NYC-DSA is 60% white, internal survey says

The demographic make-up of the Democratic Socialists of America, and particularly its New York City chapter, has become a major topic of conversation in six weeks since the DSA-backed congressional candidates Claire Valdez and Darializa Avila Chevalier won their Democratic primary elections in June.

Political commentators – and politicians who found themselves on the opposite side of NYC-DSA – have suggested the socialist organization is practicing a kind of white supremacy by challenging Black and Latino incumbents like Rep. Adriano Espaillat. Of course, the victorious DSA candidates are also usually people of color – for instance, Avila Chevalier is Afro-Latina, while Valdez is Latina and a citizen of the Ysleta del Sur Pueblo Nation, a Native American tribe – but DSA’s critics have suggested that these non-white candidates merely serve as a smokescreen for an organization made up largely of white gentrifiers.

The last time that DSA did a comprehensive demographic survey of its membership was in 2021. That survey found that 85% of DSA’s nationwide membership identified as white – a statistic that is now routinely cited as evidence of NYC-DSA’s lack of racial diversity, despite being a half-decade out of date and including all DSA members across the country rather than just members of the New York City chapter.

Both DSA and NYC-DSA have experienced an incredible degree of turnover since that survey was conducted. In July 2021, DSA had about 76,000 dues-paying members across the country, with NYC-DSA having about 7,600 members. By July 2024, DSA had dropped to 52,000 members and NYC-DSA to 5,700 members. Just two years later, DSA has more than 120,000 members and NYC-DSA’s total membership exceeds 15,000.

NYC-DSA recently compiled a demographic report based on years of internal demographic data. That report, which was shared with City & State, shows that 60% of the group’s active members identify as white.

The data comes from optional surveys that DSA offers to all members when they join the organization, which includes a question about which of the following races and ethnicities they identify as: White, Jewish, Hispanic/Latinx, Black/of African descent, Asian, South Asian, West Asian/Middle Eastern, Native American/Indigenous, Pacific Islander and Other.

NYC-DSA said that 63% of its 15,600 members chose to fill out the optional survey, which provides a strong demographic sample, but falls short of a comprehensive census.

In total, 60% of survey respondents identified as white, 12% as Jewish, 14% as Hispanic, 9% as Black, 10% as Asian, 5% as South Asian, 4% as Middle Eastern, 2% as Native American and less than 1% as Pacific Islander. Members were allowed to choose more than one identity, such as white and Jewish or Black and Hispanic.

The demographic data suggests that NYC-DSA is less racially diverse than both the national Democratic Party and the population of New York City. According to the Pew Research Center, the Democratic Party was roughly 56% white, 18% Black, 14% Hispanic and 6% Asian in 2023, the most recent year for which data is available. The U.S. Census estimates that the population of New York City last year was roughly 34% white, 22% Black, 29% Hispanic and 15% Asian. 

But the report also suggests that NYC-DSA is gradually becoming less white, with 57% of members who joined NYC-DSA since Jan. 1, 2026 (and opted to fill out the survey) identifying as white. As for the national organization, a DSA spokesperson told City & State that 67% of members who had joined DSA in the past year (and filled out the optional demographic survey) identified as white. 

Asked in a radio interview with Clay Cane last week about DSA being “a white movement,” Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who calls DSA his political home, credited the socialist group with providing a path to political leadership for non-white organizers.

“One thing I've appreciated about New York City DSA,” he said, “is that it has been one of the engines behind the creation of a new generation of Black and Brown leadership, the likes (of which) we haven't seen in quite some time.”