Oliver Larkin, DSA candidate for FL-25. Credit: courtesy Oliver Larkin for Congress

The recent electoral successes by Democratic Socialists of America candidates in New York, Pennsylvania and Colorado has sparked vituperative responses from Republicans and establishment Democrats around the country.

But conventional wisdom would have you believe that the movement has little chance of emerging in the Sunshine State, which has flipped from being a competitive swing state to MAGA Central over the past six years.

Don’t tell that to Oliver Larkin, the 34-year-old former union organizer running in the Aug. 18 Democratic primary against Jared Moskowitz in South Florida’s newly configured Congressional District 25, which now runs along the southeast coast from Delray Beach to Miami Beach.

In a telephone conversation with the Phoenix last week, Larkin said that, while he has considered himself a Democratic socialist since he volunteered to work on the Bernie Sanders presidential campaign in 2015, he didn’t feel compelled to join the organization formally until the COVID-19 pandemic began in 2020.

That’s when he became disillusioned that the national Democratic Party lacked the “spine” to fight for issues like for Medicare for All and adequately address police violence following the uprising over the death of George Floyd at the hands of the Minneapolis Police Department.

“I really felt that it was important to formally join an organization that was building a parallel power structure to the Democratic Party, to move it in a more progressive direction,” he said. “What I’m really inspired by is the Democratic Socialists of America, and I decided to campaign openly as a DSA member because I think that they really have the policy prescriptions that address so much of the root core of what ails American life today.”

“Our secret sauce is that we’re working to build something better, and it makes people get off their couch to participate.”

Oliver Larkin, DSA candidate for Florida CD 25

In addition to Medicare for All, those policy prescriptions include an increase in the minimum wage to $25 an hour, universal childcare, and paid family and medical leave. “I mean, these policies are overwhelmingly popular with the American people regardless of how they consider themselves ideologically or what political party they or may not be a part of,” he said.

Like other DSA candidates, Larkin questions the U.S. government’s relationship with Israel. He believes the Israeli government has committed a genocide in Gaza, approves of an immediate suspension of U.S. military aid to Israel, and supports H.R. 3565, filed by Illinois Democratic U.S. Rep. Delia Ramirez to restrict the sale, transfer, or export of offensive weapons to Israel.

Six days after DSA candidates swept Democratic congressional primaries in New York City and a day before Democratic socialist Melat Kiros stunned Colorado politics by defeating a 15-term incumbent in a Democratic primary, the Larkin campaign held a virtual fundraiser that included appearances by New York City DSA-backed congressional candidate Claire Valdez and socialist influencer Hasan Piker.

“You have the fundamentals, you have the policies, you have the charisma, especially in comparison to Moskowitz,” Piker told Larkin during the event. “We just need to connect you with as many voters as possible because … once more and more people are aware of who you are and what you represent, and that there is an election even that’s taking place, a primary that’s taking place, if we can draw a turnout, we can absolutely make a massive impact here and we can unseat one of the worst Democrats in Congress.”

Larkin has criticized Moskowitz for his moderate record. That bill of particulars for Larkin includes Moskowitz’s stint serving in the Ron DeSantis administration as Florida Director of Emergency Management (from 2019-2021); his strong support for Israel; and being the only member of the Florida Democratic congressional delegation to vote for the Laken Riley Act.

That’s the measure named after the Georgia student killed by an undocumented immigrant that requires undocumented immigrants arrested for theft or violent crimes to be held in jail pending trial.

The Moskowitz campaign declined to comment for this story.

Larkin is also critical of the Florida Democratic Party, saying the state’s dramatic shift to the right since the 2018 elections was never inevitable. “A series of choices” — such as campaigning “at arm’s length” regarding the 2020 constitutional amendment raising the minimum wage to $15 by 2026 and its nomination of former Republican Charlie Crist for governor in 2014 and 2022 — have helped alienate the base.

Following the primary wins by DSA-backed candidates in New York, the Florida Democratic Party’s likely nominee for governor, David Jolly (another former Republican), told CNN, “I think New York elected the wrong people.”

