Announcing the Red Star NPC Slate for DSA Convention 2025
This is a critical moment for DSA. Our organization has experienced large growth in response to the second Trump administration as more and more people grow increasingly radicalized by capitalist institutions undergoing deepening states of decay. The challenges facing DSA are substantial; capitalism is flailing against its own crises by unleashing fascist forces within our borders. This political moment calls for us to be deliberate about engaging our new members and bringing them into political work as protagonists, to develop our core of dedicated organizers, and to adopt a revolutionary, anti-imperialist horizon. DSA must have confident, decisive leadership to build the political projects our members envision.
To that end, Red Star is pleased to announce our slate of NPC candidates for the 2025 DSA National Convention. Our slate is one of leaders whose dedication to DSA and experience as organizers has been proven through and through, and we are delighted to put them forward for leadership this year.
Adithya P, he/they, Madison Area DSA
Adithya is a communist organizer in Madison, WI with a strong background in chapter leadership and national committee work. Their radicalization began with the Ferguson uprisings in 2014 as they grappled with the insufficiencies of liberal politics in addressing racial capitalism. Witnessing the 2019 US-backed coup in Bolivia led them to recognize anti-imperialism as the primary contradiction for socialists in the US.
After joining DSA in 2017, they became active in socialist organizing in 2020, canvassing for Bernie, supporting street actions during the George Floyd and Jacob Blake uprisings in Wisconsin, and helping lead an organizing committee at a large tech company. They also became active in local chapter work, serving on a cadre member’s city council campaign and later as a chapter HGO. Nationally, Adithya was also an active member of the International Committee for several years. After attending the 2023 DSA Convention they became co-chair of the Madison Area chapter, which had been hollowed out by conflicts and siloed working groups.
Adithya led an effort to revive the chapter with a stronger shared identity based around the philosophy that “it’s more powerful to be together than to be right,” building buy-in by using democratic deliberation to resolve conflict around the chapter’s response to the genocide in Gaza in October 2023. They recruited other organizers to replace the chapter’s faltering priority system with a single priority campaign, emphasizing the importance of members democratically deciding on strategy in general meetings. Within six months, Madison held its largest ever chapter convention and went on to become one of the fastest-growing DSA chapters in 2024, both before and after the election.
As co-chair, Adithya pushed to focus the chapter’s electoral program, developing closer relationships with member-electeds and co-writing a proposal with them affirming stronger shared expectations for endorsed electeds. During their tenure they also revamped new member onboarding and established an annual budget for their local YDSA chapter. Adithya also helped support Red Star’s NPC Cabinet work, and is currently active on the Growth and Development Committee, where they run trainings on chapter democracy and Robert’s Rules.
Andrew D, he/him, DSA San Francisco
Andrew joined DSA in 2021 to get involved in DSA San Francisco’s local ballot measure campaigns. Andrew started organizing by collecting signatures for ballot measures and later joined the chapter’s electoral board, where he was responsible for helping DSA SF win San Francisco’s “Empty Homes Tax,” a model for combating real estate speculation and decommodifying housing. From early 2023 to mid-2024, Andrew served on the DSA SF steering committee, first as secretary and later as chapter co-chair. Andrew led a budget overhaul for DSA SF, which charted the path to financial stability and successfully brought rank and file members into a participatory budgeting process. This restructuring not only helped members understand their chapter budget, but also culturally improved DSA SF by giving members the confidence to debate important issues before the chapter openly and constructively.
Nationally, Andrew is active in the Growth and Development Committee (GDC) delivering multiple analyses of DSA member data to inform DSA strategy for growth and retention. Andrew has also brought his experience as a chapter-builder in DSA SF to the GDC, and helped others learn from DSA SF’s experiences; both their wins and their losses. Outside of DSA, Andrew has also been involved in workplace organizing.
Hazel W, she/her, DSA San Francisco
Hazel W joined DSA in 2018 and quickly became a leader in her chapter’s Homelessness Working Group, where she organized against criminalization of homelessness and developed mutual aid projects. During the height of the COVID pandemic she distributed PPE to vulnerable communities, and co-founded the SF Tenants Solidarity Working Group to connect tenants with resources to help them keep their housing. Hazel then stepped into the role of DSA SF chapter co-chair, during which time she led the chapter through its successful “Empty Homes Tax” and Supervisor Dean Preston campaigns. Hazel also developed the chapter’s organizer and leadership training courses, and pioneered the chapter’s Priority System, which enabled several successful chapter-wide initiatives such as electing Jackie Fielder to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 2024.
