Hamden town councilman Abdul Osmanu recently won reelection as a Democrat, but Osamanu doesn’t necessarily consider himself to be a Democrat.
“I have been a DSA (Democratic Socialists of America) member since 2020,” Osmanu said.
The DSA is not a political party, but rather the country’s largest socialist organization, with more than 80,000 registered members nationwide. It also has chapters in all 50 states, including Connecticut.
Osmanu says there are at least 900 DSA members in Connecticut. He says they’re small in number, but that’s not stopping them from celebrating their electoral victories. They picked up an extra councilman-at-large seat in Hamden, and won reelection in New London and New Britain as four DSA members won council seats within their municipalities.
The DSA does not have its own ballot line, forcing members who are political candidates to run as Democrats. Osamanu says there are some ideological differences between DSA members and the state party. Despite those differences, Democrats like state party chair Roberto Alves say the DSA wins demonstrate how attuned the candidates are to local issues.
“All politics are local, and the Democratic message in a place like Plymouth is very different than the Democratic message in a place like New Haven,” Alves said
DSA member Jeff Hart,was reelected to his city councilman position in New London. Hart says he was able to win by running on local issues, despite facing local Democratic opposition to his campaign. Hart won following a contentious primary earlier in the year.
But Hart also credited his win to his ability to communicate and connect with voters over everyday concerns such as the local school district. Other publications noted fellow DSA member Zohran Mamdani, won the New York City mayoral election based in part on his campaign messaging which focused on affordability.
“In my experience, voters are mostly not ideological, and a lot of this is personality driven, and what a lot of people find missing from our politics and our culture is authenticity,” Hart said.
Osmanu, who was first elected in 2021, described his approach as more concerned with what he characterized as “Sewer Socialism,” essentially, a focus on improving municipal infrastructure, pointing to previous Bridgeport socialist mayor Jasper McLevy.
“One of the best ways to be able to actually explain how socialism works to folks is actually to engage with them at it, you know, at the local level, with, like, the everyday issues that are actually impacting their life,” Osmanu said
While Osmanu and Hart are not ideologically in lockstep with Democrats, Connecticut Republican Party Chair Ben Proto in comments previously made to Connecticut Public said Mamdani is the face of the Democratic Party.
But he also said many local races are won by who best can address local issues.
“I remind you what the late, great mayor of New York City, Fiorello La Guardia once said, ‘there's no Democrat or Republican way to pick up the trash,” Proto said.