“Look, I disagree with many of the candidates that New York Democrats elected, but I’m a Florida Democrat. We do things differently down there,” he added.

“I was a little concerned to see him joining in on the bashing of Democratic socialism in a recent interview,” Larkin said of Jolly’s comments. He gives credit to Jolly for emerging as the front-runner for party’s nomination for governor, but says he hasn’t forgotten that Jolly’s previous stance on abortion compelled him to co-sponsor legislation in Congress that would have given full legal rights to a fertilized egg.

Jolly has since changed his mind on the issue, saying he now is pro-choice and if elected governor would veto any legislation restricting reproductive healthcare.

Larkin supports Jacksonville state Rep. Angie Nixon for the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate (against Alex Vindman, the whistleblower in the first Trump impeachment).

“I think that she represents the very kind of change that voters really want to see out of the Democratic Party and not just establishment politicians who are handpicked by Washington, D.C.,” he said.

<h3>DSA’s appeal</h3>    <p>The only DSA-aligned lawmaker now holding political office in Florida is Richie Floyd, a former electrical engineer and Pinellas County science instructor who narrowly won a city council seat in St. Petersburg in 2021 but has garnered no opponents for re-election this year. In his four and a half years in office, he’s carved out a reputation as an advocate for tenant rights, improving public services and fighting on working-class issues, such as the campaign to have the city “<a href="https://floridaphoenix.com/2026/06/05/st-pete-council-oks-study-to-review-costs-benefits-of-owning-its-own-utilities/">dump” Duke Energy Florida</a> and investigate creating a municipal electric utility. He opposes what he referred to as corporate handouts.</p><p>Floyd notes that approximately 300 DSA members have been elected as mayors, city councillors, state lawmakers and other local offices in 39 states. “So, that pretty much shows that it’s not contained to one locality,” he said.</p><p>“I think the thing that sort of goes unnoticed is that part of the appeal of DSA candidates is obviously the ideology is getting more popular, but the part that goes unnoticed is that the campaigns that DSA runs are hard-fought,” he said. “There’s a ton of volunteers that work really hard night and day without getting paid just in the hopes that they will get a better world, and it inspires people to come out and do really hard work. It shows that people believe in this politics in a way that you haven’t seen from like a lot of Democratic party politics in a long time.”</p><p>Sam May is co-chair of the Tampa chapter of Democratic Socialists of America. She first became involved in the DSA while canvassing for Floyd’s first campaign in 2021. Since then, the chapter has more than doubled to around 330 members, she said.</p><p>“I think it’s so exciting,” she says of DSA members getting elected around the country. “I think it shows how the tides are turning in America and the working class is speaking up.”</p><p>May notes that Tampa DSA just finished a medical debt relief campaign with <a href="https://unduemedicaldebt.org">Undue Medical Debt</a> that resulted in cancellation of <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/DZsNBGsEdqP/">medical debt for more than 2,400 Hillsborough County residents.</a> “And so, having these electoral victories and then being able to put people into work like that has been very beneficial for our local community,” she said.</p><p>But can that energy and enthusiasm that helped get Floyd elected twice in St. Petersburg translate to other parts of the Sunshine State — particularly South Florida, where Democrats have been <a href="https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/11/republican-socialism-attacks-haunt-democrats-in-florida.html">branded</a> with the derisive “socialista” label by the GOP?</p><p>“I think it is important to remember that Florida Democrats are way more moderate than people think, in part because the state is very diverse in a Dem primary,” said Democratic Party strategist Steve Schale. He notes that even in what was a triumph for progressive Democrats — the 2018 Democratic primary for governor in which Andrew Gillum won the nomination — “he barely got a third of the vote in a five-way race where his opponents were hit by like $60-$70 million in negative ads from Gillum allies.”</p><p>Schale notes that in the March 2020 Democratic presidential primary, Joe Biden defeated Bernie Sanders, the spiritual leader of the progressive movement (although notably not a DSA member) by nearly 40 points, 62%-23%. Sanders lost to Hillary Clinton in the 2016 Democratic presidential primary in Florida by 31 points, 64%-33%.