February 6, 2026

Features

500 Members and Counting –Bob M

Did you know that DSA is funded by its members and not large donors who can sway our political choices? What makes DSA unique is a genuine democracy unlike the capitalist parties or other major political non-profits. Every dues paying member is enshrined with rights within DSA as a national and local organization. With the state murders of people on the streets and in ICE detention centers, people aren't sitting idly by, they are joining DSA en masse. Last week alone, over 2,000 people joined DSA nationally (over 98,000 total) and our chapter has eclipsed 500 dues-paying members!

The socialist movement hasn't seen a political body with 100,000 dues paying members since before the Cold War, and more people want more than social media or emails. They want to have a voice and contribute alongside others, in New Orleans and across the country, towards a society that puts need before greed.

If you're not a member of DSA yet, join today, or come out to any of our neighborhood socials to talk with members about DSA, socialism, and how to get involved.

“Now is the accepted time, not tomorrow, not some more convenient season. It is today that our best work can be done and not some future day or future year.” –W. E. B. Du Bois

Cuba Teach-In this Monday –Brodie L

The US has waged an incongruous decades-long economic war on Cuba, ever since they overthrew Fulgencio Batista’s dictatorship. The tiny island nation’s awe-inspiring revolution against the combined forces of capitalist imperialism was the beginning of an incredible socialist experiment. The US has seethed about clawing it back ever since, exemplified by a 64-year-long economic embargo.

Despite being shut out of the world’s financial system and being unable to buy most goods, Cuba has accomplished incredible healthcare goals. In 2015, Cuba was the first nation to eliminate mother-to-child HIV and congenital syphilis transmission. It has never wavered from supporting other countries in desperate need, and has provided medical education to hundreds of Palestinian doctors. In fact, they tried to send medical assistance to us after Hurricane Katrina, but the State Department rejected it. Their medical brigades have also brought healthcare to many countries, further making Cuba a target of US propaganda and strongarming. As a result, their medical brigades went from a height of 50,000 personnel in over 100 nations in 2015 to just 28,000 in 2020.

Join us Monday at 6:00 pm in the Healing Center, Suite 258, to learn the history of the US’s extensive crimes against the Cuban people, as well as the profound connection New Orleans has to Cuba. Considering the Trump administration’s aggressive imperialist agenda in Venezuela, it is imperative to organize for one of the US’s closest and most maligned neighbors, a nation that helped make New Orleans the city we love. Come see how you can contribute in ways great and small to this worthwhile cause.

Solidarity, Internationalism, and Your Mom –Andy L

A persistent challenge we face as socialists is communicating the concept of solidarity and internationalism. We say that the life of a Midwestern soccer mom is as valid as a Kurdish baker’s or a Nigerian tailor’s, but that concept is too abstract for a lot of people. It just doesn’t sink in. So, I’d like to offer a more concrete example: your mother.

If you wouldn’t put up with your mom being pushed to the ground and pepper sprayed by some masked pig, because she dared say, “you’re hurting families,” then maybe it’s not OK for it to happen to other people. Say your mother lives on the fourth floor of a five-story apartment building. Unbeknownst to her, someone in Hamas lives on the second floor. If you’d be ripshit that Israel took out her entire building just to get that one guy, killing her as well as a couple of your sisters plus their kids who were staying with her, then maybe it’s not OK for that to happen to other people. If it’s not OK for your mother to have to live in her car in 30° weather… If it’s not OK for her to be mom-napped off the streets, only for you to find out weeks later that she died by ‘suicide’ in federal dentention…

You get the point, right? Good. Now drive that point home to every jackass who spouts off about “people who make bad choices” or foreign governments that “had it coming.” Make them explain what they would do if whatever catastrophe they hand-wave away happened to someone they love. Because it happens to people who are loved every damned day. And almost all of it is because of this bullshit system we live in where one person’s misery means another person’s profit.

