DSA Urges Members To Stop Working With Morris Katz After Graham Platner Campaign

The Democratic Socialists of America urged members to “no longer contract or work with” Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s key adviser Morris Katz after what the New York Post called his “disastrous stint on Graham Platner’s campaign.”

“Guests As a rose-tinted wave of progressives and democratic socialists win Democratic primaries across the United States, we take a look at two of the organizations behind this recent slate of successful electoral campaigns: the Democratic Socialists of America and Justice Democrats”

Democracy Now!

The Post said the letter, obtained by the paper, had “over 500 signatures as of Friday afternoon” and asked DSA candidates and elected officials to refuse to work with Katz or his consultant firm, Fight Agency, citing the “catastrophic campaign” of Platner, the Maine US Senate hopeful who dropped his bid after being accused of rape.

Democracy Now!

The Intercept reported that DSA members circulated a letter calling on candidates and elected officials to refuse to work with the consultants who handled Platner’s campaign, and it quoted the letter’s call: “We, the undersigned, call on DSA candidates and elected officials to no longer contract or work with Morris Katz or Fight Agency, his political consulting firm.”

The Intercept also said Katz is not a member of DSA and that a spokesperson for DSA’s national organization said they had not seen the letter, while Katz said on X that “As soon as the team became aware of the rape allegations against Graham Platner we advised he suspend his candidacy.”

In a Democracy Now! discussion of Democratic primaries across the United States, Ashik Siddique, co-chair of the DSA’s National Political Committee, said DSA’s platform starts with the idea that “workers deserve more in the wealthiest country in the history of the world.”

Democracy Now! said DSA has grown from about 5,000 members to over 120,000 members in 200 chapters across the United States, and it described Justice Democrats as having endorsed 15 candidates this cycle in congressional races, with six winning so far.

New York Post

Alexandra Rojas, executive director of Justice Democrats, said, “We went into this cycle viewing it as an existential one,” and she added, “We see fascism here at our doorstep, and this is a now-or-never moment for our party.”

The program also tied the insurgency to opposition to military support for Israel and support for universal healthcare, while noting that outside spending against Justice Democrats-backed candidates totaled $35 million, according to Democracy Now!.

The New York Post framed the DSA letter as a bid to keep Katz from shaping the American Left, quoting the letter’s warning that “Men like Platner must not represent the American Left, and those like Katz who push such candidates should have no role in our movement.”

“Members of the Democratic Socialists of America circulated a letter calling on candidates and elected officials to refuse to work with the consultants who handled Graham Platner’s campaign, according to screenshots of the letter shared with The Intercept”

The Intercept

The Intercept reported that the letter disputed Katz’s account and said, “Yet even as the scandals mounted, Katz continued to put the full weight of his consultancy behind Platner’s candidacy,” while also describing Katz’s statement that he advised Platner to suspend his candidacy after rape allegations.

Democracy Now! connected the broader political stakes to the Democratic Party’s direction, saying DSA and Justice Democrats aim to “transfer power from the 1% to the working class, and to replace capitalism with socialism,” and it described their effort to equip progressives with alternatives to traditional money streams.

Across the coverage, the dispute over Katz and Fight Agency sits alongside Democracy Now!’s description of progressive wins in states including New York and Maine, and the New York Post’s account of Platner’s campaign collapse after accusations of rape, as DSA members press for a boycott of Katz-linked consulting.