In 2023, Hazel was elected co-chair and treasurer of California DSA, the first statewide formation of its kind. During this time she brought California DSA to a point of financial compliance and helped develop the statewide priority system, which improved cross-chapter coordination and created opportunities for members in small and rural chapters to plug into a statewide housing campaign. Hazel now serves as the secretary of DSA’s Growth and Development Committee, developing a more open, democratic, and efficient org.
Outside of her work in DSA, Hazel is an accomplished journalist and the primary advocate for a bill in California to protect the privacy of 250,000 trans people across California.
John L, he/him, New Orleans DSA
John has served on the NPC since his election in 2023 and also serves as DSA’s national Treasurer and leader of the Budget and Finance Committee (B&F). John grew up moving between Louisiana, Mississippi, and Atlanta, where he witnessed the poverty and violence of the south in both urban and rural areas. He regularly took part in service work with his community, family, and church. His family and friends took care of him when situations were difficult, which in turn, informed his tendency to always look for ways to help others. These experiences led him to organize with the Black Lives Matter movement, unions, and other groups and coalitions over the past decade.
John joined DSA in 2020 after his time as co-chair of a Parish Commission. He had become disillusioned with the Democratic Party upon realizing it placed poverty, state violence, and the conditions of the working class secondary to individual pursuits of power, money, and status. He knew political power was necessary to address the state violence he, his friends, and his family encountered. This peaked for John with the murder of a friend by the Iberia Parish Sheriff’s department, which led John to revitalize Baton Rouge DSA throughout 2020 and 2021. He participated in direct aid after 2022’s Hurricane Ida, and organized and supported campaigns and actions between the Baton Rouge and New Orleans chapters.
Nationally, John served two terms on the executive committee of the AfroSocialists & Socialists of Color Caucus as well as the National Abolition Working Group. He was a member of the Boycott, Divestment & Sanctions Working Group, the National Tech Committee, and several other bodies. John loves hosting national new member orientations; he believes in trusting and supporting comrades to assist them as they become protagonists who can chart their own path to liberation.
Under John’s leadership, B&F has brought transparency to DSA’s membership, inviting experienced and interested comrades to participate in DSA’s financial work. B&F now has regular meetings and has produced the first ever member-facing budget in DSA history. B&F now helps produce policy, recommendations, and materials to ensure the organization is sound and that members are capable of having a say in our finances. As treasurer, John helped steer DSA through a major budget crisis in early 2024 and produced a steady budget for DSA in both 2024 and 2025. John participated in negotiations with our staff union on the CBA and led negotiations on a wage reopener in late 2024. In seeking re-election to a second NPC term, John intends to continue to demonstrate the openness and transparency expected of a DSA national leader and help DSA grow to be the political instrument the working class needs!
Megan R, she/her, At-Large, for DSA Co-Chair
Megan is currently one of DSA’s two national co-chairs, a role she has occupied since late 2023. Megan grew up in a blue-collar working class family in upstate New York. After taking a job answering phones at a local music festival in high school she got involved in the national folk music scene as a promoter, booking agent, and tour manager. As a mother, Megan spent much of her time in her community as a PTA leader and Sunday School teacher while maintaining her links to the music industry as a freelance music and culture writer.
Megan joined DSA in 2018 in reaction to the first Trump term. She was one of the founding members of Southwest Louisiana (SWLA) DSA, helping develop it from an Organizing Committee to an official chapter. In 2020, Megan helped organize disaster relief for Hurricanes Laura and Delta, and for communities affected by COVID, helping distribute $75,000 worth of supplies and $60,000 worth of cash aid. These efforts led Megan to be elected co-chair of DSA SWLA.
She also became a leader in DSA’s Mutual Aid Working Group (MAWG), where she brought her local experience with natural disaster relief to the national level. Megan remained on MAWG’s Steering Committee for three consecutive terms, two as co-chair. During this period, MAWG became one of DSA’s largest and most active committees. As MAWG’s membership grew, Megan helped to develop the political dimension of mutual aid work; she trained hundreds of DSA members in dozens of chapters to think strategically about mutual aid as a means to grow durable communities based on solidarity.
Megan was elected to the NPC at DSA’s 2023 National Convention and was subsequently elected national co-chair – the highest elected office in the organization. During her time as co-chair, Megan has led DSA through a budget crisis, through organizing around the ongoing genocide in Palestine, and through the 2024 presidential election. She has worked relentlessly to connect chapters with the national organization, making visits to many of them. (She has the tattoos to prove it!) She has always kept a special eye toward smaller chapters – those much like the one she helped found. Megan is running for a second term as DSA national co-chair, standing on her proven track record of leadership at all levels of DSA. She hopes to be a beacon to DSA members who look towards the national organization for support and guidance.