Kansas City DSA, the local chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America, is making its first ever electoral endorsement for federal office.

Across the country democratic socialists have proven that they can win, from Zohran Mamdani in NYC to Kelsea Bond in Atlanta and Denzel Campbell in Detroit. Working people have built a movement capable of beating corporate money and entrenched political power. Six Months of questioning: Our chapter took the process of endorsement seriously. We took a multi-layer approach, regardless of Hartzell’s membership with our organization, to ensure membership values would be represented and working class interests prioritized. This process ranged from questionnaires to town halls, always seeking to ensure the end goal of a true working class champion.

Hartzell comes from a working-class background: He’s the proud great-grandson of a sharecropper, and grew up in a family where both parents worked multiple jobs, a family surviving in KC on shared meals and borrowed tools. His parents taught him and his brother that dignity and resilience are built by working people, together. Before he was a political candidate, he was a political organizer, fighting for self-determination for the working class. Hartzell refuses to accept money from large corporations, developers, or lobbying groups, including AIPAC. His largest single donation, $3,500, came from a student who is an astrophysicist. Hartzell is seeking the support of working-class KC residents, not those who profit off of our desperation and use the proceeds to buy politicians. He commits, not to represent KC’s working class, in governance, but to collaborate with KC’s working class, in co-governance. He has committed to radical accountability to, and partnership with, our chapter.

Hartzell Gray is KCDSA’s choice for Missouri. Whether in the new maps or the old, in the 4th district or the 5th, we invite all our supporters to vote for him and to join his campaign. While we can never out-spend the rich, we can out-work them; it’s been done before. Then, we invite you to join KCDSA, Kansas City’s socialist coalition of the working class, for the working class, to make use of his victory.