The February 7 New Orleans DSA Voter Guide

Find it on neworleansdsa.org

🌹 🌹 🌹

Another election. During Mardi Gras. Then runoffs. During the St. Patrick’s Day Parade. Scheduling this many elections is undemocratic–it depresses turnout. In the years we don’t vote for president, New Orleanians vote in off-year gubernatorial elections, and municipal elections in the other off-year, and those elections make us turn out again for the runoff. Add more elections to replace vacancies and consider tax millages and constitutional amendments, and New Orleanians become some of the most vote-burdened people anywhere. This problem will get worse later this year with Louisiana’s new federal elections structure featuring closed-party primaries with their own runoffs, so in the midterms later this year, some voters will head to the polls three times for one election.

State House Districts 97 and 100 are open because former reps Matthew Willard and Jason Hughes switched over to City Council. In Senate District 3, Senator Joseph Bouie, Jr. retired to lead Southern University at New Orleans. These other jobs pay a lot better than the $16,800 salary for the state legislature, which just isn’t a viable career unless you’re wealthy. So why do it? In three candidates’ cases, their politician dads may have made them eager to go into the family business. It can be the stepping stone to the high paying gigs.

New Orleans DSA has not endorsed or recommended any candidates in this cycle. A lack of endorsement or recommendation should not necessarily be interpreted as condemnation or praise of any particular candidate. Read more about the distinction between endorsements and recommendations in the appendix to this guide.

🌹 🌹 🌹

State Senator, 3rd Senatorial District, Parishes of Orleans and St. Bernard

Outgoing Senator Joseph Bouie, Jr. is now SUNO’s chancellor, a position he controversially lost in 2002. As a legislator, Bouie was known for his determined but unsuccessful efforts to return New Orleans schools to the direct-run model that wealthy neoliberals dismantled in favor of charter school networks.

District 3 cobbles leftover areas from other districts, including chunks of the French Quarter, Marigny, Bywater, St. Roch, and the Upper 9, and the whole of the Lower 9. The district swallows up most of St. Bernard Parish to Violet, the proposed site of the Port of New Orleans’s controversial Louisiana International Terminal. The district also stretches toward Lake Pontchartrain to lasso in Pontchartrain Park, most of Gentilly, and a bit less than half of New Orleans East. This creative cartography contains countless constituencies, from Bywater bohemians to monolingual Catholic Vietnamese-Americans in Village de L’Est, and from shrimp workers by the Violet canal to the well-to-do descendants of the oldest and most established Creole families living in mansions along Bayou St. John.

Sidney Barthelemy II (D) comes from that latter group of affluent Creole families. His father was mayor from 1986 to 1994, serving as mayor between his political rivals Ernest “Dutch” Morial and his son, Marc Morial. Barthelemy II suffered his first political scandal when Mayor Barthelemy awarded junior the Mayor’s Scholarship to Tulane University. Following statewide outrage, they decided another college would be a better choice.

Local politics were once dominated by “four-letter organizations” run by prominent Black families who had been shut out of electoral politics by Jim Crow. The Barthelemys founded the conservative Community Organization for Urban Politics (COUP), while the rival Morials ran the Louisiana Independent Federation of Electors (LIFE). At their heyday, there was at least one four-letter organization for practically every neighborhood. Decimated by Hurricane Katrina, corruption scandals, and the shift from mailers and flyers to commercials, phonebanking, and targeted social media ads, the organizations that didn’t die out remain only in shambolic form. Barthelemy I still leads COUP alongside the Boissiere family, but primarily as a racket to collect payments from candidates it endorses. In a very low-turnout election, like one scheduled during Carnival parades, a few mailers to elderly chronic voters may determine the outcome. Barthlemey II has a strong advantage here, with endorsements from his dad’s old rivals at LIFE, Southern Organization for Unified Leadership (SOUL), New Orleans East Leadership (NOEL), and the Treme Improvement Political Society (TIPS, which bundles its mailer ballots with COUP and SOUL and generally, but not always, endorses all the same candidates). Interestingly, no candidate has indicated whether they’ve been endorsed by former Mayor Barthelemy’s organization, COUP.

