How should the Democratic Socialists of America relate to a Bernie Sanders 2020 run? With the regular reports coming out of the marathon speeches and presentations Bernie has been giving these last few months, it’s likely to happen, and in a more crowded and complicated primary than 2016. With reports of Kamala Harris, Cory Booker, Joe Kennedy III, Joe Biden, and perhaps even Hillary Clinton once more running to replace Donald Trump, the biggest names in the Democratic party seem to be wanting to put their name in the ring in ways they didn’t in 2016. Even with all these big names gunning at a chance at the presidency, polls are already showing Bernie Sanders with having the greatest chance of beating Trump. For now, Sanders claims to just being focused on the 2018 midterms, and using his influence to get the vote out for progressive and left-liberal candidates. This midterm campaigning began by Sanders going across the country to support the campaigns of left-liberals, like Barbara Lee in California.

Yet Bernie Sanders still represents something distinct from mainstream Democratic Party politics and has potential to deepen the radicalization of people around issues of healthcare and economic issues in general. Not only do the majority of Democrats support Medicare For All, but even a majority of Republicans! Sanders remains the only candidate with a chance against Trump who has consistently held beliefs supported by the majority of Americans. As such, his beliefs often quite nicely line up with the basic beliefs of DSA, which has been pushing for Medicare For All as one of its primary focuses since its last convention in 2017. A potential Bernie run, then, begs the question of how those of us in DSA will relate to his campaign. How should we prepare for this? If we relate to it, how do we retain our Socialist identity within the campaign?

It would not be good for any DSA chapter (or DSA as a whole) to just focus on the campaign. Back in my liberal days, I was excited for Battleground Texas, as it was positioning itself as a well-funded group that wanted to change Texas blue from the small races up. Focus on the local and then build something up from there. And then Wendy Davis came along, and Battleground Texas just became a part of her campaign and poured all of its money into her, ignoring the whole local and grassroots parts of their mission. And when Davis’ campaign failed miserably, Battleground Texas disappeared as quickly as she did. If DSA were to become the organizer arm of the Bernie campaign, that’s all people would think we were interested in. “Oh you are doing a brake light clinic? Do I need to make a pledge to vote for Bernie to get a light change?”

Having said that, many of us would not be in DSA were it not for Bernie Sanders. Without going into hero worship, he has done more to help create the movement on the left than any other individual in a long time. Democratic Socialism has only entered the daily lexicon of Americans because of his often use of the term when describing his beliefs. DSA was already the largest Left organization in America at the time, but that was with a paltry 5,000 members, and other organizations like Socialist Alternative were having more successes in the mainstream than DSA. Yet, after the 2016 election, DSA membership exploded and now has over 52,000 members. Many prominent DSA members, such as Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, began their political career in the Bernie 2016 campaign.

So to ignore what a Bernie 2020 run could do to help build power for the Left would miss an incredible opportunity. Not so much because Bernie winning would mean DSA has any more of a control of the government, but that through his campaign, he could help further normalize the ideas that DSA stands for like Medicare For All. Those in power will never allow the people to vote their power and money away, but if those ideas become normalized, they can help build the political power of the people so that it becomes inevitable.

A Bernie presidency also gives DSA the opportunity to take his left liberal positions and explain to Berners the logical conclusions in a truly anti-capitalist perspective. $15 an hour is a much better minimum wage than $7.25, but workers owning the rights to the profits for what they produced is even better. Same sex marriage and more LGBT protections are good, but actual queer liberation from the heteronormative systems of oppression that substantially make queer people second-class no matter what protections exist would be better.

As much as accelerationists like to talk about fascists coming to power being good for the Left to grow, that is ignorant of the immediate harm that it does to marginalized people. Schools were being shot up before Trump became president. Jewish people were being targeted before George Soros became the boogeyman for Republicans. Mexican-American citizens were being deported in the 1930s, not just in 2018. Japanese-American children were being housed in concentration camps in the 1940s, long before Latin American migrants were. Many on the Left at the time were largely white, upper class intellectuals who could not connect the struggles of these marginalized groups with the class struggles they read so much about. There are many such people in the Left even today, and DSA isn’t exempt from that problem, but there are many in DSA who are trying to go against that stereotype to bring back the militant power of workers from all backgrounds that was more prominent at the beginning of the 20th century. DSA won’t be able to immediately solve these issues, but under a Sanders presidency it would be able to do more than it could under either a Trump or Clinton presidency. An immediate reduction in that harm is always better.

In the end, DSA’s national electoral working group and individual DSA chapters’ electoral working groups, are setting up well to help organize efforts to get people engaged with politics that DSA members are clearly interested in getting involved with. Many in DSA want to get involved with both local elections like Ernesto Garcia’s run for Justice of the Peace in Arlington, Texas, and federal elections like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s run for congress in The Bronx, or Bernie’s presidential run. And I am sure if Bernie announces, more members will want to get involved in that work. I want people to find the work that speaks the most to them, and for some that may be electoral. But that doesn’t mean we have to give up our other work. DSA must continue its work in unionizing people to get better conditions at work. DSA must continue its work in pushing for more affordable housing and public transportation. DSA must continue its mutual aid efforts like flu shot clinics and brake light replacements. That balance between electoral work and its other varied work will help DSA as a whole, and even those who get involved with the Bernie campaign, stay grounded in what it means to be Socialist and anti-capitalist.