David Jenkins, a member of the Democratic Socialists of America's National Political Committee — the organization's highest governing body — sat down in late June 2026 and said four words that conservatives have been waiting years to hear someone on the other side admit: "Our goal is Communism."

Not democratic socialism. Not progressivism. Not "a more equitable future." Communism.

NYC DSA co-chair Gustavo Gordillo told Real Clear Politics that his organization is already looking past the midterms toward 2028. "I think that we will be trying to influence the next presidential primary," Gordillo said. And who does the DSA want carrying their banner? "Many in the organization would be very thrilled if Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez ended up running."

So the pipeline is now fully visible. A top national DSA leader confirms the end goal is Communism. The DSA's most prominent local co-chair names a sitting congresswoman as their preferred presidential candidate. And that congresswoman — Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez — has not exactly been running away from the endorsement.

Gordillo was remarkably candid about how the operation works. "Our candidates run as Democrats," he explained. "We're on the Democratic Party ballot line. We contest the primaries." He described the Democratic Party as a "ballot-access vehicle" — not a party they believe in, but one they use to get elected.

The strategy is already producing results. In the most recent primary cycle, DSA-backed candidate Melat Kiros, a 29-year-old former attorney, knocked off 30-year incumbent Rep. Diana DeGette in Colorado. In New York City, Darializa Avila Chevalier defeated Rep. Adriano Espaillat, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus chair. These aren't fringe candidates picking up school board seats. They're toppling entrenched members of Congress.

Gordillo framed the whole project as a moral choice: "There's a problem in the Democratic Party where they're funded by billionaire donors and at the same time they're trying to represent the working class. In our opinion, you have to choose between the billionaire class and the working class." It's the kind of rhetoric that sounds reasonable if you ignore the part where his organization's national leadership just said the endgame is abolishing private property.

The standard Democratic response has been to treat these candidates as ordinary progressives. AOC herself pushed back on the characterizations, saying, "You will create a self-fulfilling prophecy by deciding who these young women are before you've met them." But there's a problem with the "they're just regular Democrats" framing. Chevalier, one of the DSA's newest winners, was caught on record calling America "a f---ing disgrace." It's hard to sell the big-tent story when the new arrivals keep setting fire to the tent poles.

The timing of Jenkins's admission is worth noting. He didn't make this confession in some obscure academic forum where it could be explained away as theory. It was public enough that RNC Research clipped it and circulated it widely. And it landed in the same news cycle where Gordillo was openly discussing which Democrat the DSA wants to install in the White House. The confession and the campaign strategy arrived as a package.

For years, the standard media response to anyone calling the DSA communist was to reach for the "conspiracy theory" label. President Trump called them communists and CNN's Kaitlan Collins pushed back. But now the organization's own National Political Committee member — a member of their board of directors, effectively — has confirmed exactly that.

They run as Democrats. They caucus with Democrats. They defeat Democrats who aren't far enough left. Their stated goal is Communism. And the candidate they want for president is already in Congress.

That's not a slippery slope argument. That's a org chart.