Barthelemy’s personal endorsements include Mayor Helena Moreno, State Senator Royce Duplessis, and Sheriff-elect Michelle Woodfork. His campaign is light on policy, focusing instead on his career as president of a construction firm, which, as luck would have it, was awarded numerous consequential public contracts in the Katrina recovery process. Dad wasn’t able to get him that scholarship to Tulane, but maybe all the political and business connections Barthelemy inherited will make up for it.

In 2012, Jon Johnson (D) was forced to resign as City Councilmember for District E for diverting FEMA Katrina recovery funds to his state senate campaign. Johnson now owns several Burger King franchises, where he does not pay a living wage. In his latest campaign, which presumably is not funded by FEMA, Johnson touts his state Senate and City Council experience as evidence that he is uniquely qualified to serve in an elected capacity once more. As the saying goes, fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me. Don’t get fooled again!

Chad Lauga (D) worked his way up the ranks of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW), to become its local president and political director, and become a state level lobbyist for the Louisiana AFL-CIO. Along with the AFL-CIO’s sole endorsement, Lauga enjoys support from the United Teachers of New Orleans (UTNO) and North America's Building Trades Unions (NABTU). The only candidate in the field from St. Bernard Parish, he was also endorsed by the St. Bernard Parish Democratic Executive Committee and St. Bernard Parish Sheriff James Pohlmann. The district’s makeup, however, favors New Orleans-based candidates, putting Lauga at a disadvantage.

Despite a bare-bones campaign infrastructure and platform, Lauga has honed in on the insurance crisis and wants to “permanently remove the provision that Citizens Insurance must be 10% higher than the highest insurance premium available.” Citizens is Louisiana’s state-owned “insurer of last resort,” to provide insurance to those whom private insurers refuse. The catch, by law, is that Citizens costs more than any private insurance plan because lawmakers were more concerned with propping up private insurance rackets than actually serving people in need. Allowing Citizens to offer lower rates is a good idea that could pave the way for more public alternatives to profit-driven insurance schemes, and indicates a willingness on Lauga’s part to take on the powerful insurance lobby that holds massive sway over our lawmakers.

Kenn Barnes (D) is a criminal defense and personal injury attorney and member of the Orleans Parish Democratic Executive Committee (OPDEC), which has endorsed his campaign. Barnes has been a public defender, city attorney, and Special Counsel to the Louisiana Supreme Court. In spring 2024, New Orleans DSA recommended Barnes for OPDEC and the Democratic State Central Committee. Barnes frequently aligns with a progressive voting bloc on OPDEC. He also supports his church’s food pantry, often offers free notary services and basic legal advice to those in need, and is regularly active in voter registration efforts.

Barnes’s platform fuses affordability and economic development, emphasizing the need to reverse depopulation and brain drain by attracting young working- and middle-class residents. Barnes also stresses rehabilitation and addressing the root causes of criminal system involvement–a lack of economic resources and opportunity–rather than doubling-down on reactive “tough-on-crime” policies. In candidate forums, Barnes also references the need to reign in massive corporations that buy up housing stock and drive up the cost of living.

In addition to OPDEC, Barnes has been endorsed by Orleans Parish School Board member for District 2 & DSA endorsee Gabriela Biro, former City Council at-large candidate and DSA endorsee Rev. Gregory Manning, former Algiers Economic Development Foundation and City Council District C candidate Kelsey Foster, and former District E City Council candidate and DSA endorsee Danyelle Christmas. Barnes, along with Bathelemy, is also co-endorsed by the Forum for Equality, one of the older pro-LGBTQ advocacy organizations active in Louisiana politics.

🌹 🌹 🌹

State Representative, 97th Representative District, Parish of Orleans

House District 97 roughly corresponds to City Council District D, primarily situated in the 7th and 8th Wards with a bit of the East around Downman Road tacked on. It includes Dillard, SUNO, and UNO, and is solidly Democrat, predominately Black, and older. Both candidates are politicians’ sons, and voters will have to decide which family is worthy of continued political dominance in the politically influential Gentilly neighborhoods.

Eugene Green (D) on your ballot is in fact Eugene Green III, son of Councilmember District D Eugene Green, Jr. Along with his name, Green III shares a logo, branding, residential address, and campaign address with his dad.

