AOC rejoined DSA this month after 7-year absence

In 2018, a first-time congressional candidate named Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez signed up for an annual membership to join the Democratic Socialists of America. Over the next eight years, AOC became the most famous DSA member in the U.S., breaking records for small-donor fundraising and serving as a key endorser for other DSA candidates like Mayor Zohran Mamdani.

But for much of that time, AOC was not technically a member of DSA. Her annual membership expired in 2019, and she apparently never renewed it. 

A spokesperson for AOC declined to comment. News of her lapsed membership was first reported on X by the Manhattan Institute.

“Democratic Socialists of America confirms Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is a member in good standing of our organization, having recently rejoined in August 2026,” the organization announced in a statement to DSA members on Tuesday night, which was shared with City & State. “Previously, the representative joined DSA in 2018 with a one-year membership, which DSA’s national leadership recently noticed had lapsed, in 2019. She has since renewed her membership as of this month.” 

It seems DSA didn’t realize AOC wasn’t formally a member for seven years. The organization congratulated her as “DSA member @AOC” in an X post on her 2020 reelection and commended her as a “member” for a 2024 vote against a TikTok ban.

At the time AOC joined DSA, annual memberships cost $60 and had to be manually renewed each year, which led to a significant amount of attrition as members forgot to renew their dues. Since then, DSA has changed their memberships so that they automatically renew, while pushing new members toward monthly memberships instead of annual ones. Standard monthly dues are now $15, but there are also cheaper $5 a month “low income” dues and options to give more.

DSA decided to investigate AOC’s membership after she was asked in an ABC interview whether she was still a member of DSA and said that she was only a member of the New York City chapter, but not the national organization. This answer perplexed her comrades, since it is not possible to be a member of a local DSA chapter but not the national organization. To be a member of NYC-DSA is just to be a dues-paying member of national DSA who lives in New York City. NYC-DSA members can optionally pay extra dues directly to their local chapter, but that’s on top of their national dues, not in lieu of them.

AOC certainly has a closer relationship to NYC-DSA than to national DSA. Since 2024, she has only been endorsed by the local chapter, not the national organization. But she has never been a member of NYC-DSA without also being a member of national DSA. 

AOC is widely seen as a potential presidential candidate in 2028, and a growing number of DSA members want her to run. DSA plans to begin its formal presidential endorsement process early next year, and the socialist group’s national leadership is split on whether to endorse her. But DSA chapters in Los Angeles and Atlanta have already passed resolutions calling on her to run for president, and NYC-DSA is expected to pass a similar resolution during its citywide convention in November.

In its statement to members, DSA said it decided to share details about AOC’s membership history due to the possibility of her running for president. “While it is atypical for DSA to address the membership status of individuals, ongoing discussions about the 2028 presidential campaign have prompted this release. … With chapters and members campaigning to draft Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez as a potential Presidential Primary candidate, we believe that the status of her membership is essential information for members to have in their deliberations and discussions,” the statement said.

Top leaders in NYC-DSA have already met privately with AOC to encourage her to run for president. As City & State first reported in Heard Around Town, one of the key behind-the-scenes figures in such discussions has been Jeremy Cohan, the coordinator of NYC-DSA’s Federal Socialists in Office committee. On Wednesday morning, NYC-DSA conspicuously posted a photo on X of Cohan and NYC-DSA co-chairs Grace Mausser and Gustavo Gordillo alongside AOC. “Democratic socialism is the future,” the post said.