Hi everyone,

The 2020 DSA New Orleans Voter Guide is live! Check it out here, and join the authors of the guide -- our Municipal Action Committee -- for a Voter Guide Release Party on Zoom tonight at 7:30 PM. Register for the call here!

While the news is often focused on statewide and national races that can feel depressing and futile to participate in, this fall is an opportunity for major reform in Orleans Parish’s criminal punishment system. District Attorney candidates are acknowledging the ways the office has criminalized poverty and been a violent arm of white supremacy. They are disavowing money bail and promising accountability for prosecutors who break the rules. The judges running for the highest court in the state are taking inspiration from this summer of uprisings and campaigning with rhetoric of mercy and transformation. Seven public defenders are running for judgeships in Criminal, Juvenile, Magistrate, and Municipal and Traffic Courts, hoping to change a predatory, intolerant system that oppresses and enslaves us. School board candidates are speaking out about greater local control, getting police out of schools, and addressing the trauma and mental health needs of the student body.

Even if all progressive candidates are elected, the people of New Orleans will need to hold them to their promises and fight for good policies when other arms of government seek to block them. The Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) will be doing this work, and we hope to have you alongside us.

The New Orleans DSA has not endorsed any candidates in this election. We are a member-run and funded organization, and our endorsements are material investments of resources. In this guide, we describe candidates openly, wearing our politics on our sleeve. It may be clear which candidate our guide prefers, but we've tried to give you more than just a name to copy down. We hope to connect issues in the races to larger discussions in our city and world, and give a better understanding of the positions and processes of our city and electoral system. This guide is written and researched by volunteers working with the Municipal Action Committee of the New Orleans DSA and is approved by elected chapter leadership.

If you found this guide helpful, you might just be a democratic socialist, and you should join DSA!

Solidarity,

DSA New Orleans Local Council

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