Councilmember Green, the father, uses his business and political positions to benefit his family. He is the founder, president, and treasurer of the Nationwide Real Estate Corporation, which put a $28,899 PPP loan exclusively towards payroll for 2 jobs. On LinkedIn, Green III has been Vice President of Operations at Nationwide since 2011. Gambit reporting corroborates that he is a property management consultant employed by his father’s real estate company.

The family’s nepotism isn’t limited to the private sector. Sandra Green Thomas received $160,377.02 in 2022 and Monique Green received $111,862.94 as Green the Elder’s council legislative aides. According to ParishPay.Org, Sandra Green Thomas remains the highest paid legislative aide with a salary of $193,226.92, and received more money than Deputy Chief Administrative Officer Joseph Threat, Executive Counsel to the Mayor Clifton Davis, Director of Finance Romy Samuel, and Executive Counsel City Council Adam Swensek. In frank acknowledgement of this nepotism, Green the Elder stated that having his son serve as state representative would be a boon to the neighborhoods represented by both Greens.

Green III talks about capping prescription drug co-pays, regulating Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMs) to lower drug prices, and raising the minimum wage to $15 per hour (we’ve been campaigning for $15 so long that it’s no longer sufficient; living wage for New Orleans sits just above $20). His online platform, however, leaves out minimum wage in favor of “fiscal responsibility.” For each platform plank about protecting the coast, addressing the insurance crisis, or access to quality education, supporting statements are shallow. For example, Green’s online platform on environmental stewardship offers: “(1) We must protect Louisiana’s unique natural environment for future generations while supporting economic growth; (2) Support protecting Louisiana’s natural resources and coastline through balanced, science-based policies that sustain both our economy and environment.” Statements vague enough to appeal broadly by actually saying nothing.

In a debate question about insurance, Green started with the expected answer of funding the fortified roof program and increasing the number of insurance providers to promote competition, but he then went to incentivizing security systems to further reduce premiums. This is worrisome, as Ring’s owner Amazon collaborates with ICE via Flock, and is developing facial recognition to promote mass surveillance. We need our elected officials to fully understand the implications of their proposals, and Green does not.

District voters recently received a mailer showing a 2024 divorce filing alleging that Green committed domestic violence against his then-wife, which have been the subject of Gentilly-area Facebook group whispering for some time. Incidentally, the mailer and divorce proceedings also lend credence to another longstanding rumor that Green lived in Baton Rouge, not New Orleans, when he qualified to run for OPDEC. Green declared a domicile in Baton Rouge on his divorce filing, then five days later, was elected to OPDEC. The back and forth restraining orders with his ex also listed his address in Baton Rouge.

If Eugene Green III did not live in Orleans Parish, why did he run for an Orleans Parish elected office? How can the voters trust this campaign with serious allegations of domestic abuse and deception?

Edwin T. Murray (D) is the son of former State Senator and Representative Edwin R. Murray. The elder Murray was one of only 3 senators who voted against HB 388 (Act 620) which would have further restricted abortion access. Other than having his campaign headquarters at his father’s law office, there are no discernible business links between father and son.

Murray is a partner at Chehardy Sherman Williams Law. He specializes in personal injury, asbestos litigation and commercial litigation. Murray has experience interacting with officials through appointed board positions, serves as Secretary of New Orleans City Park Improvement Association (NOCPIA), and formerly served on the Louisiana Public Defender Board. His website lists a judicial internship for Louisiana Supreme Court Justice Jefferson Hughes, assistant executive counsel of Zulu, and a former role at the Louisiana Motor Vehicle Commission.

Murray’s campaign platform can be boiled down to three issues: Cost of Living, Early Childhood Education, and Safety (read: Policing), and abstract solutions for each. For example, “a strong educational system creates a stronger economy and can lower crime,” but instead of offering a legislative vehicle for improvement (e.g. updating the Minimum Foundation Program (MFP) formula so that schools can be better funded) Murray states, “teachers must be given the resources they needed –no exception.”

