yes, I respect and admire her as a leader but I also consider her to be a friend. She’s funny, brutally honest, and sincere. I would love to see her win a second term as co-chair of DSA. She has my vote without a doubt.
Guy B, Charlotte Metro DSA:
I’ve known Megan for quite a while, even before we started planning the National Political Education Committee (NPEC)/Mutual Aid Working Group (MAWG) Childwatch training while she was MAWG Co-Chair. That planning process was a fantastic experience that yielded some great results since we had a great collaborative process together, and Megan had many connections within DSA for us to utilize. Soon after that, Megan was elected to the NPC and became one of our NPEC Liaisons along with her duties as national Co-Chair. During that time, I served on the NPEC steering committee and as Chair, and Megan was always there when we needed something. She would get back to you ASAP to support us on any issue we may have had, like who the specific staff member was we needed to contact about a certain issue, usually connecting us via email, and communicating clearly any NPC request for us, especially in the aftermath and response to Trump’s reelection. Also, Megan has been a great mentor for me as I took on national leadership for the first time and helping me manage those wrinkles that you don’t really get to experience until you are working in national DSA.
Joshua T, Southwest Louisiana DSA:
Megan did something terrible, she gave my local chapter some great years of leadership, helped establish a culture and relationships with surrounding chapters and activists, and then she left for the Big Apple (Upstate New York). Since then, what has she done for the little guy? Besides for constantly maintaining contact, being a wellspring of advice for navigating this tense political climate, and being her own harshest critic when the national body is found wanting. I’ve never had a problem that I couldn’t bring to her and get some insight on, in plain English but also with an undercurrent of Theory. If the personal is political, then I can’t think of a better representative than a cool mom who spent some good years in the rural south who can also go bar for bar in the sweatiest forum discussions about a wide range of topics. Truly this is the synthesis of the dialectic.
The worst thing Megan ever did was leave southwest Louisiana, for her very good reasons. But our loss is a gain for the entirety of the organization and I can’t begrudge someone that when we’re in a fundamental battle to seize the moment for the good of the working class, indigenous sovereignty, and all those who stand against imperialism. We need someone who can carry the weight of the day to day work, lead with a clear and present vision, and still humble themselves enough to be a servant chapters, organizing committees, and our vast swathe of at-large comrades. And I must admit, the baking is a plus and she has high potential to kill it in the Radicalized Mom voting block, allies that are simply too important to lose.
Ryan B, Boston DSA:
As someone who just finished three consecutive years on Boston DSA chapter leadership, I wish to express my strong appreciation and support to Megan R — including in her efforts to be re-elected national co-chair. Whenever I had a question about ways our chapter could access National DSA resources or how various goings-on in National DSA spaces might affect things at the chapter level, I could always reach out to Megan for an answer. And Megan has always been fast to respond to such inquiries and to do so with appreciated levels of detail; she has even taken my calls after 10 pm. What’s more, one is always left with the impression that Megan is excited and eager to empower chapter leaders with the information they need to succeed.
JJ, Philly DSA:
I'm a member of the Philadelphia DSA Local Political Committee, our version of steering, and a co-chair of our Red-Rabbits. I'm a delegate for the 2025 DSA National Convention, where we decide the direction of the organization for the next two years. We make a lot of decisions on the future, and who dictates the future. One such decision is for the National Co-Chair Position. In this instance, there's nobody I could think of that's better for the job, than Megan Romer.
I remember when I first met Megan, I was only beginning to come into my own as a member. But what stuck out, was that she helped give me guidance and advice, that made me feel like I could be a leader in my chapter. I remember her encouraging me to trust myself, and that if I have an idea, or I believed in a project, to go for it. I remember when I needed help learning to set an agenda, structure a meeting, I'd look to her for feedback (as a national co-chair!) And she never felt above giving me advice. When I told Megan I wanted to run for steering, she was so supportive and positive about me doing it, and it meant a lot coming from her. Megan should continue as co-chair, because it's not about that she believes in our members. But she gets our members to believe in themselves.
“Opponents to Megan’s campaign for re-election as DSA co-chair have claimed that she opposes a strong YDSA. This claim is derived from a number of votes taken by the DSA National Political Committee during the 2024 budget crisis, during which a majority of NPC members, including Megan, voted to cut several items of YDSA funding, including committee chair stipends and an in-person 2024 convention. We believe this framing to be patently false, and a cynical attempt at exploiting the division between YDSA and DSA, our parent organization, for political gain. Historical budgetary mismanagement culminated in the 2024 crisis, placing the entire organization in a precarious position. Little was spared, including DSA’s national committees and staff. Despite this, Megan and her allies were extremely intentional in building communication with YDSA leaders and taking into consideration our best interests to immediately solve the budget crisis, and voted on the YDSA budget deal that was brokered by one of YDSA’s co-chairs, with both YDSA co-chairs voting alongside Megan.
