The Democratic Socialists of America are putting what remains of their primary-season resources into a single Florida congressional race, backing Oliver Larkin against Rep. Jared Moskowitz in a district redrawn ahead of the 2026 midterms. The contest has drawn attention as a test of whether the DSA can still move votes in a Democratic primary after a string of defeats across the country.
Moskowitz, a two-term Democrat who represents parts of Broward County, built his profile as one of the louder critics of Republican leadership in the House. He won his seat in 2022 and held it in 2024. Redistricting shifted his district lines, creating new uncertainty about the composition of his primary electorate and giving the DSA an opening it decided to press.
Larkin is running to Moskowitz's left, a familiar DSA frame that has produced wins in some urban districts and heavy losses elsewhere. The DSA's record in 2024 primaries was uneven at best: the organization backed several candidates in safe Democratic seats who fell short, thinning both its war chest and its credibility as a kingmaker.
The DSA's decision to concentrate on this race reflects the organization's narrowed bandwidth. After years of expansion following Bernie Sanders's 2016 and 2020 presidential campaigns, DSA membership and fundraising have contracted. Backing Larkin against a sitting incumbent in a swing-adjacent district is a high-variance move with limited room for error.
Moskowitz has the structural advantages most incumbents carry: name recognition, an established donor network and a record he can run on. He has not been shy about drawing contrasts with the party's left flank, positioning himself closer to the Democratic mainstream on issues including Israel and government spending.
The race also lands at a complicated moment for Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the New York congresswoman whose relationship with the DSA has always been more complicated than her critics on the right acknowledge. With Ocasio-Cortez weighing a 2028 presidential run, Democrats across the ideological spectrum are watching how she handles the tension between her democratic socialist roots and the broader coalition she would need to build. Her posture toward the Florida race—whether she endorses Larkin, stays neutral or quietly supports Moskowitz—carries signal value for both camps.
The DSA's primary campaigns have historically drawn energy from the Sanders coalition, but that coalition has been harder to organize since Sanders stepped back from national electoral politics. Without a galvanizing presidential campaign to plug into, down-ballot DSA efforts depend on local organizing infrastructure that varies sharply by geography. Florida is not New York City or Chicago, where the DSA has won seats on city councils and in state legislatures.
Moskowitz's allies argue the redistricting actually strengthens his position by consolidating friendlier Democratic voters into the new district boundaries, reducing the share of the electorate most likely to cross over to a DSA-backed challenger. Larkin's campaign disputes that read, pointing to the new district lines as an opportunity to introduce a candidate to voters who have not seen Moskowitz on their ballot before.
The broader Democratic primary calendar is already bending toward 2028. The Democratic National Committee approved its 2028 presidential primary calendar this week, a procedural step that nonetheless accelerated internal conversations about the party's next direction. That backdrop makes the Florida race feel smaller in one sense and more pointed in another: whoever loses walks away with a cleaner data point about the left's actual primary-day power.
If Larkin wins, the DSA can argue it remains a live force capable of defeating incumbents even in unfavorable terrain. If Moskowitz holds, the result adds to a pattern that party strategists in both camps have already started drawing conclusions from—that the DSA's primary-challenge model has reached the limit of its effectiveness outside a narrow set of heavily urban, deep-blue districts.