</p><p>“I am sure the DSA can have some success in individual city races around the state, but I just don’t think they are the factor here that they are in some of these more gentrified upper-income urban districts, like we saw in New York,” he added.</p><p>President Donald Trump responded to the rise of Democratic socialists Friday night in a speech at Mount Rushmore National Memorial in South Dakota, alleging “a resurgence of the communist menace in our land.”<p></p><p>“Communism is a mortal threat to American liberty,” Trump&nbsp;<a href="https://southdakotasearchlight.com/2026/07/03/trump-uses-mount-rushmore-speech-to-allege-mortal-threat-from-communism/">said.</a> “It is the greatest threat to our country, including World War I, World War II, Pearl Harbor, or even 9/11.”</p><p>Political analysts say that while Democratic socialists believe in state intervention, they still believe in political pluralism, whereas communism advocates for full state ownership of the means of production and central planning.</p><p>The Republican National Committee recently weighed in on the Congressional District 25 primary.</p><p>“Extreme socialists are taking over the Democratic Party and electing full blown crazies, proving there’s no room for moderates on the Left and taking seats like FL-25 off the map for Democrats,” said Emma Hall, Southeast regional communications director for the RNC.</p>    <h3>Sizing up the Larkin-Moskowitz primary</h3>   <p>Like several Democratic incumbents, the DeSantis redistricting map erased Moskowitz from the Congressional District 23 seat he has held since 2022 and compelled him to run in the new CD 25 seat. Informing that decision, Moskowitz says, is that the electorate was estimated to be 25% Jewish, a plus for his candidacy. The Moskowitz campaign released a survey last of week of 728 likely Democratic primary voters in the district conducted by <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/12wP2D71Meoss8S_A-Wc2YvBZi8VGdhIy/view">Beacon Insights</a> showing him with a 32-point lead over Larkin, 51%-19%, with nearly 30% undecided.</p><p>Larkin doesn’t dispute the poll’s accuracy. In fact, he said, it shows him improving in the contest.</p><p>“What I think is really interesting about that poll is the same pollster, Beacon Insights, within a month prior they put out another poll saying that he was up 49%-12%. Now he’s up 51%-19% so I’m taking seven out of every nine voters that have made up their mind since then, and that’s without spending a single dime on paid media, so there’s still 30% of voters that are undecided in this race.”</p><p>Larkin’s bona fides as a candidate of the working class received a boost last week when he won the endorsement of the <a href="https://x.com/OliverALarkin/status/2072785898874290343">SEIU Public Services union</a>, which represents nearly 20,000 public sector workers across the state. The Florida AFL-CIO, meanwhile, withheld an endorsement of Moskowitz, the only sitting Democratic incumbent in the state not to receive its imprimatur, as reported by the <a href="https://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics-government/state-politics/article316272642.html">Miami Herald</a>.</p><p>“Voters want to have candidates know what they’re standing up for and know what they’re fighting for and not just trying to cater to this mythical moderate and return us to a status quo which ultimately delivered us two terms of Donald Trump,” Larkin said. “So, I think trying to ride a fence post is not really the kind of message that’s going to motivate, especially the kind of volunteers and supporters that we’ve been attracting to our campaign.”</p><p>Whether Larkin is successful next month, his candidacy reflects a fissure between younger Democrats and their elders. Most of the DSA candidates elected this year are in their 20s or 30s. Floyd turns 35 in a few weeks.</p><p>“If you’re, like, a young person in this world — or hell, some of us are almost middle aged now — and you’re frustrated that you can’t get ahead and politics aren’t speaking to you, the only outlet right now is DSA if you really want to build a better world. And so, we’ve been able to attract a lot of people because of that, and I think you’ll only see that continue as more people hear about it and more people get excited,” he said.</p><p>“Our secret sauce is that we’re working to build something better, and it makes people get off their couch to participate in it in a way that no other politics has in a long time.”</p>        <p><a href="https://floridaphoenix.com">Florida Phoenix</a> is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Florida Phoenix maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Michael Moline for questions: <a href="mailto:info@floridaphoenix.com">info@floridaphoenix.com</a>.</p>
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