December 09, 2025 01:13 PM UTC

Julie Gonzales Softly Disowns Democratic Socialists

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• by: Colorado Pols

NEW: Progressive State Sen. Julie Gonzales is dropping her Democratic Socialist affiliation as she challenges Sen. John Hickenlooper (D-CO).

Gonzales told me she is no longer a member of the DSA. pic.twitter.com/IV1lO5GdEs

— Kyle Clark (@KyleClark) December 9, 2025

Speaking with 9NEWS’ Kyle Clark yesterday following the launch of her longshot bid to unseat incumbent Democratic Sen. John Hickenlooper, state Sen. Julie Gonzales of Denver made a point of distancing herself from an organization she has long been associated with but considered a key vulnerability in both the Democratic primary and the general election: the controversial and obstreperous Democratic Socialists of America:

CLARK: How do you describe yourself politically?

GONZALES: I describe myself as an organizer turned Senadora.

CLARK: Are you a democratic socialist?

GONZALES: When I ran in 2018, I was really inspired by the way that DSA was organizing young people in a way that I thought was exciting and compelling. I signed up as a member back then. And I actually got elected at you know with thanks to DSA’s endorsement, all of the doors that those volunteers came and knocked on my behalf. I’m no longer a member, my membership has lapsed.

CLARK: Why is that?

GONZALES: Because I’ve been doing the work at the Capitol. And, and I don’t, I don’t go to the organizing meetings and I don’t think that it’s right to be a member, a card carrying member of an organization that you’re not, you don’t actually show up to the meetings for.

CLARK: Yeah, I guess I’m not, I’m not so much patting you down for a membership card. I’m asking like, like in your head philosophically, are you a democratic socialist?

GONZALES: I am a Democrat.

Running against a veteran Democratic incumbent who has made progressive-not-socialist a cornerstone of his political brand, in a state with a political sweet spot left of center but not too left, Gonzales making a break from the DSA branding that wasn’t a problem in her safe Denver state senate seat makes a lot of sense. DSA members of course will not agree, and there’s a possibility that this move could cost Gonzales disproportionately among hard lefty primary voters who would otherwise be in her camp.

Without delving too deeply into the perpetual family quarrel between the left and mainstream wings of the Democratic Party, the off-year elections last month revealed paths to victory for both ideological candidates like New York’s new DSA Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Virginia’s new s-word-averse governor Abigail Spanberger. These very different candidates turned out to be the right respective fit for Democrats in the places where their very different flavor of Democratic politics reached a majority of voters.

Gonzales’ decision to eschew the DSA brand is a wise strategic concession that Colorado is not New York City.

As Sen. Hickenlooper has said for years.