The DSOC was founded in 1973 from a minority anti-Vietnam War caucus in the Socialist Party of America (SPA)—which had been renamed Social Democrats, USA (SDUSA).

[4] The DSA experienced a significant ideological shift after 2016, with an influx of younger members who helped push the organization toward anti-Zionism and support for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movements.

[84] On March 7, 2021, DSA launched a coalitional effort with Communications Workers of America and the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades to pass the Protecting the Right to Organize Act, with rallies and hundreds of thousands of phone calls to voters.

[26] In March 2023, DSA members in the U.S. House Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Jamaal Bowman wrote to Governor Kathy Hochul to urge the passage of the Build Public Renewables Act (BPRA).

A majority of delegates at the 2017 DSA National Convention voted to leave the International due to its alleged support for neoliberal economic policies.

[107][108][109][110][4] Bowman was also criticized for meeting with Israeli prime minister Naftali Bennett on a trip to Israel organized by the liberal Zionist lobby group J Street.

[111] In April 2023, Bowman co-led a letter to President Joe Biden with Senator Bernie Sanders urging a probe into the use of U.S. weapons to commit human rights abuses against Palestinians.

[112][113] The letter called for restricting $3.8 billion in annual military aid to Israel and "immediate action to prevent the further loss of Israeli and Palestinian lives".

"[114] Among those voting against the resolution were DSA members Ocasio-Cortez, Tlaib, Bush, and Bowman, who each cited the Israeli government's human rights abuses against Palestinians.

It went on to condemn all civilian casualties, reaffirm its stance against the occupation of Palestinian territory and support for Palestinian statehood, call for an end to U.S. financial support to the State of Israel, and spotlight an initiative by DSA-endorsed New York State Assembly member Zohran Mamdani that would end nonprofit status for organizations funding Israeli war crimes and crimes against humanity.

[124] Several New York politicians condemned the rally for statements at the event by Party for Socialism and Liberation member Eugene Puryear mocking the victims of the Re'im music festival massacre and for an unidentified attendee displaying a swastika on a cellphone.

[132] On October 13, Mamdani and another DSA New York State Assembly member, Marcela Mitaynes, were arrested for disorderly conduct at a rally in Brooklyn for a ceasefire, organized by Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), IfNotNow, and Jews for Racial and Economic Justice.

[134][127][135][136] Mamdani told media, "We are looking at imminent genocide ... now is not the time to be silent",[134] and said he had received death threats and Islamophobic voicemail messages in the days following the protest.

[138] On October 20, New York City DSA led a more than 3,000-person protest in Manhattan calling for U.S. senators Kirsten Gillibrand and Chuck Schumer to support a ceasefire resolution.

[35] On November 7, the U.S. House of Representatives voted 234–188 to censure Rep. Tlaib for her statements on the war and her use of the phrase "from the river to the sea" to call for a binational one-state solution.

[143] On November 15, JVP, DSA, and IfNotNow held a candlelight vigil and protested at the Democratic National Committee Headquarters in Washington, DC to call for a ceasefire in Gaza during a fundraiser attended by members of Congress.

On July 11, 2024, DSA pulled its endorsement of Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez after she hosted an online panel discussion about antisemitism with Jewish leaders.

The DSA called the panel "a deep betrayal to all those who've risked their welfare to fight Israeli apartheid and genocide through political and direct action in recent months and in decades past".

In its early years, the DSA opposed Republican presidential candidates by giving critical support to Democratic nominees like Walter Mondale in 1984.

Electoral tactics are only a means for democratic socialists; the building of a powerful anti-corporate coalition is the end.In recent years, the DSA's stated long-term goal has been to form an independent workers' party, while in the meantime it adopts a "proto-party" strategy called the "dirty break".

Sanders's candidacy prompted a surge in DSA membership among young voters, bringing a major shift in the organization's federal endorsements toward a stricter line.

[184] Two DSA chapters (Colorado Springs and Salt Lake City) voted to endorse Green Party nominee Howie Hawkins.

[186] Daniel Finn of Jacobin responded that in invoking the specter of fascism under a second-term Trump, the former SDSers were engaging in "melodramatic hyperbole", and that climate change was not an issue that could wait until 2024 or 2028.

"No socialist", he argued, "who campaigned for Bernie Sanders should feel guilty about abandoning [the Democrats] and concentrating on building a movement that is the only real hope for the planet's future".

Some supported voting for Vice President Kamala Harris, particularly in swing states, and traveled to swing states to knock doors for her, as they saw defeating Trump as necessary to prevent the escalation of mass deportations, a federal abortion ban, Israel “finishing the job” in Gaza, attacks on queer and trans people, intense repression of the left, and a sharp turn to authoritarianism.

Ocasio-Cortez's victory and the subsequent publicity for the DSA led more than 1,000 new members to join the organization the next day, approximately 35 times the daily average.

[211] The next year, Bowman announced that he had stopped paying his membership dues,[212] and Shri Thanedar, who had quietly joined the organization, was expelled for having substantial disagreement with its principles.

[219] In the United States elections of 2017, DSA endorsed 15 candidates for office, with the highest position gained being that of Lee J. Carter in the Virginia House of Delegates.

[232][233] In California, Jovanka Beckles won one of the top two spots in the primary and advanced to the general election for a State Assembly seat in the East Bay.

Our task is to out-organize them entirely, and not merely within the confines of the voting booth.In June 2021, the Buffalo, New York chapter-endorsed candidate, India Walton, won the Democratic Party primary election for mayor, defeating incumbent Byron Brown.