A political movement that reimagines municipal government as a tool for solving everyday affordability crises is gaining traction across America's urban centers. Young Democratic socialists in New York, Seattle, and Washington D.C. are steering the revival of a strategy first deployed by Progressive Era politicians in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, who used public investment to expand sewage systems and construct the nation's first municipally sponsored public housing project.
The approach, known as sewer socialism, centers on direct government expansion of services that ordinary people need: affordable housing, child care, and reliable public transportation. It represents a philosophical break from decades of policy that outsourced these functions to private markets or scaled back federal involvement altogether.
Democratic strategist Jesse Lehrich credits these younger candidates with cutting through conventional politics. Unlike millionaires in Congress, he argues, they grasp why affordability dominates voter concerns because they inhabit the same economic reality. "People can't afford to eat," Lehrich told Axios, explaining why housing, transportation, and care become the defining electoral issues in their campaigns.
The generational divide on these ideas appears significant. A 2025 Axios-Generation Lab survey found that 67 percent of college students hold positive or neutral views of socialism, compared with 40 percent for capitalism. Among the broader U.S. adult population, the numbers narrow: 39 percent view socialism positively, while 54 percent favor capitalism, according to 2025 Gallup data.
The movement draws intellectual lineage from Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal, which deployed federal spending for public works and social programs to combat the Great Depression. As the economy recovered, subsequent administrations gradually dismantled these systems. President Nixon froze public housing spending in 1973, and Congress redirected federal housing policy toward subsidizing private markets through Section 8 vouchers. President Clinton's 1996 welfare reform replaced open-ended cash assistance with time-limited benefits tied to work requirements.
Ashik Siddique, co-chair of the Democratic Socialists of America's National Political Committee, notes that these reversals stripped away programs that had expanded services for millions. The current revival represents an attempt to restore that logic of direct public provision rather than privatized alternatives.
Lehrich sees electoral opportunity in what he describes as widespread voter frustration with the status quo. Candidates positioned as challengers to the existing order, particularly those operating outside mainstream party structures, are finding electoral success in certain urban strongholds. Whether the movement extends beyond deep-blue cities remains uncertain, but the organizational numbers suggest growth. The Democratic Socialists of America claims 110,000 members as of recent months, up from 100,000 in February 2026. Approximately 172 nationally endorsed DSA candidates have won elected office since 2018, though that total excludes self-identified socialists, unendorsed DSA members, and those backed solely by local chapters.
Author James Rodriguez: "Sewer socialism is betting that voters are tired of waiting for private markets to fix broken cities, and early results suggest they're onto something."
Comments