On Wednesday, January 22nd, DSA SF voted to endorse Jackie Fielder for State Senate. Jackie is a longtime DSA SF member and managed our chapter-endorsed and successful No on H campaign, which defeated a dangerous use-of-force policy by the Police Officers Association despite being outspent five-to-one. Now, Jackie is running against none other than Scott Wiener. There will be a primary in March, and the top-two vote getters — regardless of party affiliation — will face off in the general election.

Jackie is an Indigenous (Two Kettle Lakota and Hidatsa), Mexicana, and queer educator and organizer. She was raised by a single working-class mother in an under-resourced community, graduated from California public schools, and earned a place at Stanford University. After earning a BA in Public Policy then a Masters in Sociology, Jackie joined the fight of her relatives and their allies against the Dakota Access Pipeline in her ancestral territories, and organized internationally for Indigenous Rights and Climate Justice.

That battle led her back to San Francisco with a vision to take on the banking industry. As the co-founder and lead organizer of the San Francisco Public Bank Coalition, Jackie took on Wall Street lobbyists to pass statewide legislation legalizing public banking and won sponsorship from a veto-proof supermajority to sponsor a local ordinance to create the first municipal bank in the country. This will allow San Francisco to divest our multi-billion dollar budget from destructive ventures like fossil fuel companies and private prisons, in favor of investment for public goods, such as infrastructure and affordable housing.

After successfully running the DSA campaign to defeat the Police Officers Association, Jackie was tapped by Black Lives Matter co-founder, Alicia Garza to take over her Race, Women, and Class course at SF State.

Jackie’s opponent has consistently contradicted the voters of his own district and the work of DSA SF. During the No on H campaign Jackie managed, Weiner sided with the Police Officers Association and Republican Party, both of whom were shot down by more than 60% of San Francisco voters. Later that year, he opposed another DSA SF-supported effort to pass a small tax on the biggest corporations to fund housing and services for our unhoused neighbors (Our City Our Home). In contrast, Jackie has proposed a detailed, socialist alternative in California Homes for All, as well as a comprehensive platform for Economic and Social Justice, and a Green New Deal for California.

Jackie represents a new wave of openly democratic socialists, both locally and across the country, running and winning against the status quo. Our movement is succeeding, and we need to keep elevating our cause to the highest seats of power.

In addition to our endorsement, Jackie has been endorsed by Supervisor Dean Preston, Supervisor Gordon Mar, the SF Tenants Union, the California Teachers Association, the United Educators of San Francisco, a majority of the Board of Education, ILWU Norcal District Council, #BLM co-founder Alicia Garza, among others.

Join the movement and sign up online. If you are able, make a donation here so Jackie can continue paying her DSA staff a living wage!