[...] “YDSA is not a separate organization from DSA nor are we in competition with DSA. Megan’s strong commitment to anti-imperialist and member-led organizing and working in coalition, exemplified by her consistent support for YDSA during the encampments and beyond, demonstrates that her vision is what is needed in this moment as we work to build a youth wing of a mass socialist party. We urge all delegates to rank Megan #1 for DSA co-chair.“
Jackie H, Northwest Indiana DSA:
Megan recently visited our Northwest Indiana chapter for our July general meeting and was a delight to interact with. Alongside our other agenda items, we discussed with her some basic tidbits about the population density and demographics of NWI, and how it affects our local organizing. Megan was enthusiastic and personable- she really helped raise the energy of the other members and DSA friendlies attending. After our meeting, Megan provided some very helpful feedback for our chapter, validating some of our analysis on challenges while giving constructive thoughts on how we can build a stronger presence in our community. As a very small chapter of less than 100 members, we were ecstatic to see a National Co-Chair show this level of care and respect for our organizing experiences. Megan's experience in helping to found a DSA chapter and her leadership work in the national Mutual Aid Working Group and the NPC inspires us to be as effective as we can with our small capacity, and I hope to see her re-win her Co-Chair position.
Luke, Cornell YDSA and Labor Committee Co-Chair:
Megan showed up on the Cornell campus first thing in the morning the day our encampment started – we were still setting up some of our tents. She brought home baked cookies, she gave a speech directed at everyone else's moms (she literally said 'record what I'm about to say and send it to your mom') saying basically 'the kids are correct, follow them, we taught them well and now we should take their lead,' and did some really nice diplomacy with some of our partner orgs. Also, it was cool that she brought her 14-year-old with her. She told us all that it was really important to her that he see what we were doing. That felt really good, not just to have the direct support from a national co-chair of DSA, but also just as a comrade and a community member and a mom, to see that she really internalizes the importance of the work that YDSA is doing on a personal level.
Syjil A, Delaware DSA:
Megan Romer is a startlingly present co-chair. She’s not just dedicated to the cause of true socialism; she’s dedicated to DSA as an organization and shows it in a material way. There is no NPC member as responsive as Megan; shoot her a message and she almost always responds right away. Ask her to come to visit your chapter, and she will happily hop onto whatever plane, train, car ride that gets her there and genuinely show an interest in every rank-and-file member that she meets— in addition to giving a killer speech for your local convention.
As DSA grows in size and faces a more repressive, fascist terrain, we need the kind of co-chair who will show up for us like that. As co-chair of IC Palestine and a member of the AFROSOC executive committee, I know I can reach out to Megan with any questions or asks, and I’ll at least be heard. As a woman of color, I genuinely feel better with her at the helm of the org. That’s the kind of ally she is. I often hear the phrase “doing the work” thrown around, and no one embodies that better than Megan; there’s so much gendered labor that she does on the NPC that goes unnoticed, and yet she does it with a smile and without factionalism. Despite being a member of Libertarian Socialist Caucus, I have found Megan and her fellow Red Star comrades to be quite inclusive and willing to work through political differences and focus on what matters: building a better world.
Zachary K, Northern Nevada DSA:
It is with great pleasure that I endorse Megan Romer in her re-election for Co-Chair of the Democratic Socialists of America. From her past work supporting Las Vegas DSA’s takeover of the Nevada Democratic Party to her dedication to mutual aid and disaster relief in today’s impending climate crisis, I know that Megan has the skill set, knowledge, grit, and determination to continue leading the DSA towards a brighter, better future.
What makes Megan’s leadership style so effective, aside from her strength as a socialist organizer, is how accessible and communicative she is. Megan is just a phone call or text message away whenever I have a question about an internal process or need help working through an organizing dilemma. She is welcoming and encouraging, breaking down intimidating hurdles into bite sized-chunks to tackle, and inviting members at all levels to take part in growing and strengthening the DSA. Megan is always willing to come speak at a chapter meeting or any other chapter event, which, given our timezone differences, is a testament to her tireless work ethic and passion for organizing.
Leaders of organizations oftentimes isolate and silo themselves, but that is not the case in Megan’s leadership style. Instead, Megan offers accountability, crucial insight, open communication, and a willingness to educate and train the next generation of DSA leadership. Under her leadership as Co-Chair of the Democratic Socialists of America, our organization has survived a budgetary crisis, our membership numbers have rebounded, and we are currently on track to financial security and hitting 100,000 members nationwide. Her leadership has moved DSA towards a more principled and disciplined attitude, creating necessary distance between us and the graveyard of movements that is the Democratic Party and their NGOs that pay lip service to working class values and issues, and which siphon and sap the energy of the working class in the United States. The working class of this country deserves a strong workers movement to fight against the perils of global capitalism and US imperialism. I know that with Megan at the helm of that movement, DSA can become an unstoppable force. Please join me in supporting Megan Romer for Co-Chair of the Democratic Socialists of America!