DSA claimed they had close to 10,000 members join the organization after Ocasio-Cortez was first elected in 2018. DSA also claimed to have over 92,000 members and chapters in all 50 states. According to the DSA website, “We know our economic system is rooted in white supremacy and the capitalist class depends on racism to divide and oppress the working class.”
Many other Democrat adjacent groups have made similar trips. In 2019, Sarah Chambers, a board executive for the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) led a group to Venezuela on behalf of the organization, to provide support for Maduro’s regime.
The CTU is affiliated with the American Federation of Teachers, which heavily supported the Biden presidential campaign, as well as many other liberal campaigns. Chambers has a long history with the more activist elements of the union, including the #RedforEd movement, which has socialist roots, and advocates for a leftist Democrat uprising designed to flip purple or red states blue, using the the education system.