Along with Green III, Murray is dual endorsed by the Democrats for Education Reform (DFER), the preeminent and best-funded pro-charter school lobby organization in the country. Murray calls for policing to address blighted properties and improve property values. His platform also includes insurance reform, stopping the brain drain, and lowering the cost of living, without giving specifics.

🌹 🌹 🌹

State Representative, 100th Representative District, Parish of Orleans

District 100 covers the eastern half of New Orleans East. Parts of the district are among the most disinvested and neglected neighborhoods in the city, but it also includes affluent subdivisions like the gated community Eastover, where several local business and political elites live. Jason Hughes left this seat upon his election to the City Council last November.

Dr. Patricia Boyd Robertson (D) is a professor at Southern and the President of Caring About New Orleans Community Development Corporation (CANO-CDC), a non-profit that “supports the vision of the Church at New Orleans.” Their website was last updated in 2024, and its Projects and Programs pages show plans for an apartment complex to be built near the church’s Worship Center. She is the CEO of Appointed Financial Group, a tax and real estate service. Her two financial reports list contributions only from herself.

Under a campaign slogan of Revitalize, Restore, and Rebuild, Boyd Robertson says she will champion economic development, education, and public safety, but has no specific policy or legislative suggestions. On public safety, Boyd Robertson said she favored job training, mental health support, and investments in early education. Notably, she said in an interview with Voters Organized to Educate (VOTE) that she favors requiring state law enforcement to collaborate with federal immigration enforcement, which we hate.

When asked about the first bill she would file, Boyd Robertson indicated she would target home insurance policies, but without prescribing a specific legislative measure. She also held up “Eat Play Work” mixed-use developments in Atlanta as a model for the East, while acknowledging those developments’ failure in Atlanta.

We have a history with Dana Henry (D). In 2020, Henry led Mayor Cantrell’s tax millage campaign to siphon off 40% of the New Orleans Public Library’s funding to a nebulous “Office of Economic Development" controlled entirely by the mayor and an underling she recruited from now-defunct short-term rental corporation Sonder. As one of the leading organizations behind the Save Your NOLA Library Coalition, we opposed Henry’s appointment to the Library Board of Directors. The campaign for the millage constantly lied about it as an “early childhood education” millage, and made up fake endorsements. We wrote then that Cantrell and Henry ran “a blatant misinformation campaign… sending an ‘official’ NOPL email to all library users stating that if Prop 2 fails, the library will immediately lose half its funding. This is a bald lie.” While the Save Your NOLA Library Coalition delivered the mayor her first major political defeat with that 2020 proposal and subsequently secured the library’s full funding until 2040, we were not successful in keeping Henry off of the library board—he now serves as its chair, despite having never worked in a library.

Henry has long been active in the sacking of our public school system as a “school choice” booster, in his former role as head of Stand For Children Louisiana and as a charter school board member. “School choice” is a deceptive euphemism for the dismantling of public schools by reallocating their funds to private, ecclesiastical, and charter schools.

This pattern of dishonesty and an eagerness to employ PR distortions to obfuscate his true goal to weaken basic public goods to benefit private interests should inspire absolutely no confidence that he would serve working people as state representative.

Five likes, three hearts, and three claps for Aeisha Kelly (D)’s LinkedIn campaign announcement. Kelly has served as director of programming at InspireNOLA and worked with charter schools in the dismantling of public education in our city. Kelly is sincere about supporting her community—she “loves New Orleans East”—but has few concrete promises. Her #1 priority is “Women’s and Children’s Health Care” and she advocates more community policing. She takes credit for the “no pan-handling” signs you may have seen at interstate exits, one of the countless ways that the New Orleans consultant class sweeps the failures of a broken capitalist housing system under the rug.

While Kelly was a high-ranking consultant on Councilmember Jason Hughes’s recent successful campaign to represent District E on City Council, Hughes did not speak in favor of granting her OPDEC’s endorsement in debate after their candidate forum. It is unclear whether or not he supports any of the candidates in this race to replace him.

Kenya Rounds (D) is an attorney with brief experience as a teacher and as an Orleans Sheriff’s deputy. He is an OPDEC member and received their endorsement.

