by Sara G.
Tuesday night, we celebrated. At Hotel Vegas, as a live band played, we ate tacos and toasted democracy. The crowd chanted “four more years” as our District Attorney José Garza took the stage for his acceptance speech upon winning reelection with a remarkable 33% lead.
José campaigned on supporting survivors of sexual assault, prosecuting wage theft and abusive cops, and offering community-based justice solutions. His opponent Jeremy Sylestine didn’t speak about the issues, but a dark money group from Dallas called Saving Austin spoke for him. Fearmongering mailers featuring a dark hand clasped over a child’s mouth were sent to the most progressive districts in Austin. A group of bikers from Pflugerville followed volunteers for José from house to house to intimidate them on Sylestine’s behalf, much like they did during council member Mackenzie Kelly’s 2020 campaign. Silicon Valley billionaires donated heavily to Sylestine, and conservative media celebrities like Joe Rogan, Bari Weiss, and Libs of TikTok threw their weight behind his campaign. Austin’s most famous proponent of the Great Replacement Theory, Elon Musk, even tweeted his support, only to delete the tweet in shame once he saw the results. In total, Sylestine raised over $1.2 million compared to José Garza’s $200,000.
On José’s side, we had the power of people. José has a strong labor background, serving as Executive Director of the Workers Defense Project and working with the Department of Labor and the NLRB. He received strong endorsements from local labor unions. Volunteers from our chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America, labor unions, University Democrats and other community groups all pitched in to spread the message of how crime has decreased with José Garza as DA. In one weekend, DSA knocked on over 1,400 doors for José. Where they had the money, we had the people.
Together we have proven that you can run as an open socialist, you can have all of the money of Silicon Valley, local billionaire elites and national right wing demagogues against you, and you can win. By building a mass movement from the bottom up, we can take on any opponent.