Rounds faced a formal investigation from the Louisiana Supreme Court’s Office of Disciplinary Counsel in 2016 that he improperly mixed client funds with personal funds, for which he agreed to a “consent discipline” and admitted violating the Rules of Professional Conduct. Public records portray this incident as unprofessional sloppiness, but nothing more serious than that. Rounds formerly served on the board of the Martin Luther King Jr. Charter School.

Rounds’s campaign emphasizes a desire to return New Orleans East to a pre-Katrina economic strength. He offers no major critique of the systemic economic and social deficiencies that existed before 2005.

Candice Taylor (D) describes herself as a lifelong resident of District 100 who is dedicated to "building a new system from the remains of one that is clearly broken." Taylor is Vice President of the New Orleans East Restoration Project, a non-profit started by her husband, Ryan Taylor. The organization is dedicated to "reuniting neighborhoods" through advocacy work focused on social services, litter management, building upkeep, and tree planting. Taylor also talks about the prison system and the multitude of ways it affects life in New Orleans East. She has discussed her hopes to re-try or parole prisoners who have "proven themselves" during their time behind bars, and has a vague blue-print for a formulaic reintegration program post release. Taylor is optimistic that she might make real change for the community she serves, but seems relatively grounded when it comes to her expectations of a life in politics.

Bulletins

Direct Service & Health Justice Brake Light Clinic This Month

On Saturday, February 21st, Direct Service & Health Justice will be hosting another bi-monthly Brake Light Clinic (location TBD). We will be joined by volunteers from Below Sea Level Aid. Shake off the post-Mardi Gras malaise and help your neighbors, hand out food, rep DSA, and learn a valuable skill or two. Join our next Direct Service meeting via Google Meet on Tuesday, February 10, or message us in the Discord to learn more!

Flood French Quarter Fest

Please take 2 minutes to support Chevron Out of French Quarter Fest.

1) Find French Quarter Fest on Instagram
2) Like @chevron_out ‘s and @_noship’s comments and follow them
3) Post your own comments!

Click here for a list of example comments and instructions!

Not One Dime at Starbucks

Starbucks Workers United (SBWU) baristas continue their nationwide strike against unfair labor practices. That strike includes our local unionized Starbucks in River Ridge. Please support our striking baristas here and across the country by boycotting Starbucks donating to the workers’ solidarity fund. Baristas have been fighting for over two years for a fair contract. As participants in a wage market system, every worker has a stake in seeing the SBWU fight to the end.

Meet Comrades in Your Neighborhood Circle

Organizing is about trust, and trust gets built by showing up again and again and getting to know your neighbors. Neighborhood circles are how we connect with comrades where we live, work, or otherwise spend our time. We’re using them to host gatherings, plan events, and organize around issues in our neighborhoods. Click here to join yours today! Neighborhood circles are for members only and follow the chapter's code of conduct and guidelines for respectful discussion.

Community Calendar

Friday, February 6

Queer Soc Meeting
6:00 pm - 7:00 pm
Meet

Saturday, February 7

NOLA Musicians for Palestine Krewe of Zeitoun Art Build
2:00 pm - 6:00 pm
1214 France St

Sunday, February 8

🌹 🌹 🌹

Monday, February 9

Emergency Cuba Solidarity Teach-In
6:00 pm - 8:00 pm
Healing Center, 2372 St Claude Av #258

Local Council Meeting
8:00 pm (Monday after General Meeting)
Meet

Tuesday, February 10

Direct Service & Health Justice Meeting
6:00 pm - 7:00 pm (first & third Tuesday)
Meet

Wednesday, February 11

🌹 🌹 🌹

Thursday, February 12

🌹 🌹 🌹

Friday, February 13

🌹 🌹 🌹

Saturday, February 14

🌹 🌹 🌹

Sunday, February 15

🌹 🌹 🌹

Down the Road

February 19 National Nurses’ Day of Action
February 21 Brake Light Clinic
February 21 Eye on Surveillance Retreat
February 21 Red Rabbits Training
February 28 New Orleans DSA General Meeting
March 28 No Kings

Complete Calendar | Subscribe to GCal | Subscribe to iCal